Legislature(2015 - 2016)BUTROVICH 205
02/06/2015 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SJR10 | |
| Department of Natural Resources (dnr) Overview | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| = | SJR 10 | ||
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE RESOURCES STANDING COMMITTEE
February 6, 2015
3:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Cathy Giessel, Chair
Senator Mia Costello, Vice Chair
Senator John Coghill
Senator Peter Micciche
Senator Bert Stedman
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Bill Stoltze
Senator Bill Wielechowski
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 10
Opposing the revised Comprehensive Conservation Plan and
Environmental Impact Statement for the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge; opposing attempts by President Obama to alter management
of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge;
encouraging the United States Congress to reject a proposal
based on the revised Comprehensive Conservation Plan or
accompanying Environmental Impact Statement; encouraging the
United States Congress to reject a proposal that does not open
the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil
and gas development; and finding that decision-making authority
over the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is
reserved exclusively to the United States Congress.
- MOVED CSSJR 10(RES) OUT OF COMMITTEE
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (DNR) OVERVIEW
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SJR 10
SHORT TITLE: OPPOSE ANWR WILDERNESS DESIGNATION
SPONSOR(s): RESOURCES
02/02/15 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
02/02/15 (S) RES
02/02/15 (S) RES AT 3:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
02/02/15 (S) DECLARE CENTRAL PARK A WILDERNESS AREA
WITNESS REGISTER
MARK MYERS, Commissioner-designee
Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided the Department of Natural Resources
(DNR) overview.
FRANCI HAVEMEISTER, Director
Division of Agriculture
Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Palmer, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on Division of Agriculture
programs.
CHRIS MAISCH, Director
Division of Forestry
Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Highlighted the Division of Forestry's
duties.
BEN ELLIS, Director
Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation
Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on the Division of Parks and
Outdoor Recreation's activities and the user fee structure.
BRENT GOODRUM, Director
Division of Mining Land and Water
Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
POSITION STATEMENT: Explained the Stains and Canning Rivers
boundary dispute with the Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:30:16 PM
CHAIR CATHY GIESSEL called the Senate Resources Standing
Committee meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Costello, Coghill, Stedman, and Chair
Giessel.
SJR 10-OPPOSE ANWR WILDERNESS DESIGNATION
3:31:25 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL announced the consideration of SJR 10, version 29-
LS0446\H. She explained that this resolution calls out the ANWR
decision by the President and encourages Congress to reject it;
it opposes the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS)
revised comprehensive conservation plan (CCP) and Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) and any recommendation by the President
based on that plan.
3:32:35 PM
SENATOR MICCICHE joined the committee.
SENATOR COGHILL commented that this is one of the many promises
given to the state by Congress that has definitely been misused
and he was grateful for the resolution.
SENATOR COSTELLO said she appreciated the chair's leadership in
preparing this resolution. She offered a friendly amendment to
add the members of Congress as one of the entities receiving
copies of the resolution. There were no objections and the
amendment was adopted.
SENATOR MICCICHE said he supported all the comments of committee
members and that the resolution unifies the body behind this
sentiment.
SENATOR STEDMAN said he agreed that it's a good idea to take a
vote of the body. He said apparently the state had some input
over the last several years as this was under way at the federal
level and was wondering if they should have some discussion
about it with the administration, so the legislature is more up
to speed about some of the behind the scenes inter-workings. The
federal government should give them some notice prior to the
final decision on something of this magnitude.
3:37:31 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL said she knew this CCP was out for public comment
a while back because she participated in it as did resource
development organizations in the state, but the events of last
Sunday caught them off-guard. She opened public comment and
finding none closed it.
SENATOR COSTELLO moved to report SJR 10, as amended, from
committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal
note(s). There were no objections and, therefore, CSSJR 10(RES)
moved from the Senate Resources Standing Committee.
3:37:56 PM
At ease
^Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Overview
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Overview
3:39:40 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL invited Mark MYERS, Commissioner-designee, Alaska
Department of Natural Resources (DNR), to provide an overview of
the department.
MARK MYERS, Commissioner-designee, Department of Natural
Resources (DNR), Juneau, AK, said he had been commissioner for
about three weeks, but he has 15 years of experience in various
capacities within DNR from being a working geologist up to being
director of the Division of Oil and Gas. Of any of the agencies,
the link between the DNR and the Resources Committee is really
important because obviously state lands is where the resources
that are being developed are. It drives the state's economy.
