Legislature(2013 - 2014)BARNES 124
02/10/2014 01:00 PM House RESOURCES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HJR15 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HJR 15 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
HJR 15-FEDERAL CONTAMINATION OF ANCSA LANDS
1:06:43 PM
CO-CHAIR FEIGE announced that the only order of business is
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 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.
1:07:05 PM
REPRESENTATIVE CHARISSE MILLETT, Alaska State Legislature, noted
that the [1971] Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was
passed to settle land claims between Alaska Natives and the
federal government. However, due diligence on many of the lands
transferred to the Native corporations did not include a
guarantee that the land was uncontaminated. Of the lands now in
custody of Native corporations, 650 sites are contaminated; for
example, some were White Alice sites, some were atomic bomb
testing sites, and some were testing for different oil drilling
methods. Liability for cleanup of these sites is now in the
hands of the Native corporations, which is not just, right, or
fair. This does not embody what ANCSA was designed to do, which
was to give the lands to the Native people so they could profit
and benefit from them. If Native corporations are held
responsible for cleaning up these lands, they will be greatly in
the hole [financially].
1:09:34 PM
REPRESENTATIVE MILLETT said HJR 15 asks the federal government
to take responsibility for the 650 contaminated sites or to make
the [corporations] whole through a transfer of uncontaminated
lands. Most of the village and tribal corporations selected
lands surrounding the areas they were from to benefit their
shareholders through subsistence and other things. It would
therefore be tough for some of the areas to have a land switch
because it would not be in close proximity to the villages or
corporation locations. This resolution asks the federal
government to take responsibility, hold harmless the Native
corporations, and to clean up the 650 contaminated sites so
profits can be seen by the shareholders.
REPRESENTATIVE MILLETT related that last year she spent a week
in Washington, DC, with Alaska Native village chief executive
officers (CEOs). A contingent of about 25 people having
contaminated lands travelled to speak with members of Congress
as well as [the new Secretary of Interior], Sally Jewell. The
federal government and the U.S. Department of Interior have not
been too friendly to Alaska. The federal government has treated
Alaska as the bastard child and she will continue to fight the
federal government on this issue that is incredibly valuable to
first nation people, she said. Indigenous people deserve to
have clean lands to live on and to profit from, as ANCSA was
intended to do.
1:12:52 PM
VASILIOS "AKIS" GIALOPSOS, Staff, Representative Charisse
Millet, Alaska State Legislature, explained that the
introductory analysis states what ANCSA intended, what
transpired that brought about the 1998 US Department of Interior
report that listed the 650 sites, and the quote from Congressman
Don Young saying that it was never the intent of ANCSA to
extinguish Native claims for the purpose of conveying
contaminated sites. The "Be It Resolved" clause mentions the
support that [federal] legislation would need from the [Alaska
State Legislature] in terms of urging Congress to pass
legislation that would hold the federal government financially
responsible for the cleanup of these lands. Regarding to whom
copies of HJR 15 should be sent (page 2, line 23), Mr. Gialopsos
pointed out that Sally Jewell has replaced Ken Salazar as
Secretary of Interior.
1:14:19 PM
REPRESENTATIVE MILLETT reported that US Senator Lisa Murkowski,
US Senator Mark Begich, and Congressman Don Young have written
letters to the Department of Interior urging the department to
update its 1998 report in order to ensure no contaminated sites
have been overlooked. She further reported that Pat Pourchot of
the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has promised to make
updating the report a priority as soon as funding is received.
1:15:39 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR asked whether any of the remediation costs
incurred by the corporations are available to share with the
committee.
REPRESENTATIVE MILLETT responded some corporations have done
some of the cleanup themselves because they were tired of
waiting for the federal government. Included in the committee
packet is information about Tanadgusix (TDX) Corporation of St.
George and St. Paul islands which is doing its own remediation
at a cost so far of $76 million. A request has been submitted
asking the US Department of Interior to survey sites and provide
cleanup cost estimates. However, it is hard to get an estimate
of cleanup costs because many times it is unknown what the
contamination is, how widespread it is, and whether it needs to
be a summer or winter cleanup. Given there are 650 sites, she
imagined that the cost is in the billions.
