An eagle nest has paused a crucial construction project near downtown Petersburg.
A concerned citizen reported the nest just days after the borough began sitework to replace the old wastewater pump station at Hungry Point. Public Works Director Chris Cotta said the borough stopped construction work on the long-anticipated project last Thursday after being notified.
Eagles and their nests are federally protected. That means the department needs to get special permits to keep working in the area. For now, one permit allows them to work 330 feet away from the nest, but Cotta said getting permission to work closer could take months. By then, the eagle could be gone.
“We’re just doing everything we can to try and keep our project moving forward while staying in compliance with the law,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Cotta said Pump Station 4 is “critical” and has needed this upgrade for decades. It’s the second-largest pump station in Petersburg. All of downtown’s wastewater goes through it on the way to the treatment plant. If this pump station breaks, sewage could flow into yards, out of manholes on North Nordic Drive, and into the Wrangell Narrows.
The longer the old pump station runs, the greater the risk is for something to go wrong, Cotta said.
“You know, we don’t want to keep this aging and failing infrastructure running any longer than we need to because of the possibility for a breakdown and a potential sewage spill into nearby waters,” he said.
Until work near the nest can happen, Cotta said the engineers plan to work on other parts of the project that are farther away.
He said that their goal is to finish construction before the end of the year, and hopes the eagle-related delay is brief.
