Solid Waste Services staff told the Assembly Infrastructure Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee of the Whole on June 12 that they have installed a test production well at the closed Merrill Field landfill to measure leachate and groundwater and are moving quickly to design and begin construction of gas-control and pipeline improvements.

Kelly Toth, director of Solid Waste Services, and James Armstrong, chief engineer for engineering and planning, said the Merrill Field site — closed in 1984 and unlined — has rising groundwater and surface water creating leachate that has in some periods spilled onto adjacent Fifteenth Avenue. "We did the emergency procurement," Toth said, and staff are installing gas probes, a leachate production well and replacement pipeline phases; parts are en route and construction is expected to start mid to late June.

The test well is a data collection step, staff said: it pumps groundwater and leachate to a nearby lift station where those liquids are currently pushed into the municipal sewer system. "This is the test well. . . . This provides us data so that we can make further decisions," Armstrong said. Staff reported plans to use the test well's drawdown and flow measurements to size any additional wells and to design a scalable solution for leachate control.

Committee members asked whether the leachate flow onto public sidewalks creates a public-health risk. Toth said routine water-quality monitoring is in place and that staff will confirm whether recent flows were leachate and report back. She also said Solid Waste Services and airport staff are coordinating with the Federal Aviation Administration when work occurs near Merrill Field.

At the Anchorage Regional Landfill (ARL), staff described progress implementing a 2019 compliance order by consent with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) to reduce landfill gas emissions. Under that order, the municipality must increase destruction capacity; staff said they are designing additional flare capacity to reach a minimum burn rate of 4,000 standard cubic feet per minute and expected to reach 65% design in July with bidding and award anticipated later in the year.

Toth said ARL work also includes pond improvements and an initial bench‑scale study for advanced leachate treatment. Staff have expanded pond storage, improved aeration, and added a leachate load‑out pump to improve truck loading safety. Earlier disposal options such as deep well injection and evaporation were examined and ruled out; staff now seek an advanced treatment train (including reverse osmosis in bench testing) that could reduce leachate volume by roughly 90 percent and return reject streams to the landfill for sequestration if permitted.

Solid Waste is also preparing a request for proposals for operations and maintenance support of the gas collection and control system (GCCS) at ARL and Merrill Field, staff said; the RFP was in purchasing and could be advertised in the coming weeks with a potential fall procurement timeline. Toth said the ARL landfill was built with modern practices and that its remaining life is driven by investments and operating choices; staff cited a current estimate of roughly 70 years of remaining capacity but noted that lifespan can change with operational choices.

Committee members asked about possible beneficial uses of landfill gas. Toth said the primary near-term action is to increase collection and either route gas to Doyon for energy use (if Doyon expands capacity) or destroy the gas in new flares. "Flaring is better than not flaring," she said, while continuing to pursue beneficial-use options.

No formal Assembly action was taken at the June 12 meeting; staff said further briefings and procurement items would be brought back to the Assembly as design and contracting progress.