Kodiak's landfill is out of compliance because bears keep getting in

Kodiak has built its garbage system around bears. Every residential customer gets a 96-gallon bear-resistant cart under the borough's contract with Alaska Waste. Certain streets are designated bear-aware zones where neighbors share dumpsters instead of setting out their own. Borough code carries a legal definition of "bear cart." Residents are asked not to put salmon in them.

The one place it isn't working is the landfill. A 2025 state inspection found the borough out of compliance with solid waste rules because bears keep reaching trash inside the fence. Now the borough wants to discuss the problem in private.

Borough Manager Aimee Williams is asking the Assembly on Thursday to go into executive session over attorney-client communications about bear management at the landfill, along with matters that could hurt borough finances. Members have to vote before the discussion actually closes. Williams also wants the room limited to the mayor, Assembly members, herself, the clerk and the engineering and facilities director.

The borough has already repaired the perimeter fence, had Fish and Game inspect the work, and adopted a bear management plan the state approved July 15. Williams' August report says the plan's requirements are being met, but that bears keep coming because of what she calls "a constant attractant." That would be the garbage.

The next idea is an interior electric fence around the active waste cell, the part currently taking trash, using materials from Defenders of Wildlife. An installation contract reached the Assembly in August.

The state is blunter about where responsibility sits. Department of Environmental Conservation landfill specialist Annemieke Powers told the Assembly on Aug. 13 that "the landfill is out of compliance with those wildlife regulations," and that the borough holds the permit.

Assembly Member Jeremiah Gardner asked at that same session at what point the borough starts to "euthanize problem bears." At the Aug. 20 meeting he thanked resident Shawn Brekke and said several people had come to him about bear activity around the island.