He said DNR does a lot of the mapping for the state in
collaboration with the federal government, the University and
other organizations. The data is critical to understanding our
mineral, oil and gas resources, natural hazards, disasters,
agriculture, road construction, and timber. Alaska is very
poorly mapped and efforts to advance that data and produce it in
a way that is easily available to the public is needed. Having a
good legal framework makes permitting possible, but without good
data and transparency, permitting is very difficult. In many
ways, DNR is not only the steward of the state's natural
resources, but it is a big part of the scientific capacity of
the State of Alaska.
3:42:01 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL said she appreciated that the Arctic Policy
Commission report recommends additional mapping, but has heard
that the program is being reduced significantly because of
budget cuts.
COMMISSIONER MYERS agreed and said he wanted to have enough time
to talk about his strategy for those cuts.
3:42:52 PM
He said the department has about 1,060 employees; a lot of them
are part-time. There are two major divisions:
Deputy Commissioner Marty Rutherford has the Division of
Geologic and Geophysical Surveys, Division of Oil and Gas, the
Mental Health Trust Land Office, AKLNG, and the State Pipeline
Coordinator's Office). Everything else is the Division of
Agriculture, the Division of Mining, Land and Water, the
Division of Forestry, the Division of Parks and Recreation, the
Division of Support Services, and the Office of Management and
Permitting under Deputy Commissioner Fogels.
As commissioner, one of his priorities is to streamline
administrative overhead and costs. Putting the Pipeline
Coordinators Office into the Division of Oil and Gas would
eliminate several general fund (GF) positions and keep the
remaining positions that are funded by program receipts. He
looks first for efficiencies and then program priorities.
Unfortunately, doing that led to significant cuts to some truly
outstanding people. So, they didn't target individuals or the
performance of the organizations, but rather the pieces that
would least impact the prioritized core missions and, "It wasn't
fun."
SENATOR COSTELLO asked if he had talked to the governor about
the philosophical approach to whether or not revenue generating
departments such as DNR should be looked at the same as
departments that are actually costing the state money.
COMMISSIONER MYERS answered that he had looked at that a lot and
had just presented a detailed budget to House Finance. DNR was
not cut as much as other non-revenue generating agencies with
the exception of Education and the University. He thought the
department was treated fairly. He will lose 34 people and 48
positions in this budget. He tried to protect the revenue
generation and public safety aspects of the department, but gave
up a significant amount of mapping, which could be regenerated
in better budget times. He looked at the long term and if the
department was losing core capacities that can't be recovered.
3:47:48 PM
The DNR's core missions are to:
1. Foster responsible commercial development and use of state
land and natural resources, consistent with the public interest,
for long-term wealth and employment. He added that the lands the
state selected (under Governor Hickel) have been extremely
strategic. They were picked with a real priority for economic
development overall and because of that, state lands have a lot
of mineral potential; but places like ANWR not so much.
COMMISSIONER MYERS gave credit to Tom Marshall who looked at
land the industry was not actively exploring and chose it for
geologic reasons. That is why Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oil fields
are on state lands.
He reiterated that the state has a long history of strong
stewardship using good science in DNR. To do that the
organization has to be technically superior in its scientists
and engineers, mapping and sensing, and economists for comparing
values. DNR is a very sophisticated organization and its people
have made some very good decisions that have driven the state's
economy.
DNR does effective permitting with transparency and expediency,
a good public process so the permits won't be disputed.
2. Mitigate threat to the public from natural hazards by
providing comprehensive fire protection services on state,
private and municipal lands, and through identifying significant
geologic hazards. He said most people don't think of DNR as a
public safety organization, but it fights the state's forest
fires and a significant part of their budget supports that.
Secondly, Alaska is almost uniquely geologically active with
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis associated with the
earthquakes, floods, coastal erosion, fire and landslides.
Creating warning systems for those hazards and monitoring for
them are really important. The Geological Survey division works
with the federal government and the University on volcano and
earthquake monitoring. The same expertise is used for
identifying geologic faults for pipelines and to help community
resilience in understanding the rates of coastal erosion and
flooding techniques. They don't do the mitigation, but they
assess the risks and provide technical advice.
