City opens public comment on recreation complex

Published 8:30 am Friday, March 27, 2026

The City of Homer will open a 30-day public comment period on Friday for community members to give input on the draft Analysis of Brownfields Cleanup Alternatives for the Homer Education and Recreation Complex.

The public comment period opens March 27 and will close at 5 p.m. on April 24.

The ABCA report, prepared in partnership with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, includes the findings from the DEC Brownfields Program’s analysis of hazardous building materials at the HERC and evaluates cleanup options to address those materials and support future redevelopment of the site.

Homer News previously reported that DEC Brownfields Lead Flannery Ballard gave a presentation in February to City of Homer representatives and staff, as well as the broader community, on findings from the HERC analysis and possible next steps. Both buildings were found to contain hazardous materials including asbestos, lead-based paint and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. The smaller HERC building, HERC 2, has been closed to the public for several years. The city has also already taken steps to remediate hazardous materials in HERC 1, the larger building, in order to provide safe continued use of the building.

While lead and PCBs were detected in the soil samples taken from the outside perimeter of the HERC building, both were found below human health cleanup levels. Asbestos was also not found in the soil samples. According to Ballard, this means that no soil cleanup or remediation is necessary for future redevelopment of the HERC site, which she called “excellent, excellent news.”

The draft ABCA presents five options for the city to consider in cleaning up the HERC site. The first option is a “no-action” alternative, where the city does nothing with the property and incurs no cost. A second option is to encapsulate the lead-based paint in both buildings, which is estimated to cost about $60,000 to implement and would address lead-based paint in the short term but would not address any other hazardous materials or allow the city to move forward with repurposing the property. A third option would be to conduct further testing, which consultants recommended only in conjunction with another alternative and may prolong demolition and repurposing of the property.

The fourth option would include abatement of hazardous materials, with local disposal of asbestos-containing materials and removal and disposal of the remaining structure outside the state.

According to the ABCA report on the City of Homer website, because no local landfills accept disposal of lead-based paint or PCB-containing materials, only asbestos-containing materials would be removed from the building and disposed of in the Central Peninsula Landfill. The rest of the construction waste would then be transported to Oregon for disposal. This option is described as “moderately difficult” and would require further testing of materials and may prolong repurposing. The cost — which Ballard described last month as a timely “snapshot” — was also estimated at $10.3 million.

The fifth option is to dispose of everything outside of the state. While this is the most expensive option at an estimated $10.5 million, as of February, it was also described as “fairly easy” since no further testing would be required, though an abatement contractor would be required.

Public comment on the draft ABCA and cleanup alternatives is required before the report may be finalized and the city can pursue cleanup funding.

The draft ABCA is available for review on the DEC Brownfields HERC ABCA site at dec.alaska.gov/spar/csp/brownfields/assessment-cleanup/dbac-projects/homer-herc-abca/. Hard copies of the report are also available at the Homer Public Library and the city clerk’s office in Homer City Hall.

The public may submit comments online through the DEC HERC ABCA webpage or email them directly to Ballard at flannery.ballard@alaska.gov. According to a press release issued by the City of Homer on Monday, DEC will respond to all comments submitted using their public notice/comment system.

The finalized ABCA will be posted on the DEC Brownfields webpage and the City of Homer HERC webpage.

Find more information on the DEC Contaminated Sites Program database or on the City of Homer “HERC Hazardous Material Cleanup and Revitalization Plan” page under the Planning Department.