1:17:22 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI, regarding the third "Whereas" clause,
understood the sponsor is not claiming that the federal
government knew or intentionally gave contaminated lands.
REPRESENTATIVE MILLETT replied she does not believe it was done
out of malice; those were the lands selected by the corporations
and there was no due diligence. She said she is not going to
say it is either the federal government's fault or the Native
corporations' fault for not doing due diligence. However, when
one receives land in an agreement between the federal government
and a Native corporation as a final repayment, one would expect
the land to be useable and in good condition. While she has no
reason to believe this was done knowingly or with malice, it was
done 650 different times. She said she is leaving judgment to
committee members about how serious the federal government was
about fulfilling its promise to the Native corporations.
1:18:51 PM
CO-CHAIR FEIGE asked whether it is fair to say the contamination
may have occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, but the environmental
laws that require cleanup were changed subsequent to that.
REPRESENTATIVE MILLETT agreed that technology has advanced over
the past 70 years and that cleanup done in the 1940s was much
different than what it is today. Chemicals may not have been
thought of as being toxic until 30 years later when the impacts
were felt by the communities.
1:19:45 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI agreed there is a moral obligation for
cleanup by the federal government, but asked whether there is a
legal obligation. He noted that in ongoing legal cases around
the state, it is looking like the last landowner is the most
responsible party.
REPRESENTATIVE MILLETT answered the federal government owned all
of Alaska prior to the transfer of lands to the state and Native
corporations. There was no other owner prior to the transfer.
REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI observed that the third "Whereas" clause
talks about the activities that were allowed or permitted [by
the federal government]. He pointed out that the State of
Alaska allegedly allowed certain activities to happen on the
"Flint Hills" property, which used to be "Williams," and there
is a question about who is legally responsible for the cleanup
in that case. On the transferred lands there were spills and
materials used that are now being classified as hazardous and he
therefore wants to understand the legal implications.
REPRESENTATIVE MILLETT responded all the testing done in Alaska
on federal lands was done by the federal government. Whether or
not that was contracted out, it was still the federal
government. The atomic bomb tests were done by the federal
government, US Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools were paid
for by the federal government, and the White Alice sites were
paid for by the federal government. There was no other property
owner or person involved other than the federal government doing
the contamination to those lands prior to transfer.
CO-CHAIR FEIGE remarked that it is a short title search.
1:22:27 PM
CO-CHAIR FEIGE opened public testimony on HJR 15.
1:22:59 PM
JAELEEN ARAUJO, Vice President & General Counsel, Sealaska
Corporation, spoke in support of HJR 15 on behalf of Sealaska as
well as some of its village corporations in which Sealaska owns
the subsurface of the surface estate in the villages. She said
Sealaska does not know that it has any type of contamination,
such as radioactive sites, but several landfills were conveyed
through ANCSA to either Sealaska or its village corporations.
Because the villages wanted to receive property in their
villages they did receive landfills. These landfills pre-
existed ANCSA and there are questions about some of the things
that were put into these landfills prior to conveyance. For
some time Sealaska has been dealing with this and who is
responsible for some of these things that pre-existed ANCSA.
Therefore, Sealaska supports HJR 15.
1:24:04 PM
[CO-CHAIR FEIGE transferred the gavel to Vice Chair P. Wilson.]
1:24:31 PM
CYNTHIA BERNS, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Old Harbor
Native Corporation, spoke in support of HJR 15 on behalf of Old
Harbor Native Corporation and Carl Marrs, Chief Executive
Officer. She said the federal government contaminated the land
and needs to be responsible for remediation. The corporation
expects the federal government to live by its own policies that
it enforces on states and private industry. The contaminations
on these lands are causing financial hardship and health
concerns to Alaskans. This sensitive issue should not be
disregarded. Aboriginal lands have been contaminated and must
be cleaned up by the responsible party, which is the federal
government. She offered Old Harbor Native Corporation's
appreciation for the legislature's support of the people of
Alaska to address this sensitive issue.