3. Provide access to state lands for public and private use,
settlement, and recreation, which goes from the big overall
public often to the public individual that wants a recreational
site or a homestead to a municipality that needs a land
entitlement to build a school. DNR is very active in that
structure; it is heavily subsidized but it is very important. It
also provides a significant amount of habitat for subsistence
and wildlife.
Managing the water aspects of the state is another important
function. Water and water adjudication is the number one area of
conflict in the world, and Alaska is quite successful in
managing that, in part because supply exceeds demand, but also
because our ecosystems are largely intact unlike other Lower 48
states'.
CHAIR GIESSEL said the Senate wanted to address wetland
mitigation costs, which in Anchorage costs $125,000 an acre. The
gas pipeline is estimated to cost $2.5 billion to $3 billion in
wetland mitigation fees. She was directed to an EPA document
agreeing that Alaska is an unusual circumstance and the
mitigation shouldn't be as strictly enforced.
3:54:05 PM
COMMISSIONER MYERS said compensatory mitigation is not the best
technique for Alaska. It works better in the Lower 48 where a
fee is paid into a non-profit that can purchase land that is not
necessarily wetlands.
For Alaska it would be important to discuss how to really
protect the ecosystem with the Corps of Engineers and
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Maybe you actually create
more wetland someplace else, but it's something that can be done
by the private party rather than actually paying a dollar amount
by formula that has a potentially arbitrary valuation. It's a
totally dynamic situation; other approaches could be
scientifically valid. DNR will provide the science and work with
the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) to accomplish the
same goal.
4. Ensure sufficient data acquisition and assessment of land and
resources to foster responsible resource and community
development and public safety. He explained that providing the
public data is core to the department's ability to manage the
land; it's important to communities, individuals and
corporations that are trying to develop on the land. A certain
amount of that data is inherently public, and having the public
data set that everyone agrees is authoritative provides a basis
for a discussion of values in a way that will allow more
effective project permitting and to attract economic
development. In his experience on the federal side, when they
successfully provided data, like the land set data, for free
they saw a 100 times increase in use of it.
He said his directors would talk about their programs and how
their web-enabled data sets have streamlined the permitting
processes (when the data is entered one time and everyone can
access it). He said, "It's making huge advancements in
transparency, efficiency, but also in processes that can get
parties that are not working together to work together, at least
to agree to a fundamental frame of reference to work."
COMMISSIONER MYERS said the data is extremely important and
Alaska is the least mapped of any state both on shore and
offshore. The DNR leads the effort for the state in coordinating
mapping data.
3:57:11 PM
SENATOR COSTELLO asked since it's so important to have the state
mapped, could the federal government help with the cost.
COMMISSIONER MYERS answered that right now the goal is for the
state to pay about one-third and the federal government to pay
two-thirds in the mapping efforts. In reality, it's closer to
50/50. Several administrations ago, the state set up the Alaska
Geo-spacial Council that coordinates with the federal agencies.
As director of the United State Geological Survey (USGS), he was
the lead mapper for the country on the federal side and worked
with the states in partnership. USGS wants to see the state have
a solid plan that makes sense and aligns the goals of the
organizations and systematically doing the mapping that fits
national standards so it could be entered into the national
mapping system. The commissioner said he had conversations with
the current lead USGS mapper and with the University, which does
a significant amount of mapping (satellite data) and serves up
much of it through the Division of Mining, Land and Water.
Actually there is a fairly sophisticated sharing of data,
quality controlling of data and cost sharing, but it can be
enhanced. The Native Corporations are developing significant
mapping capacities on the commercial side; the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) do a lot of
mapping and it is one of his intentions as commissioner to build
a stronger partnership with them.
SENATOR MICCICHE asked if they could also assume that the
geological surveys could be insufficient as well. Could there be
far more minerals, oil and gas deposits than people are aware
of?
COMMISSIONER MYERS answered he believed so. He said remote
sensing and mapping only gives you remote hints of where
minerals and oil and gas could be located, but techniques are
changing rapidly. So, the State Survey Division is concentrating
on gravity and magnetics, two techniques to understand mineral
assemblages in a crude sense: what kind of rocks are buried
under the ground and the depth of sedimentary rock basins. It
won't bull's-eye a mineral deposit, but it will indicate where
to look more. New remote sensing techniques are going on, but
Alaska is very slow to adapt.
