Anchorage Daily News Feb 12,
2010
Bad water plagues subdivision
SILTY SLUDGE: Residents want state to help resolve issue.
By RINDI WHITE
rwhite@adn.com
February 12th, 2010
WASILLA -- Years of frustration over smelly, dirty water and broken appliances prompted residents of a subdivision north of Wasilla to ask the state
to step in and help.
"I have three children and, frankly, it is nasty when I have to fill up a bathtub (for them) and it's black. We go to my in-laws to bathe them and
to wash clothes," said Robert Walker, a homeowner in the Field of View Park subdivision.
Walker and other residents said they have had to replace water heaters that burn out in less than a year due to the silty sludge and to repair
washers and dishwashers clogged with gunk. Many have also invested hundreds of dollars in filtration systems that fail to get out the water's smell and
murk.
The subdivision is located at Mile 7 of Wasilla-Fishhook Road. It's an attractive, treed development near the Little Susitna River, with a mix of
two-story and ranch homes, most assessed at between $200,000 and $250,000. Developers Greg Vance and Pat Lamb started the subdivision in 2004. They
have built several other Mat-Su subdivisions but this is the only one where they also run a public water system for the houses.
Homeowners complained to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska last month that not only is their water bad but that Lamb told them Jan. 7 that the
developers planned to abandon the water system in March.
Commissioners regulate public utilities and they opened an investigation. One fact they learned quickly: Vance and Lamb never obtained RCA approval
to operate the water system -- a 2004 notice from RCA that one was required went unanswered.
Vance said he doesn't remember receiving a notice.
"So the very license to do business and collect rates didn't seem like an important enough factor to pay attention to?" asked Commissioner Robert
Pickett at a public hearing Wednesday in Wasilla.
Grace Salazar, media liaison for the Regulatory Commission, said state law requires public utilities to get a certificate before operating or
receiving rates. State law also prohibits a utility from stopping or abandoning service unless the commission finds the service is no longer
required.
SILTY WATER
Vance said he and Lamb knew wells were spotty in the area when they began their 160-acre subdivision. The first well drilled delivered a promising
35 gallons per minute, but the contractor who planned to buy that lot backed out of the sale, Vance said. Then another lot owner drilled past 300 feet
and found no water.
Vance and Lamb decided to put in a public water system supplied by water from the first well. They had never before run that kind of utility, he
said.
Vance said the well water was silty from the start. Ben Winkler, former manager of Mat-Su Water, said the water system has the worst silt problem he
knows of in the Valley.
Well production has since become a crucial issue: The well that began at 35 gallons per minute has now tapered off to four gallons per minute, Vance
said. After spending $32,000 to drill several holes, most of them dry, a new well was recently brought online that produces about 10 gallons per
minute. That well is in use, although it's not yet approved by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Vance said the silt problem and production got worse as the subdivision expanded. He told commissioners he and Lamb had done everything they knew of
to make the system better, including hauling city water from Wasilla and Palmer daily to dilute the silt and make up for tapering well production.
"We've gone way beyond what I think most people would have done to make this thing work. I'm really sorry about the issues," Vance said.
NO NOTICE
Homeowners said they should have been told about the water problems before their homes were built. Vance said he told people who asked about the
water that it was regularly tested and met state all Department of Environmental Conservation requirements, which was true.
DEC regulates drinking water, but it doesn't require the water to be clean and odorless. Field of View residents' water might have been murky but
its levels of arsenic, copper, lead and other minerals were all in the acceptable range.
A POSSIBLE FIX
Vance said he plans to have Winkler start running the system today.
Winkler said he thinks he can solve the silt problem by installing an "ultra-filtration" system on each well, at a cost of about $10,000 each. But
first the utility has to raise rates to get out of the red, he said.
Homeowners currently pay $54 a month but that's about half of what the utility costs were in 2009. Winkler and Vance propose raising the rates to
$110 per month to pay for the new filtration system and create a reserve to pay for replacement supplies and, perhaps, a new well.
Meanwhile homeowners say they want Vance and Lamb to pay for the system to be fixed.
"As homeowners, we kind of feel we were duped into the situation," said Jim Kyrisch.
Published in the Anchorage Daily News February 12, 2010
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