ANCHORAGE — Anchorage has reached an agreement with an Alaska Native corporation to settle a dispute over revenue generated by the sale of natural gas from the city’s landfill.
Under the terms of the agreement announced Wednesday, the municipality will pay Eklutna $5.75 million and the corporation will relinquish all future claims to revenue from the gas. The deal must still be approved by the Anchorage Assembly, the Chugiak-Eagle River Star reported.
Anchorage sells methane generated at the landfill to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Eklutna, the municipality’s largest private landholder, has argued that it’s entitled to half of any income generated from the landfill because of the 35-year-old North Anchorage Land Agreement. Anchorage and Eklutna signed the agreement in 1982 after realizing they had competing claims for the 274-acre landfill.
In a lawsuit filed in 2013, Eklutna claimed the municipality could owe it as much as $24 million over two decades.
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said during a news conference Wednesday that the dispute had become a “choking point” and that the new settlement allows the two sides to move forward.
“We ought to be neighbors and partners,” Berkowitz said.
Eklutna CEO Curtis McQueen said both sides are now “on the same page.”
As part of the agreement, Eklutna also agrees to begin development of two large parcels of land near Eagle River. The land will be dedicated for housing, McQueen said.
