Assembly committee told a $860,000 Eklutna Lake boundary study will be on June 23 consent agenda

Anchorage staff told the committee June 18 they plan to award a contract to Tetra Tech, at approximately $860,000, for an independent Eklutna Lake water‑boundary and life‑cycle fish analysis.

Mark Shimsheimer summarized the rationale: the contract would provide a third‑party review of biological and habitat analyses and yield a companion study to the pumped‑storage work that could consider alternatives for full river restoration that are not limited to the pumped‑storage concept. Shimsheimer said the contract would leverage Stantec’s existing work but ask a separate set of questions and run an independent modeling and life‑cycle analysis.

Staff told the committee the contract would be on the Assembly consent agenda June 23 and, if approved, work would start immediately with draft deliverables expected within about 6–9 months.

Committee members did not raise objections during the briefing; Shimsheimer said the study would support design and stakeholder work for both pumped‑storage alternatives and non‑pump alternatives to improve fish passage and habitat.