Talkeetna residents ask Mat-Su commission to oppose Front Street water tank site

The borough's Talkeetna wells currently exceed federal limits for arsenic and manganese and require treatment before distribution. Its answer is a proposed 375,000-gallon water storage tank on Front Street that would clear 1.4 wooded acres, and two residents told the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Planning Commission on Monday, Sept. 14, that those acres should stay standing.

Andrea Larson, who owns one of the lodging businesses bordering the parcel, and Wade Long, a Talkeetna resident, asked the commission to recommend against building on the site and instead expand the borough's existing water facility.

Larson said the borough proposes to install "A 375,000-gallon storage tank and facility upgrade on an unsuitable property, in my opinion, in the Talkeetna townsite, which would eliminate the 1.4 acres of Front Street bear trail woods." She asked it to back the existing water site instead, "where there is plenty of room for the entire project."

She said the lot sits between two lodging businesses with private septic systems "with barely enough clearance to address the legal contamination issues," and that it also carries a deep floodway diversion channel and a trail corridor linking East and West Talkeetna. She said she has worked on the matter since December and that a petition has drawn 300 signatures.

Long told the commission the Alaska Department of Natural Resources answered the opposition by saying responsibility for it now rests with the borough. He said he met with Public Works Director Tom Adams for 45 minutes and was told the project would proceed to bid. He said the Talkeetna Sewer and Water Board recommended in 2024 that the borough drill a test well at the current site rather than relocate. He said that, in his opinion, the borough manipulated clearing and cost figures to disfavor alternatives, adding that this was his opinion, not fact.

No borough response appears in the meeting record, but borough utilities and engineering staff records show the department supports building a new well and storage facility at the Front Street site to secure a reliable water source with acceptable arsenic levels and to add several days of storage for domestic use and fire suppression. DNR itself has found the proposed conveyance of the Front Street parcels, Lots 3 and 4, Block 26, meets statutory requirements for a noncompetitive public and charitable transfer, despite the community concerns raised. It is the route by which the state hands land to a government or charity without competitive sale.

The borough's list of open contract opportunities carries no solicitation for the tank or the well.

The commission took no action Monday, and the item was not on the agenda. Both Larson and Long said they plan to present to the Mat-Su Borough Assembly on Tuesday, Sept. 15.