1:25:44 PM
DELBERT REXFORD, Vice President of Land Fulfillment, Ukpeagvik
Inupiat Corporation, noted that Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation is
a direct recipient under ANCSA and has five contaminated sites
that are under a monitoring program. Within the former Naval
Petroleum Reserve Four that was received by the corporation,
extensive exploration was done, and contaminants and unknown
substances were left all across the tundra. In the mid-1970s to
early 1980s, he participated with the labor union on cleanup of
the Naval Petroleum Reserve Four. Many of his fellow employees
over time have died from different cancers contracted due to
exposure and contact with the contaminants. He is concerned
about the environmental injustice of the contaminated sites.
Today the corporation has 935 acres and is pursuing the balance
of its land conveyance entitlements. Because of the
contaminated sites, the BLM will not release or make the lands
available which are in close or immediate proximity to
corporation lands. These lands include the Navy runway, the US
Geological Survey (USGS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) facilities, the former National Weather
Service, and the former Indian Public Health Service lands.
These lands include contaminants and are a continued health
threat to people in the community and people working in those
environments. On behalf of the corporation and its 2,500
shareholders, he strongly urged the committee to pass HJR 15.
He noted that tomorrow evening is the recognition of a former
colleague who passed away of pancreatic cancer and who grew up
subsisting in one of the former legacy well areas. These are
issues of concern in the villages.
1:29:03 PM
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER thanked Mr. Rexford for pointing out that
this issue is far more than just selection of the land itself
that was subject to contamination. This systemic and neglectful
act by the federal government has truly affected the lives and
health of the Inupiat community.
1:29:36 PM
VICE CHAIR P. WILSON inquired about the percentage of people who
have passed away from cancers resulting from exposure to the
contaminants.
MR. REXFORD responded that in the Aiken family, Mrs. Aiken has
passed away of cancer, her oldest daughter has died of cancer,
her second oldest daughter is now fighting cancer, her third
daughter has survived cancer, Johnny Lee Aiken passed away last
summer, and two other siblings have contracted cancer. This is
just one family that did a lot of subsistence in proximity to
former legacy wells. He noted he works for Husky Oil at Camp
Lonely. With his labor union he has done a lot of tundra
cleanup and it is unknown what the workers have come in contact
with. Many of his former labor union members have passed on and
he feels fortunate to be here today.
VICE CHAIR P. WILSON thanked Mr. Rexford for bringing up this
issue.
1:31:14 PM
DOROTHY SHOCKLEY, President, Bean Ridge Corporation, said she
supported HJR 15 on behalf of Bean Ridge Corporation, a village
corporation from Manley Hot Springs. She requested an amendment
be added that addresses a contaminated area located about a mile
from the village where she grew up and is an area where children
used to pick berries. The Alaska Department of Transportation &
Public Facilities (DOT&PF) stored dioxins there that were used
for killing weeds along the highways. The Department of
Environmental Conservation took away the drums, but the soil
remains and was capped this last year because it was too
expensive to remove it. She said she would like to see more
funding from either the state or federal government to help
communities in removing drums. Over the years the legislature
has heard so many stories about the many people who are sick
with cancer or other diseases. Her father worked for DOT&PF and
she assumes he sprayed these dioxins not knowing the danger. He
contracted lung disease and was gone within eight months.
Northway, Galena, and White Alice are other sites where people
have contracted cancer. Much more needs to be done to clean up
the state.
1:35:02 PM
VICE CHAIR P. WILSON asked how many areas have drums located in
them in addition to Northway and Galena.
MS. SHOCKLEY replied a lot of stories have been heard from
Northway. People have been told that these areas have been
cleaned and that tests of the streams and area are negative in
regard to contamination. However, the people who live there
have stories. In addition, there is Galena and Fort Yukon.
