Permanent Fix Elusive for Ravenous Matanuska

By S.J. Komarnitsky, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

May 3–WASILLA — Ron Thornsley has seen firsthand how dangerous the Matanuska River can be for those living along its banks.

Just after he and his wife moved into their home on Brian Drive in the Butte in 1991, the river started chewing through their backyard, biting off footwide chunks of land like a rabid Pac-Man.

Eventually the raging waters swept away two houses, neither of them Thornsley’s. Then-Gov. Walter Hickel declared an emergency, freeing up $500,000 in state funds to build four dikes in what was seen as a short-term fix.

But 15 years later, the dikes are still there, although in need of constant costly repairs. And a permanent fix remains elusive despite millions spent in state, federal and borough dollars on studies and work on the river.

Last year, the borough spent just more than $172,000, including funds collected from area residents, to repair the four existing dikes. Meanwhile, federal officials have allocated nearly $1.2 million to build a fifth dike just downstream and to buy properties along the river.

As spring comes and the river — fed by the melting Matanuska Glacier — begins to rise, residents and government officials are again debating options.

They are finding no easy solutions.

The Matanuska River’s propensity to gnaw new paths is well-documented. Aerial photos dating back to the early 1900s show the glacier-fed river sweeping like a pendulum across miles of land.

Much of downtown Palmer, including the Matanuska-Susitna Borough building, sits on old river channel. The erosion in the Circle View and Stampede Estates subdivisions off Bodenburg Loop Road where Thornsley lives is also well-known.

In 1972, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report discouraged development in the area because of erosion. But it wasn’t until the river changed paths in the late 1980s and swept toward the subdivisions that it really started making headlines.

Since then, many possible solutions have been floated, most of which fall into two categories: either control the river with dikes and channeling or move the people out by buying back property and limiting development along the waterway.

Not surprisingly, most residents threatened by the river prefer protecting their properties with dikes and channeling.

While they can pay only a fraction of the cost of the work, they say they deserve government help as much as New Orleans residents hit by flooding or Midwestern residents devastated by a tornado.

Sam Tooke, who owns 40 acres just downstream of the dikes, said he considers the river the state’s responsibility to control.

“It’s the state’s grizzly bear,” he said. “They need to keep it out of my henhouse.”

But federal and state officials, who have spent hundreds of thousands on the dikes only to watch the river wash parts away like the ocean leveling a child’s sand castle, are more interested in moving residents out of the way.

Responding to that pressure, the borough is crafting an ordinance to limit development along the river and require new property owners to be told of the erosion hazard before they buy, said Borough Manager John Duffy.

At a meeting last Thursday in Palmer, both sides were represented. The meeting was hosted by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which received a $594,000 federal earmark last year to pursue the idea of buying back property along the river. The federal agency is taking public input on the idea.

Bill Wood, a biologist heading up the work for the agency, said the idea is to stop trying to control the river, which is costly and only moderately successful.

The idea is not a new one. The borough tried buying back land along the river before but got few takers, said Ken Hudson, the borough chief code compliance officer.

People either didn’t want to move or didn’t want to sell for the price the borough offered, Hudson said. The reason for their reluctance is clear: The land along the river is beautiful.

“They don’t call it Circle View for nothing,” admitted Thornsley, a retiree who from his home enjoys a nearly 360-degree view of the Chugach and Talkeetna mountains.

Several at the meeting said they’d sell but only for a price far higher than the salvage value at which their properties are valued because of the erosion.

Wood acknowledged the current funds would likely buy only a few of the more than 30 properties threatened, not enough to eliminate the need to protect the remaining properties.

Most in Circle View want the river channeled and say gravel extraction is the ideal solution. The borough could use money made from extracting gravel from the riverbed to pay for protection along other part of rivers, Thornsley said.

But studies have raised questions about cost, potential unintended consequences of trying to channel a glacial river and the possible impacts on salmon that use the stream.

Other river residents are also concerned. Jeff Latta, a commercial airline pilot who lives in Skyranch Estates across from Thornsley, said he initially supported channeling. But after researching the possible effects, he changed his mind.

“You’re not just playing with fire, you’re playing with dynamite,” he said.

While possible solutions are debated, more people have moved to the area, many of whom say they had no idea of the river’s potential for erosion.

Meanwhile, the river has also been on the move.

Last year, the Matanuska began chewing away for the first time in years along a stretch just north of Sutton and came within a few yards of one home. Now residents there are also asking the borough for protection such as channeling.

What will happen this summer is anyone’s guess.

Last week, standing on the 20-foot high pile of rock that makes up the dike just outside his house, Thornsley said the river was up about six inches from a few weeks before.

Thornsley figures his property is well-protected because of the dikes. But the same can’t be said for properties downstream. Less than a quarter mile away on Brian Drive is a road closed sign. A half-dozen footsteps past the sign, the road ends abruptly in a ragged edge that plunges into the river below.

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