Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting

OK, let us get rolling. We— today is going to be mostly the port, so would you all please introduce yourselves and begin your presentation? Bill Fawzi, Municipal Manager. Terry Amatam, Port Director. Eric Adams, Jacobs Program Manager for the PAMP.

Alright, and with that, the first item on the agenda today was the plan finance update. I don't have a presentation for this other than to say For those of you who are collecting, the revised second edition has now been published, so get yours now to complete your set. When we published the first comprehensive plan of finance in its current format in 2024, we said we wanted this to be a document that would be a repository of the program's history and a preview of its trajectory. And it was our intent to say we want to play all the cards face up, so we want to say how we think this actually can go. And what happens if we don't get any additional third-party funding?

We also committed to keep the document evergreen, and so we have updated it now twice, and we plan to do that annually, likely in about this timeframe. And that is because we want to set the Port of Alaska modernization surcharge rates, which go into effect on January 1st, no later than August. We actually did that in April this year because we're trying to find a way to be maximally commercially reasonable. Reasonable and accommodate all of the interests who are affected by those surcharges. This year we realized that we, even though that meant that we probably could have issued a revised version of the comprehensive plan of finance in May, because our program is affected by legislative appropriations, we really needed the dust to settle on the whole of the legislature's action and then the gubernatorial veto period before we could do that.

So once that did settle and we had the good news of the Merad settlement. We waited a little bit to revise the comprehensive plan of finance to incorporate all of that information, and we have done that, socialized it with the assembly, now with the public and with all the affected users. Really, I wanted to just make a space on this agenda to say that that has happened, and if there are questions, we'd be happy to field them. Otherwise, I'm happy to turn the baton over to the folks sitting to my right, and it is posted on the website.

Questions or comments from members on this item?

One note, I think, for my colleagues, that I think several of us have received some emails, concerned emails from members of the community who are aware of the surcharge increase and are worried about what the municipality is doing to address the plan of finance. I have gotten a lot of questions about grant funding. There is a fantastic appendix at the back of the Port plan of finance that actually outlines all of the grants and sort of the filter through which grants for the Port are evaluated and pursued. So I really encourage members to get familiar with at least that section. And then the executive summary that's at the front of the plan of finance is really helpful because it sort of lays out, as Mr. Fawzy said, what are the cards and what are the scenarios if we receive X amount of funding from the state and federal government?

Surcharges, what is the scenario if we don't, and how that looks for the end consumer. So would again encourage you all to take a look at at least the first 3 pages and the last 3 pages of the plan of finance. It is well worth your time. Anything else? Okay, questions?

Through the chair, I would just add, I think it's really important that you bring that up. That document, that grant strategy narrative that was— we added into the plan of finance That's where most of the questions are coming from. What have you done to get outside funding? And it delineates by grant, by year, all the awards over the last 5, 6 years. And it really sets a great narrative for what the city has accomplished.

And then it shows what some of the strings are that are attached to some of these grants and why it becomes problematic to actually go after some of these larger grants. Based on the project. So that document itself, I think, is very explanatory and will help you with constituents.

Okay, uh, go ahead, Member Brawley. Thanks. Um, this is, uh, a question I think I know the answer to, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Is there an alternative to what we're doing? I mean, is there some funding source that we don't have?

Is there an opportunity that we pause the project for a couple years? I mean, I guess I, I understand the cost It's just hard for me to not see this as something we have to do regardless of the cost. If my roof was falling in, I would have to fix it even if I didn't have the money to do it, right? I would have to figure it out. So I'm just curious, just to put on the record, like, is there, is there some, is there some rock that we have not overturned?

We are not aware of any rocks that have not been overturned. And so if we are going to do the program, and we think we have to do the program because the facilities we have now are beyond the end of their projected life and in a state of disrepair, then at a very high level, it's money that we generate ourselves, money that the state gives us, money that the federal government gives us. We've also said we're willing to have any kind of conversation if there's some kind of public-private partnership, if we were to privatize some— we've looked at all of those. But part of the reason that we publish this is to say, this is everything we know. If we have missed anything, someone tell us.

