Contamination found at port MacKenzie

The first environmental audit of the Mat-Su Borough’s port MacKenzie revealed signs of contamination at the port. Auditors say three companies at Port MacKenzie have environmental contamination at their leased port sites. The companies are NPI, Klondike Concrete and Alutiiq Manufacturing Contractors. The Mat-Su Borough owns the port and leases 22 acres to NPI and 31 acres to AMC.

NPI operates a scale house and stores heavy equipment on site. NPI subleases property to Klondike Concrete of Chugiak. There, the borough’s auditors found wind-scattered concrete super sacks, lube oil buckets near the dock, piles of trash, petroleum spills, metal debris and sedimentation of surrounding wetlands.

On the AMC site, the auditors found open drums with unknown substances and a burn pit, although AMC doesn’t have a DNR burn permit.

Borough officials were notified of the violations last month and met last week to tackle the problem.

Borough spokeswoman Carol Vardeman said that the borough is filing a spill notification with the Department of Environmental Conservation. The auditors recommend a new inspection date in the first week of September.