Enrolled HJR 15: Supporting the introduction and enactment of federal legislation acknowledging that the federal government is financially responsible under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act for the remediation of contaminated land subject to conveyance under the Act; and urging the United States Department of the Interior to implement the six recommendations to identify and clean up the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act lands in its 1998 report to the United States Congress.
00Enrolled HJR 15 01 Supporting the introduction and enactment of federal legislation acknowledging that the 02 federal government is financially responsible under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 03 for the remediation of contaminated land subject to conveyance under the Act; and urging the 04 United States Department of the Interior to implement the six recommendations to identify 05 and clean up the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act lands in its 1998 report to the United 06 States Congress. 07 _______________ 08 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 09 WHEREAS Alaska Native land claims were settled differently in the state than in the 10 rest of the nation when, in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, instead of adopting a 11 reservation system, the federal government established Alaska Native village and regional 12 corporations and granted the corporations ownership and other rights to surface and 13 subsurface land; and 14 WHEREAS Alaska Native corporations were created under the Alaska Native Claims 15 Settlement Act to manage land and resources for the benefit of Native shareholders in
01 settlement of certain aboriginal land claims; and 02 WHEREAS, under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the federal government 03 conveyed to many Alaska Native corporations land that was contaminated by the federal 04 government or by activities allowed or overseen by the federal government before the 05 conveyance of the land under the Act; and 06 WHEREAS, in 1995, the United States Congress acknowledged that contaminated 07 land was being conveyed to Alaska Native corporations under the Alaska Native Claims 08 Settlement Act and, in sec. 103, P.L. 104-42 (43 U.S.C. 1629f), required the United States 09 Secretary of the Interior to provide a detailed report on contaminated land before conveying 10 the land to Alaska Native corporations and organizations; and 11 WHEREAS, in December 1998, the United States Department of the Interior 12 submitted a report to the United States Congress that located approximately 650 contaminated 13 sites on land conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act; and 14 WHEREAS, in that report, the United States Department of the Interior proposed six 15 recommendations to "fully identify contaminated sites and clean-up needs of Alaska Native 16 Claims Settlement Act lands"; and 17 WHEREAS the United States Department of the Interior has not fully implemented 18 any of the six recommendations it proposed to the United States Congress; and 19 WHEREAS Alaska Native corporations, as landowners, are subject to liability under 20 federal and state law for the contaminated condition of their land; and 21 WHEREAS several Alaska Native corporations have incurred considerable expense 22 cleaning up contaminated sites, negotiating land exchanges, and battling with the federal and 23 state governments to clean up sites on a case-by-case basis; and 24 WHEREAS, in recognition of this problem, United States Representative Don 25 Young, on the floor of the United States House of Representatives on January 4, 1995, stated, 26 "it was clearly not the intention of ANCSA to extinguish Native claims by conveying 27 contaminated property to recipients"; 28 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports the introduction and 29 enactment of federal legislation acknowledging that the federal government is financially 30 responsible under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act for the remediation of 31 contaminated land subject to conveyance under the Act; and be it
01 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 02 Department of the Interior to fully implement the six recommendations to identify and clean 03 up Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act lands in its 1998 report to the United States 04 Congress. 05 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Sally Jewell, United States 06 Secretary of the Interior; the Honorable Mary Landrieu, Chair of the Energy and Natural 07 Resources Committee of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Maria Cantwell, Chair of the Indian 08 Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Doc Hastings, Chair of the Natural 09 Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives; Neil Kornze, Principal Deputy 10 Director, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior; the 11 Honorable Kevin K. Washburn, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, United States 12 Department of the Interior; Director, Alaska Affairs, United States Department of the Interior; 13 and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the 14 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.