Matanuska Maid Block Parcel E – Former Power House

Site Narrative

The property was originally part of the Matanuska Maid block, which was the center of the 1935 Matanuska Colony (the largest of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration's New Deal communities). In its prime, it was used to create steam for power use utilizing coal from 1930s-1960s, and fuel oil from 1960s to the mid-1970s when the block's operations ceased. It has received a Phase I and limited Phase II Environmental Site Assessment through the Matanuska Susitna Borough's 2017 competitive assessment grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The Phase I and Phase II ESAs identified and sampled for multiple recognized environmental concerns (RECs) including:

• the property’s historic industrial use;
• various debris present;
• drum storage;
• the use of the adjoining former warehouse which has been identified as having been contaminated with metals, PAHs, VOCs and pesticides;
• the use of the adjoining former garage property which had previously dispensed petroleum from underground storage tanks; and
• the adjoining petroleum distributor which has had bulk petroleum storage on their property since 1942.

The owner of the property (Palmer Arts Council) applied for a DEC Brownfield Assessment and Cleanup service for FY2021. DEC is conducting site assessment activities and groundwater sampling.