He said when he was lead mapper for the USGS they mapped
Afghanistan and discovered copper, oil and gas, coal deposits
and water supplies with very sophisticated remote sensing, and
Alaska has nothing like that. Partnering with the University to
get some of the new technology up here is a big part of doing
that. The state has put a lot of energy into surface elevation
along with the federal government; that shows what are swamp
land, flood plains, coastal erosion and aviation safety issues.
So finishing that is important.
4:01:33 PM
The state needs to have accurate data on its rivers; the
hydrology has become really important for lots of reasons.
Vegetation and infrastructure mapping all go on a map, but they
are acquired and managed differently. So, he is bringing it all
together to form a coherent picture. Less than 8 percent of our
coastline has decent bathymetry and he is talking with the
federal government to get more funding for that.
4:03:09 PM
COMMISSIONER MYERS said he likes to think about perspectives in
space and time and showed a map of Alaska overlaid on a map of
the United States that indicated how diverse the landscape that
DNR has to manage is: different environments, terrain and
ecosystems, different peoples and cultures. The distances are
far and there is little infrastructure. Assessing that land
alone is difficult, but managing it is even more challenging.
People often don't think of the scale, he said, but this state
is like a national system; DNR is Alaska's Department of
Interior minus Fish and Game, but plus Forestry. The Department
of Interior manages it with 70,000 people; the state manages it
with about 1,100. He said 2 percent of the GF budget goes to
DNR.
4:05:41 PM
Slide 6 showed the amount of money DNR generates off of state
lands, which works out to about $36 for every GF dollar on
average from 2006 to 2014. He showed a graph of oil and gas
royalties and taxes, the point being that even when prices
decline, royalties are a lot more stable than the tax structure.
Of course, without production, the state doesn't get the taxes,
so DNR's job of managing the resource for the state is really
important. Almost all of the production in Alaska is off state
lands, but when prices fluctuate, under our net profit share
system, there is a lot of volatility. The royalty part of the
investment is much more stable.
4:07:07 PM
He said the AKLNG project is a high priority and they are now in
the middle of making some major decisions and major negotiations
in the pre-front end engineering and design (pre-FEED) phase. To
get this project to FEED the state has to develop a decision
about royalty in kind (RIK) or royalty in value (RIV), get a gas
balancing agreement with the producers, work forward the state's
equity share of the pipeline, work forward a marketing plan, and
really work with the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation
(AGDC) in terms of the pipeline specifications: expansion
capacity and offtake and intake points.
4:08:44 PM
The state in the SB 138 framework is taking significantly more
risk than normal and its taxes are in the bucket of RIK, so it
has to be able to manage risk/reward really effectively. Owning
more of the pipeline mitigates risk on commodity price but costs
more dollars upfront. Having the producers market it is more
secure but will probably get a lower rate of return than if the
state were marketing it itself.
Ultimately, the project should go on for 50 years or more, but
the first 20 will be Prudhoe Bay and Pt. Thomson, but after
that, the gas will come from other resources. DNR Deputy
Commissioner Marty Rutherford has a major leadership role in
making it happen. To do that, they have exempt-paid employees
and a lot of consultants. DNR also acts as the pass-through for
money for the Department of Law (DOL) and the Department of
Revenue (DOR) on the commercial negotiation parts. A significant
amount of DNR's new money has gone into this. So, if you look at
their overall budget, it looks like it has gone down just a
little bit, but in reality, if this project was taken out, their
budget has decreased significantly.
4:10:19 PM
The Division of Agriculture, he said oversees a fairly small
business in Alaska, but it's very important locally and in terms
of food security. Opportunities to increase agriculture are
really there; the peony business is an example. The division
provides loans for farmers and farm start-ups; it does the
quarantine for invasive species, manages the Alaska Grown
program, and puts produce in schools; and the material plant
center is really important with a seed bank for high quality
seeds.
SENATOR COSTELLO said she saw a real opportunity for the state
to save money in terms of obesity prevention and rising health
care costs by keeping kids fit and healthy and asked if more
could be done in the Farm to School Program.
COMMISSIONER MYERS agreed and said one of the challenges is the
cost goes into one side and the benefit is long term and coming
out the other end as healthy kids. Capturing those values is
very important, but difficult to capture in terms of the budget.
