NOAA is paying $735,000 for more cleanup at a site Alaska will not close

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is paying Ahtna Solutions, LLC $735,000 for another year of cleanup at a former weather office and housing site, where the state has refused to close the file on part of the ground.

In January 2025 the Department of Environmental Conservation signed off on one former building at the site and declined to sign off on the other, requiring more characterization of the soil under the old engine generator building. The new work is one job ordered off a standing contract, running from Sept. 30 through Sept. 30, 2027.

The site covers 5.7 acres and was in use from 1941 to 2014. A 2017 assessment found diesel range organics, lead, 1,2,3-trichloropropane and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons above state cleanup levels. Crews hauled off 148 cubic yards of contaminated soil in 2018, 45 of it carrying lead and 103 carrying petroleum. The state's file remains open.

Ahtna Solutions is a subsidiary of Ahtna, Incorporated, certified under the federal 8(a) program for small disadvantaged businesses. NOAA competed the parent contract as an 8(a) set-aside in 2023 and drew four offers. It paid the firm $186,644 in August for groundwater monitoring elsewhere in Alaska.