City disputes state permit at HS site
Officials don't want any delays in preparations
The city is contesting a state fish-habitat permit needed to fill a pond at the site of the planned high school at Dimond Park.
City Manager Rod Swope said he hopes to meet this week with officials at the Office of Habitat Management and Permitting, in the Department of Natural Resources, to resolve the issue.
City officials don't want any delays in preparations for the school's construction, on a tight schedule to go out to bid this spring and to open in August 2006.
The state's request for a permit application has stopped its coastal management review of the city's proposed actions at the site. The actions include putting fill on a 2.8-acre shrubby wetland for a sports field and installing a stormwater outfall line at the Mendenhall River, as well as filling a half-acre pond next to Riverside Drive.
The city wants to fill the pond, which was dredged by the company that owned the site in the 1970s and '80s, so it can put the road entrance to the high school there. City Engineering Director Roger Healy said that's the best place because it is directly across from Riverwood Drive and it's safer to have a single intersection.
"Strictly from a safety standpoint, the intersection has to be there," Healy said.
He said the city questions the applicability of the state permit, which requires authorization from the Department of Natural Resources for activities that could impede the passage of fish.
Moira Ingle, the Juneau-area office manager for the habitat management and permitting office, said a state biologist recently trapped eight juvenile coho salmon, 14 sticklebacks and one Dolly Varden char in the pond. The salmon were from three size classes, suggesting there might be a regular influx of fish into the pond, Ingle said.
Presumably, the fish come from the Mendenhall River. To get to the pond, they must travel though 1,600 feet of a stormwater drainage pipe and past eight catch basins, an oil and water separator, and a trash-collecting screen, Healy said. Once in the pond, the fish might grow too large to return through the trash screen, he said.
Swope said he thought it was a stretch to describe the pond as a "pretty important fish stream or rearing area."
But, Ingle said, "It's a nice little pond. It's got heron, kingfishers, waterfowl and beavers. It's not just a little puddle."
Anne Post, a state Fish and Game biologist who lives near Dimond Park, said teachers at nearby Riverbend Elementary School have taken classes to the pond. She once considered applying for a federal grant to turn the pond into an educational area.
"It's such a cool place," she said. "It's a nice little piece of wildlife habitat in the middle of development, of a suburban neighborhood."
If the city won't agree to leave the pond as it is, the state is likely to ask the city to offer mitigation for filling the pond. Mitigation sometimes includes stabilizing stream banks, replacing culverts under roads or educational grants, Ingle said.
The process of getting a permit doesn't have to take long, she said.
"As soon as we figure out what's going to mitigate (the action), I can expedite it and turn it around in a day," she said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to review the city's application to fill wetlands at the school site. That agency's decision will incorporate the state's coastal management review.
The Corps will accept public comments through Tuesday, said Susan Hitchcock, who is preparing that agency's environmental analysis. Comments can be faxed to (907) 790-4499 or e-mailed to susan.j.hitchcock@poa02.usace.army.mil.
• Eric Fry can be reached at efry@juneauempire.com.