He said the Farm to School Program is very important; so is the
Alaskan Grown Program.
4:13:56 PM
FRANCI HAVEMEISTER, Director, Division of Agriculture,
Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Palmer, Alaska, agreed
that the Farm to School Program had played a role in educating
both the school food service directors and the schools as a
whole in eating Alaska grown products, but a lot more can be
done. One of the challenges in getting Alaska grown products
into the schools is getting it into the schools in a manner in
which it can be served. They want a product that is ready serve
and the producers have limited ability to process those foods.
4:15:06 PM
COMMISSIONER MYERS said as the environment changes, people
introduce invasive species, often through aquariums or
decorative plants, but also on the bottoms of ships. Quarantine
of those invasive species and getting ahead of them is a really
important service of this division.
4:15:44 PM
He said the Division of Forestry's budget is largely for fire
protection. The more proactive they are - through pre-deployment
and getting longer contracts (costs less) - at firefighting the
less it costs ultimately and employing rural Alaskans. These
teams are some of the best in the world and often deploy outside
when they are not used in Alaska.
He explained that environmental changes in Alaska have led to
drier conditions that have led to more fire, invasive species
and tree death. Many lightning strikes are causing more fires in
the Interior.
CHAIR GIESSEL said there is a theory that appropriate harvest
would help prevent fires.
COMMISSIONER MYERS responded that appropriate forest management
is the other part. To do that you have to have forest sales,
proactive treatment of forests (back burns to protect spaces),
and wise land management (placement of facilities). He said
State Forester Chris Maisch has done a wonderful job of looking
at those issues as well as being active with recognizing the
economic value of the forests for timber and bio-fuels and
pellets.
He said when a forest burns it changes; they are seeing
different species, especially in the arboreal forests. Forest
sales occur largely on state lands in Alaska.
4:18:18 PM
There are positive economic impacts of timber sales to the state
like providing jobs, personal use, and construction of temporary
roads that have an easier time of being permitted, which then
get used for recreational and other access purposes. He said
Alaska's Forestry management is very sophisticated and is very
well respected.
SENATOR MICCICHE asked if the department is looking at the
potential for federal trade programs that might bring the timber
industry back to life in the future.
4:19:41 PM
CHRIS MAISCH, Director, Division of Forestry, Department of
Natural Resources (DNR), Fairbanks, Alaska, responded that there
is both a domestic and offshore market for Alaska's forest
products and he is actively trying to meet domestic needs
especially in the energy area as well as Pacific Rim needs.
SENATOR MICCICHE said he specifically wanted to know about
trading state land for federal land to get to some of the
Southeast valuable forests that were traditionally logged.
MR. MAISCH answered that his division was not actively seeking
trades, but the Mental Health Trust Division was working on a
proposal like that.
SENATOR MICCICHE said the governor has proposed sort of an
Alaska-hands-finishing-Alaska-export-products philosophy, which
he supports.
CHAIR GIESSEL remarked that SB 32 coming up next will deal with
timber sales.
4:22:36 PM
COMMISSIONER MYERS moved on to the Division of Geological and
Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) and said it collects, analyzes and
interprets geological information that is really important to
understand oil and gas and mineral potentials on state land, but
also the geologic background for that. It provides information
to Alaska communities on safety, ground water, slope stability,
earthquakes, permafrost, and flooding. The publications are
high-quality that everyone can use and are very critical for
promoting and bringing in new parties that don't have a lot of
expertise in Alaska. He said the cores and geologic information
that companies who are leaving Alaska give to the state are at a
new core facility.
CHAIR GIESSEL said she understood that USGS was going to give
Alaska some of their collection of cores and that she heard
about one company that looked at some old cores, spotted gold
and hurried out of the facility.
4:25:14 PM
COMMISSIONER MYERS said the Division of Mining, Land and Water,
is their workhorse division that really manages the state's
surface estate. It works on state disposals, subdivision
development and does regulatory oversight and dam safety, coal
exploration, and mine reclamation - all critical functions with
the state's primacy.
He highlighted a 60 percent decrease in the backlog of permits,
and progress on a digital permitting process where data is
entered once and everyone can see it and use it.