Research can be done to look at where the state and federal
governments did road or military activities and had White Alice
sites. People in these communities did not realize their areas
were contaminated and children were playing in them.
1:37:15 PM
VICE CHAIR P. WILSON queried about the area cleaned up and
capped by DEC.
MS. SHOCKLEY answered that Utah is the only place where this
type of dioxin is stored. Moving the dirt to Utah was too
expensive and too dangerous to move. She said that the area of
contaminated dirt is approximately 40 by 20 feet in size. She
related that personnel from the company cleaning up the site
told her the contaminated dirt is secure, but she questions
whether this will be so in 100 years. She understood that to
cap the soil, the company dug down about two feet, put down a
sheet, put the [contaminated] dirt back in, added more dirt on
top followed by another sheet, and then more dirt on top of
that. While she has not been back to the site since that work
was done last fall, she said she understands it was going to be
fenced off.
1:40:52 PM
VICE CHAIR P. WILSON inquired whether contaminants could run off
the area if it rains.
MS. SHOCKLEY posited the contaminant could move downhill when it
rains because the site is located on a hill and has been there
50 years or more. When she expressed her concerns to company
personnel she was assured that capping would be safe. However,
she is not happy about having this contaminated area on the
corporation's land.
VICE CHAIR P. WILSON requested Ms. Shockley to contact her
office so she can ask Ms. Shockley further questions.
MS. SHOCKLEY urged that HJR 15 be expanded to include other
agencies besides the federal government.
VICE CHAIR P. WILSON replied that since the resolution is being
sent to the federal government, it should be kept as is.
However, a separate bill could perhaps be done for the state.
1:43:25 PM
MAVER CAREY, Chair, Alaska Native Village CEO Association
(ANVCA); President & CEO, The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC),
stated she is Yupik Eskimo and Athabaskan Indian, and she is the
founder and chair of the Alaska Native Village CEO Association
(ANVCA), a statewide nonprofit that provides services, training,
and advocacy for Alaska Native village corporations. She noted
that The Kuskokwim Corporation is comprised of 10 villages along
the upper Kuskokwim River upriver from Bethel and represents
3,400 Alaska Native shareholders. She thanked Representative
Millett on behalf of both organizations, concurring that the
millions of acres of land conveyed by the federal government to
Alaska Native corporations included contaminated lands. These
lands had several types of hazardous waste and toxic material,
such as arsenic, asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),
unexploded ordinances, mining waste, chemicals, spilled diesel
fuel, petroleum and oil solvents, mercury, and toxic metals. As
ANVCA gathers more data about these contaminated sites, it is
clear that these sites are contaminating drinking water. Drums
of toxics buried in soil are saturating the tundra and infecting
the local food and water sources. Former White Alice sites are
leaking contaminants such as PCBs and trichloroethylenes (TCEs).
The known health effects of these contaminants include cancer,
miscarriages, attacks on the nervous system, depression of the
immune system, and learning disabilities. These contaminated
lands can result in significant health risk to residents,
animals, and environment of the state of Alaska.
1:45:45 PM
MS. CAREY pointed out that contaminated ANCSA lands have in many
instances resulted in significant delays to economic development
projects and business investments in Alaska by Native
corporations. Almost 20 years after ANCSA was signed into law,
the Alaska Native community raised these concerns to the US
Department of Interior, the department that conveyed these lands
to the Alaska Native corporations. In 1995, Congress directed
the Secretary of Interior to prepare a report on these
contaminated lands. Entitled "Hazardous Substance Contamination
of Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Lands in Alaska," the
report was submitted in December 1998 and acknowledged conveying
approximately 650 contaminated sites to Alaska Native
corporations. It identified numerous types of hazardous waste,
such as carcinogens, on the conveyed lands. It recognized the
unjustness of conveying contaminated lands to Alaska Native
corporations and recommended an approach to thoroughly identify
the sites and then clean them up. The report included six
specific recommendations in moving forward, but after nearly 20
years none have been carried out. The report has basically sat
on a shelf collecting dust.