And so far, 2 years into this existence of the published plan of finance, no one has surfaced anything that has not already been considered in the plan. Thanks. Yeah, and I'll just say, I know, uh, we in leadership positions, whether elected or not, get, get asked to deal with difficult things and, and to give people, um, difficult answers, um, as long as they are true. So thank you for— thank you for all your work. Um, and I think that's a message we have to continue taking, that this is a project we have to do.

Thank you.

All right, seeing no other questions from members, and reminder to members who are on the phone, please feel free to text me if you'd like to get in the queue. Let's move on to our next item.

Yes, good afternoon. Eric Adams with Jacobs. I guess I would ask, uh, the presentation has 5A first and then we'll hit 4B and 4C if that's okay, a little bit different than the agenda. That works for me, thank you. Okay, thank you.

A brief update today, just a couple slides. What's ongoing, and then we'll jump into the port projects. So Terminal 1 construction update, and then the rest of the port projects that I mentioned. Demolition has progressed significantly. If you guys— the fuel oil 1 is gone, and so that's a big milestone.

And then the rest of the dock, Terminal 1, the back end of it's being removed. Deep soil mixing at the new Terminal 1A trestle is nearly complete. We actually had to do 286 holes We just actually finished that yesterday. And then also at the trestle 1B, the intertidal fill is nearly complete. That's all the fill that we have to place in the water on that trestle, and that's progressing nicely.

And then the pile installation is ongoing for the wharf, and then at— since trestle 1A, the deep soil mixing is pretty much done. The work pad is being developed for pile install for the trestle 1A, and so Those things are progressing throughout, probably through near the middle to near the end of October. And then we'll see the contractor pull up and the marine equipment head south sometime, probably right around Halloween, give or take a few days depending on weather. So things are progressing there. Just some photos are out there for everybody to see how much has been demolished.

As I mentioned, the demolition of Pier 1 is pretty much completed, and then now some of the piles are being extracted to finish the demolition. That green arm there, we actually have a container underneath of it to capture things so debris doesn't fall in the water and we protect the marine species that call Cook Inlet home. As I mentioned earlier, deep soil mixing— here's just some more photos— pretty much completed. Intertidal Fillout 1B is nearly complete with the armor rock installation going. The bottom picture there is the Trestle 1B work area, and the upper one is Trestle 1A.

May I ask a question on that slide? The top left picture, is that an auger? Yeah. Holy moly. Through the chair, great question.

Those people who aren't familiar with what deep soil mixing is, if you think about a drill bit, you have them at home, like a half-inch drill bit, right? This is a 6-foot diameter drill bit that drills 100 feet down into the ground. And as they pull it up, they put in cement. And basically it's a big giant concrete column that's 6-foot diameter. And there's 289 of them on trestle 1A.

And trestle 1B, there's— I forgot the exact count. There's like 330 on trestle 1B. But those— so those are 6-foot diameter holes that are drilled 100 feet deep. And then filled with concrete.

Through the chair, that is how you create new land out into Cook Inlet. It's the only way to do it.

I would like to take a field trip. All right, thank you. Go ahead. I have field trip news later.

To the chair, just the reason why we do that, that deep soil mixing there is actually for seismic resilience. If you don't do that, there's potential for that land to slough off and push into the new trestle and the work during a seismic event. We showed presentations how that worked great during the 2018 earthquake at the PCT. You can see the line go straight up to the deep soil mixing and then stop and pick up on the other side. So it's proven to work during the 2018 earthquake that the Anchorage residents felt.

So what— and what will— So what will go in that 100-foot deep, 6-foot wide concrete column is, is like an actual solid concrete, solid concrete, solid concrete. Just picture a 6-foot diameter concrete, concrete plug. Wow. Okay, thank you.

Okay, moving on. There's no other additional questions on this. We have the Port of Alaska projects. First one that Terry is going to speak about is the storm drain project that's ongoing.

So, yeah, so earlier this year, the assembly approved a change order to add in System 5 so that we could comply with the grant, the $15 million grant, make sure that we were in compliance and also get this work done in a timely manner. So we're now slated to have this done by May of 2027. Probably February will, will be part of the end of the construction, but we've got 2 and a half months or so to close out the grant after that. So as we put in System 5, and, and again, you guys all approved that, thank you, um, they uncovered some remediation issues with the soil. It's much more contaminated than we expected out there.

