Alaska News

City asks for bids to fix 15th Avenue water problem

The city's garbage collection utility is asking for bids from contractors to fix the water seep that led to the temporary closure of 15th Avenue last month.

Solid Waste Services issued a request for proposals Wednesday, saying that the work should cost no more than $100,000.

The project will use four trenches to funnel the water into an existing drainage system that ties into the city's wastewater treatment system, said Mark Madden, Solid Waste Services' manager of engineering and planning.

The water may contain "contaminants associated with landfill leachate," according to the city's request for proposals. The seep last month was coming from a hillside at the southern edge of Merrill Field, which used to be a municipal landfill.

"Any time you're around a landfill, there's the potential that there might be something in there," Madden said. "We try to do things in a conservative manner."

He added that as a precaution, the city had taken ice from the seep to another landfill.

Reach Nathaniel Herz at nherz@adn.com or 257-4311.

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By NATHANIEL HERZ

nherz@adn.com

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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