As one of the volunteer member of the Hillside District Plan's (HDP) Community Advisory Committee (CAC), it is our job to make sure the HDP conclusions are non-biased.  The HDP is a part of the Anchorage 2020 Comprehensive Plan and one of the tasks is to accommodate 4000 - 6000 additional households.  With current zoning configurations, we are set to accommodate 4600 with no changes to density.  There is a thought that we should try to accommodate 6000 regardless of the lower population growth than was anticipated when 2020 requested a possible 6000 additional households from the Hillside area. 

One of the big questions for increasing density is the spread of public water and sewer.  Most Hillside residents are against bringing in public water and sewer due to the adverse effects it has on increasing density.  There is a concern by some of the CAC members, that the data is being manipulated to undermine the perception of suitability of onsite systems on the Hillside.  The information presented to the Assembly and the Administration and the Land Use white paper shows potentially skewed data.  A seemingly narrow set of information was gathered and a statement was made about "statistically significant" increases in nitrate levels of public wells on the Hillside. 

Wayne Westberg knows a lot about Hillside wells and I know a bit about statistical analysis. We questioned the validity of the data and were told that a more thorough analysis would cost the Muni another $10K since it wasn't in the original scope of work - but in reading the RFP and the Scope of Work, it seems well within the schedule of work that was to be performed.

Wayne was able to get the raw data and do the calculations of the well readings.  I helped with making the excel spread sheet and representative graphs.  Then we were able to get some help from the Alaska Dept of Environmental Conservation  (ADEC) to depict the well locations on a map.  We were also able to gain some time from a couple of economists to perform the regression analysis to see what the trends really are.  The zeros are for zero detectable levels and the blanks are for years when no data was collected. You can copy and paste the well information into the graph below the spreadsheet to see a graphical representation of the data.

The EPA has a top level of 10 parts per million (PPM) before they are concerned about health risks.  This number was recently reduced from a top level of 50 PPM. A natural level that occurs in nature is between a 2- 3 PPM, and most of the readings are very close to the natural backdrop level of nature.  A nice fellow from the ADEC was able to take our well data and turn it into some maps to graphically depict the locations of the wells.