They did look for contaminants before the contract was let, but this was, uh, we found some contaminated soils likely coming off Jay Bear, the location that we have is just more contaminated than we thought. We have to actually send this soil out of state. So it's, it's, that's part of this change order is the, the soil issue. And then we also uncovered a drain pipe size issue. So these stormwater drains are 48 to 60 inch.

There were some issues that they found We developed this project, Storm Drain 5, with a 48-inch pipe in mind. It now requires 60, so that is part of this change order as well.

And I think this is where we continue to shameless— put in shameless plugs for Waste to Energy so that we could take care of that contaminated soil ourselves, right? Yeah, I'm not sure if this soil would be able to be in that. It would. Okay. So yes.

Okay, and, and, and the benefits keep coming. Um, yeah, Member Park, go ahead. Yeah, hi, um, Terry, the, the contaminants that are in the soil, typically what, what elements are they, and are they some, uh, toxics that would leach into the groundwater? I don't know what the toxins are. Were you made aware, Jacobs?

Do you know? Petroleum, oil, and lubricants. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions from members?

All right, carry on. Okay, cathodic protection term contract. I think this is an easy one. Uh, if you're not familiar with cathodic protection and what it does, we certainly can educate everybody. Uh, but the amount of, um what's the word I'm looking for, corrosion out there.

Cathodic protection helps us keep the corrosion at bay. We've got certain microbes, we've got electricity out there that we've got to accommodate for, and this is just part of that, getting us a term contract to deal with cathodic protection. Obviously, you understand the processes in the muni, trying to go out and get POs cut and all of this done. Cathodic protection is something that happens annually, constantly, consistently out in Cook Inlet and at the port. So this just gives us a term contract to keep that going.

Questions from members? And do we already have a contract like this in place, and this is just an extension of the existing contract, or is this a new procurement?

Eric Adams with Jacobs. Great question, Chair. Yes, the port has annual cathodic protection engineering support very similar to this right here. This is going to be— as those term contracts come out, they go out for recompete, right? And the port selected these two firms to provide the support for that.

So, this is an annual ongoing thing, as long as I've been involved with the port, that I've seen them do. Thank you. Other questions on this slide? Okay. Carry on.

Wow, very efficient with the report today. Okay, I believe we have some updates from Solid Waste Services and AWU. Uh, and it looks like maybe you brought some things for show and tell.

Apologies to those on the phone who do not get to see the jars full of I don't know what.

Yes, Vanna, would you please, would you please wheel out?

Incredible, incredible.

I will point out that Kelly and Mark have been doing great presentations out in Eagle River and Chugiak, and so I've seen these multiple times and they're very interesting. I still get excited seeing them.

All right, please introduce yourselves for the record and go ahead and get started. Thank you, Chair, Co-Chairs, members of the Assembly. Kelly Toth, Director of Solid Waste Services. Yes, we do have some waste-to-energy items here that have been part of the demonstration. It just helps to understand and see all the— it makes it more real, makes it something that you can look at.

I encourage you after we're done to please go take a closer look They're very fascinating. What you see in there, the middle big jar is a bottom ash, and then you've got the two back jars that are the metals that are pulled out of the bottom ash by magnets and by eddy current processing separates out ferrous and non-ferrous metals. There's a couple of smaller jars of zinc and copper that get pulled out as well. All of that can be sold on the secondary market and have a good market rate. It's a strong market.

And then there are the bottom ash and the fly ash together can be mixed together. 100% Of the volume right now is getting buried, push-packed and covered at the landfill every day. Waste-to-energy will take and reduce that volume by 90%, putting it into the boiler. Leaving 10% for the bottom ash and fly ash. So that's just a quick walkthrough of what we brought for you today.

I want to jump in really quick and just make, make Solid Waste Services personal. I want to just give you an overview of our department so that you have a better idea of how we are formed and organized. Recall that we're an enterprise utility. We're not tax funded. And really, when you look at the two deepest benches in that organizational chart, you'll see there collections and disposal utilities.

So this is our entire team there at the Central Transfer Station. That includes all of our transfer drivers, our operators, our customer service, finance, vehicle maintenance shop, some of the administrative crew. So, that kind of just gives you a glimpse of who works at the Central Transfer Station. For our disposal crew, it includes both the engineers, the operators in the landfill, and the ones that make it tick, the laborers who keep the landfill picked up and clean and tidy, and also our engineering crew and the technicians that all make the landfill operate. We're very, very proud of those professionals and the work that they do.