1:47:32 PM
MS. CAREY said the conveyance of significant amounts of
contaminated land to Alaska Native corporations is unjust and a
smack in the face as to the purpose of the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act. Surely Congress did not intend to stick Alaska
Natives with contaminated lands, saturating subsistence foods
and compromising the health of Natives. She related her
firsthand experience, noting that Red Devil is an abandoned
cinnabar and mercury mine at the mouth of Red Devil Creek. This
creek flows into the Kuskokwim River where many Kuskokwim
Corporation shareholders reside. For more than four decades,
Red Devil's piles of mine tailings, underground fuel tanks, and
abandoned processing chemicals have been leaking mercury,
arsenic, and other toxins into the groundwater and surrounding
river systems. Mercury can cause brain damage in infants and
young children. People have been told not to eat certain pike
and other fish due to the mercury they contain. In this
instance, the BLM is responsible for cleaning up Red Devil,
which has been sporadic over the last 20 years. Despite the BLM
spending over $10 million on cleanup, Red Devil is still not
cleaned up. This cost would have bankrupted The Kuskokwim
Corporation, given its revenue of only $1.2 million just 10
years ago. Assistance of the Alaska Congressional Delegation
has been sought to put pressure on BLM to finalize the cleanup.
1:49:36 PM
MS. CAREY said The Kuskokwim Corporation and the Alaska Native
Village CEO Association support by HJR 15. The Alaska
Delegation has been very supportive of this issue, she reported,
and today she is seeking the committee's support. The State of
Alaska has an important role in ensuring that these contaminated
lands are cleaned up. Specifically, her organizations are
asking for five things: 1) pass HJR 15; 2) push the federal
government to acknowledge its financial responsibility to clean
up the contaminated lands transferred to Alaska Native
corporations; 3) urge Alaska's governor to include this as a
lobbying priority of his Washington, DC, office; 4) conduct
high-level meetings with all relevant federal agencies and
identify a lead agency responsible for the timely remediation of
each site; and 5) help ANVCA identify sites posing the greatest
health risk to Alaska residents.
1:51:01 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI inquired whether the Red Devil mine
operator has ever been held responsible or liable for some of
the cleanup.
MS. CAREY responded she does not know who the operators were
because the mine was in operation between 1933 and 1971. She
does know, however, that the federal government owned that land.
Conveyance of that land has not been taken because it has not
been cleaned up and ownership will not be taken until that land
is cleaned up.
1:51:54 PM
BRENAN CAIN, Chair, Land Committee, Alaska Native Village CEO
Association (ANVCA), stated he is testifying in his capacity as
chair of the Alaska Native Village CEO Association's Land
Committee, but is also Vice President and General Counsel for
the Eyak Corporation. He said ANVCA supports HJR 15. The 1998
Department of Interior report is a very significant report, he
noted, that includes several good recommendations on pages 35-
36. These recommendations include establishing a forum for
ANCSA landowners and federal, state, local, and tribal entities
to collaborate on the cleanup of contaminated sites; compiling a
comprehensive inventory of contaminated sites; and recommending
further cleanup programs and actions. In the report the
department states it is going to coordinate the implementation
of those recommendations. Yet, 15-20 years later nothing has
happened and it is known nothing happened because ANVCA decided
to address the lingering issues of contaminated lands.
1:53:12 PM
MR. CAIN shared that during 2012 and 2013, ANVCA members met
with representatives from the Bureau of Land Management,
Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Interior.
Those representatives candidly stated that none of the
recommendations from the 1998 report had been implemented. The
[federal employees] in Alaska that ANVCA has met with and
continues to meet with are solid people. The BLM folks have
informed ANVCA that BLM is undertaking a review of the 650
contaminated sites to see which are still contaminated. The
Alaska Congressional Delegation has been very helpful on this
issue. However, this issue has not been resolved and to get the
attention it deserves in Washington, DC, it needs visibility and
HJR 15 will provide visibility. More significantly, HJR 15
addresses the unjustness of Alaska Native corporations being
subject to legal exposure for contamination caused by the
federal government. Under federal and state law, Alaska Native
corporations are subject to strict liability for contamination
on their lands, even if the federal government caused the
contamination. Suing the federal government to clean up a site
is very difficult because of sovereign immunity. The cost to
clean up one of these sites can very easily exceed a million
dollars, an amount that can bankrupt most Alaska Native village
corporations. A solution to this problem is proposed by HJR 15.
