The Mat-Su Borough Assembly on April 15 passed an ordinance that puts any new dredging operations in water on new grounds on hold. The ordinance sunsets Oct. 21, the same night the assembly is scheduled for a public hearing on a new ordinance that would likely allow new operations for water table mining under certain conditions.

At issue is whether dredging into the seasonal high-water table poses potential harm to the water supply.

Gravel mining is a significant industry in the Valley, with more than two dozen operators mining sand and gravel, providing more than 150 local jobs, as well as materials vital to construction of roads and building foundations.

Three large companies do the bulk of the excavating, with most of the gravel that is mined used outside of the borough. Last year 2.5 million tons of Mat-Su gravel was hauled to Anchorage, down in weight from 4 million tons in previous years, said borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan.

Seven companies have established grandfather rights that indicate they intend to dredge into the water table, Sullivan said. The permits are granted to the site being mined, not the company.

One borough resident who lives along the Glenn Highway near a large dredging operation claims his septic system and agricultural well were flooded as a result of mining that diverted an aquifer to the surface.

The company has not admitted fault, but has paid for losses, Sullivan said. During the April 15 borough assembly meeting, a Meadow Lakes resident claimed his water well had dropped three feet as a result of mining, Sullivan said.

Wes Vander Martin, vice president and general manager of Anchorage Sand and Gravel, said his firm wants to work with the borough and others to come up with a substitute ordinance and put stipulations in place to protect groundwater.

“We feel we can put safeguards in place that will protect the quality and quantity of the water,” Vander Martin said. “We want to be part of the solution to this, to work with the borough and come up with a plan. If they don't let us go down, we're going to have more surface mines, and disturb more ground and eventually that ground will be away from the railroad tracks (making transport of gravel more expensive).”

Trevor Edmondson, Alaska plants manager for Wilder Construction Co. and Central Paving Products, said his firm takes its environmental stewardship and involvement in the community seriously.

“With the appropriate safeguards and environmental management techniques, aggregate extraction below the water table is a safe and accepted practice throughout the United States,” he said.

If the Assembly doesn't come up with something acceptable, the industry will have to live with no mining in the water table, said Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine.

“We are all very concerned about water quality and quantity, and about reclamation,” she said.

Bettine, who amended the ordinance to sunset Oct. 21, said she would like to see the borough have a conditional use permit for underwater mining “because if they cannot go down safely, they are going to spread out.

“Right now they are telling us they can mine these existing pits without taking out more hills, taking out more neighborhoods, and impacting them with noise,” she said.