Junk cars finally removed from island

By KUCB News

Unalaska, AK – This summer the city contracted Zhen Cheng, a scrap metal recycling company, to remove junk vehicles in exchange for metals extracted from the city's landfill. The company removed about 20 containers of heavy steel but left behind all of the vehicles, the smaller, lighter metals, and a large mess, says Public Utilities Director Dan Winters. City Manager Chris Hladick told city council that since they left the island, the company has closed its doors in Anchorage.

To deal with the problem, the city has reverted to plan B. Switser Steel from Seattle agreed to take the cars for free on their empty barge and recycle them. It only cost the city about $100 per car to load the 200 vehicles on to the barge, or $20,000 total. Normally, it costs about $600 per vehicle to move them off of the island. The city is making deals with other barges to remove the lighter weight metals. It is up to the city to clean up the landfill and deal with the tires and nets, but Winters says there is no contamination in the area that needs to be cleaned.

In other parts of the community, city council member Dick Peck says American Seafoods has helped remove hundreds of tons of metal scraps and debris from the area between Magone Marine and the spit dock.