Natives of Kodiak Plans on Developing Swampy Acres, but Not Soon

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Natives of Kodiak Inc. is looking at how it might install water and sewer lines in the Swampy Acres area, but land development is a long way off.

Vice President David Anderson says the corporation’s land is a prime location since it’s so close to town.

According to Anderson, Natives of Kodiak has been looking into developing the 743 acres since the ‘90s, but it’s never emerged from the concept stage.

“[You] can’t do anything because some of the property’s been contaminated through the military back in the day, WWII there, and some of it’s been cleaned up in the ‘90s there, and it’s just never gonna be 100 percent and we’re looking at possibly in the future developing that property there. There’s nothing in the near future that’s going on.”

Natives of Kodiak may not be about to install a foundation, but it’s all about preparing for possible land use. Anderson says the corporation has commissioned DOWL to plan a waterline for the property.

“They’re about 35 percent done with the design and we expect them to be into 90 percent by June, July or August. Once they get to that point there, we’ll make a decision whether they continue to finish it 100 percent.”

Anderson says they’ve done tests on the property to make sure the waterline would be able to reach the minimum depth of six feet, and they’ve done feasibility studies for a hotel.

But, right now, those are just pipe dreams.

Anderson says that’s partly due to the petroleum based contamination, which the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has kept annual tabs on.

“Some of our property’s been cleaned up. It’s been cleaned up to a point where it’s probably not going to be cleaned up anymore unless it’s through … hundreds of years of constant washing out, watersheds and stuff like that. Once it gets down to the fractured rock, it’s almost impossible to clean it all up, so it just has to through time, it’ll clean itself, but who knows what the timeline is on it even.”

Parts of that land may get another examination soon.

In late May, the United States Environmental Protection Agency announced it would award the Kodiak Island Borough $600,000 to do contamination assessments on 18 different Kodiak sites. Natives of Kodiak was a partner on that grant and Anderson says they’re likely to check out spots around Swampy Acres that haven’t been thoroughly evaluated yet.