City Looks For Public Comments on Composting

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
It’s been almost a year since the topic of composting biosolids has made it to a Kodiak City Council agenda, but work has been well underway to make it a reality. The design for the new composting facility is at 95 percent, and City Manager Aimee Kniaziowksi said they are getting ready to submit the design to the the Alaska Department of Enviornmental Conservation for permitting.
“That’s the next step and once we’re issued a permit then we can begin the process of building this facility and migrating over. We’re currently doing compost class B on the borough landfill at the top of the current landfill pile, so we’ll migrate that to the new facility once it’s been designed and ready.”
The goal is to eventually produce a higher quality class A compost at the new facility.
Mark Kozak is the public works director for the city and said a meeting was held with folks from the Monashka Bay community about a year ago to talk about preliminary plans for the composting facility.
“Because they’re the nearest neighbor to this potential site. We took their public input and then we started the design. And now we’re at the point where the design is ready to be submitted to DEC to start the permit process. And what we want to do is visit with the public again, let them see the design and ask their questions, so that they know when we submit our permit, what the facility is like, how the process is managed and handled and then we can hear and get feedback from them now if there’s anything they have concerns about.”

Depending on public input from that meeting, Kozak said the hope is to submit the project for permitting as soon as possible so it can be under construction by next spring.
“The project could be submitted now, we just want the public to see it, provide their input before we move forward with it. Depending on what the outcome is, maybe there’s some adjustments or something that we add to the design in order to address public concern, and then move that forward as quickly as we can.”
The city will host a public meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Bayside Fire Station. The gathering will include a panel question and answer session with three composting experts from CH2M Hill, the company designing the composting facility, and a representative from the DEC.
Kniaziowski said city staff will present the current design for the project, including maps and pictures, detail how it will operate and explain the ultimate goal for class A composting in Kodiak.
You can hear the full interview with Kniaziowski, Kozak and City Engineer Glenn Melvin on our website, kmxt.org.