Whittier council accepts first $600,000 of $5 million EPA grant for Buckner Building

The Whittier City Council on Tuesday accepted the first $600,000 of a $5 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to tear down parts of the Buckner Building. The money pays for planning and paperwork, not demolition.

Every council member called on the roll voted yes, according to the meeting recording. The measure lets the city manager accept and spend the money and raises the city's contract with its environmental consultant, NORTECH Inc.

Assistant City Manager Shelby Carlson, the grant's project manager, said U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski secured the $5 million. The city learned of the award in 2024, but the money was not released until this year, and the EPA is releasing it in two phases, Carlson said. The EPA awarded the grant Aug. 27.

The project would remove hazardous materials from selected sections of the building, demolish selected sections and stabilize the rest. The first $600,000 covers what Carlson called the federal "cross-cutter requirements": endangered species, tribal, historic preservation and National Environmental Policy Act reviews. The remaining $4.4 million would go "to clean the building in sections and bring sections of the building down," she said. That money depends on congressional appropriations, EPA priorities, the city's progress and its compliance with the grant terms.

The EPA covers the full $600,000, with no city match required. NORTECH's contract rises by $305,532, to $825,214.

Carlson wrote that construction spending, including demolition, "cannot begin until EPA completes its environmental review and provides the required authorization and additional funding through an amendment." The city must also identify any affected property that is listed on, or eligible for, the National Register of Historic Places so the EPA can make a historic preservation determination.

The city's 2027-2036 capital plan puts Buckner Building contamination cleanup at about $34.8 million. A 2017 site characterization found asbestos in soil above EPA action levels, lead and petroleum above Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation cleanup levels, and several metals in groundwater above state limits. The building is also a priority site under a separate EPA brownfields grant the city holds.