Port of Alaska must ship contaminated soil out of state after storm drain dig

Crews rebuilding a storm drain at the Port of Alaska dug into soil considerably dirtier than pre-construction testing had predicted, and the municipality now has to ship it out of state for disposal.

"It's much more contaminated than we expected out there," Port Director Terry Amatam told an Assembly committee Thursday. Contractors had tested for contaminants before the contract was awarded. Asked what's in the soil, Amatam said: "Petroleum, oil, and lubricants." He said it likely came from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

The find isn't out of character for the site. The state listed the port in its contaminated sites database in 2012, citing petroleum hydrocarbon contamination in soil and groundwater that seeps into the storm drain system through joints and line breaks.

The design has to change too. "We developed this project, Storm Drain 5, with a 48-inch pipe in mind. It now requires 60," Amatam said. Both the soil disposal and the larger pipe fall under a change order to work the Assembly already approved — an addition made earlier this year so the port could stay in compliance with a $15 million grant.

That grant is the clock. Construction is expected to finish around February, leaving roughly two and a half months to close it out before the May 2027 deadline.

One committee member floated the idea that the municipality's planned waste-to-energy facility could eventually process contaminated soil locally rather than shipping it south.