The federal government conveyed contaminated lands to Alaska
Native corporations through ANCSA; the federal government is
financially responsible for the remediation of that land. He
reiterated that ANVCA supports HJR 15 and believes this
resolution will move this issue forward.
VICE CHAIR P. WILSON offered her appreciation for each person's
testimony.
1:56:03 PM
JULIANNA SHANE, Tanadgusix (TDX) Corporation, testified that
Tanadgusix (TDX) Corporation of St. George Island was a good
part of the agreement to have its lands cleaned up. The federal
government did not phase out St. Paul until 1984. During that
time, TDX negotiated with NOAA to have cleanup done on the
Pribilof Islands prior to NOAA's leaving; thus, funds came from
the federal government to clean up the islands. So far, the
total cost for cleaning up both islands is $76 million.
Contaminants that were cleaned up came from the federal
government as well as the military and included PCBs, asbestos,
lead, buildings, and buried equipment. She reported that St.
Paul holds the record in Alaska for the highest rate of cancer
per capita. She personally has lost family members to brain,
stomach, and kidney cancer. In 2013 she lost her husband to
lung cancer. Contamination on the islands was extensive with
some contamination found 40 feet down to bedrock and some that
included a mile of contaminated soil. The corporation trained
its own people to do the hazardous waste cleanup, having 99
percent local hire. The corporation grew companies that started
on St. Paul and now work nationwide cleaning up contamination.
Over this last year the corporation is finally getting lands
conveyed back to it and is now potentially able to offer land
for lease in the Pribilof Islands for commercial use. Major
cleanup was done over a period of 12 years and was completed in
about 2000. The reports were completed in about 2003. It is an
extensive program, and TDX Corporation understands what the
other tribes and villages are looking for and speaks on their
behalf that this has to be done for the benefit of their people.
The TDX Corporation did its cleanup on behalf of its tribe which
is the Aleut people of St. Paul and St. George. This is an
urgent cause -- work needs to start today, not tomorrow.
2:00:40 PM
VICE CHAIR P. WILSON thanked the witnesses and closed public
testimony after ascertaining no one else wished to testify.
2:01:01 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON moved to adopt Conceptual Amendment 1 as
follows:
Page 2, line 23:
Delete "Ken Salazar"
Insert "Sally Jewell"
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER objected for discussion purposes. He said
he supports the conceptual amendment but suggests expanding it
to grant Legislative Legal and Research Services the latitude to
review all the names in the resolution because there are other
pending appointments.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON concurred and withdrew Conceptual
Amendment 1.
2:02:17 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON moved to adopt Conceptual Amendment 2 as
follows:
Page 2, line 23, "Ken Salazar" be replaced with "Sally
Jewell" and that Legislative Legal and Research
Services make other conforming amendments in light of
potential changes to the list [of recipients of HJR
15].
There being no objection, Conceptual Amendment 2 was adopted.
2:02:51 PM
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER moved to report HJR 15, as amended, out of
committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying
zero fiscal note.
REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI objected for discussion purposes. He
pointed out Ms. Shockley's statement that DOT&PF is responsible
for spilling dioxins. It is easy to bash the federal government
and, while this is obviously one of them, members should also
focus on the state having responsibilities as well. This could
be conferred down the line; for example, a bad operator of a
mine that ceases to operate and leaves a mess that needs to be
cleaned up. That should not become a Superfund site just for
taxpayers to eventually pay. He withdrew his objection.
There being no further objection, HJR 15(RES) was reported from
the House Resources Standing Committee.