The Central Transfer Station, these are the fellows that keep things rolling. 80% Of what's buried in the landfill comes through the transfer station. And there you see our operators and our vehicle maintenance shop. And then, yeah, it's a great team and we're very proud of them. On the collection side, we have both the commercial.

You see those are the front load trucks. Which is one that you see there. We have our EV fleet. We also have a residential collections fleet and then the vehicle maintenance shop as well. A little bit about our service area.

It was established back in the 1950s and it really had to do with a public health— is what in the nation, what brought on solid waste services across the nation was a public health issue. So it does protect the health and welfare, particularly in a highly populated area. And was in place and continues today. We serve multiple locations. What's great about having this service area within this boundary is that Solid Waste Services, when we went to a container process, when we got away from the manual garbage cans, it gave us a chance to also provide additional services that are not provided outside of our service area.

For example, curbside organics, the Pink Bin program, started as a pilot program and continues today. It's wildly popular, and most of the time when we go out and talk to folks and do our outreach for Anchorage residents, we hear people quite upset that they can't participate in the organics program. Also, I live outside of the service area, so for me, if I chose to pay for recycling service, I would pay a commercial hauler for that. If you live inside of our service area, that recycling cart is free. So you have an opportunity to lower your garbage rate by— the more you recycle, the smaller bin you need for garbage.

And that's what we want to do. We want to encourage people to do as much recycling and divert as much as possible from the landfill. And we have that ability to do that in— within our service area. And people really appreciate it.

Couple of just quick updates for you. We have demolished now the public wall, which is on the right side of the screen there. That is now gone. We are putting in new drains. We are going to be putting up a new facility.

It will be a semi-covered area, so when people back up to the public wall, they'll be outside of the elements. It'll be easier to maintain it in the wintertime. So right now It's working fine, the traffic pattern, but it's definitely different if you go out to the landfill right now to the temporary public wall. We still are diverting the white goods. They have their own specific service area, drop-off disposal area, and then we still are operating the recycling and hazardous waste facility, household hazardous waste facility, as it always has been.

And one other side note, the Great Salmon Spill of 2026 down in Seward. I don't know if you remember in the news, but a whole bunch of fish in a truck accident happened, and I was actually in that lineup. We were stuck for over 5 hours on the highway, and on Monday morning we got the call asking if we would take 22,000 pounds of salmon mixed with hydraulic fluid. And so luckily I had talked to— we had participated in a compost conference where we learned that all of this can be composted very well and that the fluid there is not a concern and actually the bacteria consumes it. And so I called our regulators, they were excited about it.

So that little pile is down to nothing now. And so I have before and after pictures. Again, if you're looking for a field trip, would love to take you out there and show you my little salmon pile. It's pretty fun. How many thousand pounds of salmon?

It was 22,000. 22,000 Pounds of salmon.

Yep. Aaron, I've got a quick—. Yeah, go ahead, Mr. Handlin. Um, so when will the Tipping Wall, the new one, be complete? Uh, through the chair, the plan is to have this construction completed before spring.

So we're, we're under construction now.

Uh, also there's a road closure on 56th Avenue at Old Seward, I got an update this morning. It should be open and clear by Saturday. So that was work that they did on the storm drain area at the corner of Old Seward and 56th Avenue, which is— anyway, just so you know, that will be open by Saturday. And then finally, back to the waste-to-energy facility, we are very, very excited. We are under negotiation right now for the designer, the construction manager at risk, and the operations manager at risk And really all of those partners are going to come together and bring this whole plan of finance forward for all to see in the spring.

And so you should be seeing this on your, on the assembly program in the October, very soon. So we're very excited for that. It's going to be a chance for everybody to get together and start taking all of the legwork that we've been doing, all of the research that we can bring forward and then let the subject matter experts take it from here and move this project forward. So we're very, very excited for that. And that's really the end of our presentation for today.

Fantastic. Any questions from members?

Okay. Seeing none. I'm really excited to see the plan of finance get underway for waste-to-energy. And yeah, would love to see before and after pictures of the fish pile. That sounds like— that sounds like something we're seeing.

Member Scott, did you have something to say about field trips?