Progress continues to be made by the City of Homer with regard to the Kachemak Sponge Green Infrastructure Stormwater Management Project.
Homer City Council passed two resolutions at their last regular meeting on Monday, Oct. 23 that will further the project’s course. Resolution 23-113 approves a task order to Coble Geophysical Services, LLC to design storm water works. Resolution 23-114 approves a consultant contract to Kachemak Heritage Land Trust to assist with the acquisition of properties for the Kachemak Sponge project.
According to Resolution 23-113, the Kachemak Sponge project, in its directive to use natural wetlands to absorb and treat stormwater, involves a system of pipes and ditches to direct the water into constructed retainage ponds and wetlands for storage and nature-based treatment. This kind of system “requires specialized design work to determine the extent to which the wetlands can absorb and treat stormwater,” the resolution says.
Geoff Coble, owner of Coble Geophysical Services, LLC has been involved in the field and design development work for the project since January 2022, according to an Oct. 10 memorandum from Public Works Director Jan Keiser to the city council, including “installing sheet metal flumes used to measure water volume entering the subject wetlands and drilling test wells in the wetlands to ascertain the depth of the active peat layer.”
Coble also traveled to Finland to visit a wetland-based treatment facility that operates similarly to the Kachemak Sponge project in order to both assure that such facilities work in cold climates and to better understand how to effectively design them, Keiser wrote in the memo to city council.
In designing and placing the stormwater works tasked in Resolution 23-113, Coble will also use the data collected from the above-described field work, according to the memo. The resolution also states that the cost accrued by Coble’s work is included in the budget from the grant awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which means that the City of Homer will be reimbursed with grant funds.
As the City of Homer has recently issued multiple contracts to various vendors for professional services in line with the Kachemak Sponge project, Resolution 23-114 was passed in an effort to garner aid for city staff to manage those transactions. According to a Sept. 27 memo from Keiser to city council, Kachemak Heritage Land Trust is already working with the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve to acquire properties for the project, and it “makes sense to rely on KHLT to supplement city staff,” which currently does not have the capacity to “comprehensively shepherd” the above-described transactions.
Keiser specified in the memo that KHLT will coordinate with the commissioned vendors, liaison with property owners and help the City mitigate “unforeseen challenges that may arise.”
The resolution also states that the costs for work done by KHLT will be eligible for reimbursement by the NOAA grant.
Both resolutions were passed as part of the consent agenda at the beginning of the Oct. 23 meeting. No discussion was conducted on either of these items.
The full resolutions and backup memorandums are available online at https://www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-regular-meeting-302.
The next city council regular meeting will be held on Monday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. in the City Hall Cowles Council Chambers.