4:26:15 PM
SENATOR STEDMAN put in a plug for dealing with tidelands,
submerged lands and uplands, but particularly the 50 ft.
easement blanket policy between tidelands and uplands throughout
the state. He wanted to work on giving the department more
flexibility, because all coast lines aren't created equal,
particularly those in communities with platting authority.
4:27:17 PM
COMMISSIONER MYERS continued that there is a lot more permitting
with smaller oil and gas companies, smaller mining companies and
individuals, but in addition to handling this growth they have
reduced the backlog as well.
He said the Division of Oil and Gas (DOG) is the cash cow for
the state; it manages the state lands, leasing programs,
unitization, sale of royalty oil and gas, and bonding for
dismantlement, removal and restoration (DRR). It's having to
work through a lot of issues with respect to smaller companies
coming in and their ability to be able to bond versus parent
company guarantees. It also protects the correlative rights of
all parties in oil and gas units, a really important function.
He explained that a typical oil and gas accumulation has
multiple leases and different ownership in those leases and that
someone has to make sure they get their fair share of oil out of
the field and that it's developed in a way that maximizes
recovery of oil and gas. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission (AOGCC) does some of those functions, too, but
economic and physical waste and correlative rights are an
important part of DOG's management.
SENATOR COSTELLO asked if he had signed confidentiality
agreements in his role as director of the DOG.
COMMISSIONER MYERS said he worked under an agreement for state
confidentiality, which is under state statute and regulation,
and didn't have to sign any documents. He didn't have to sign an
agreement even when he worked on two other gasline proposals.
When he became commissioner, he signed the state confidentiality
agreement and he would probably go to jail if he violated that.
One of the division's highlights was a huge sale in 2014, the
third biggest in northern Alaska. The Cook Inlet renaissance is
also very exciting.
4:30:27 PM
He said the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation manages the
largest state park system in America, 123 parks. It is
challenging, because of the diversity and distances between the
parks and their often remote nature. About 80 percent of the
parks' visitations are by Alaskans. To lower operating costs,
there are only about 103 employees and 850 volunteers. They have
also done a very credible effort in trying to become less
expensive on GF and gets 34 percent of its funding through
program receipts. The user fees were raised up to 44 percent
with a goal of getting to 50 percent.
CHAIR GIESSEL asked how Alaska's user fees compare to Lower 48
user fees.
4:32:01 PM
BEN ELLIS, Director, Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation,
Department of Natural Resources (DNR), said Alaska is under the
average in some areas, very close in some and a larger
discrepancy in others. The fee increase will bring Alaskan fees
more in line with Lower 48 fees.
SENATOR STEDMAN cautioned that raising fees could impact
Alaskans' access to hunting and fishing, some for recreation and
some for subsistence. It's a way of life up here.
MR. ELLIS said they were very cognizant of that. For example,
the day-use fee for areas with restrooms were kept at $5 where
it has been for the last 10 or 15 years. They wanted to make
sure that folks could still recreate at an affordable price. The
increased fees were for annual parking passes, boat launch fees
and public use cabins that get used a lot.
SENATOR MICCICHE added that members had talked about and how
some of the public use cabins need a $40,000 boat to get there
and have a high demand for a different demographic than someone
on the road system looking for a camp site. Folks need to pay
for the services they use.
MR. ELLIS said he was right. You can't build enough public use
cabins - the demand far exceeds their ability to finance their
construction. And building more cabins on the road system has
actually increased the user group to include the elderly,
disabled, and younger families. For example a cabin in Kodiak is
one of the highest priced cabins at $80 a night, but it is only
used during the hunting season.
SENATOR STEDMAN said Southeast doesn't have state cabins. If you
went out there and put a cabin in the Forest Service would burn
it down, unless you are lucky enough to find a parcel of state
land, which is pretty rare. Southeast has launching issues
versus renting of cabins. His concern is the entry and access
points that would restrict the lower income folks around the
state.
SENATOR COGHILL remarked that the boat launches in the river
districts are a little higher maintenance, because they get
washed out. He also expressed his great appreciation for the DNR
volunteers.
4:40:47 PM
COMMISSIONER MYERS said the Office of Management and Permitting
was created out of what was the Department of Governmental
Coordination (DGC) office recognizing that complex projects need
complex coordination. They work extensively with state, federal,
and local governments at very little cost to the state since
user fees pay for most of it. The coordination they provide
increases confidence in people working on permitting in Alaska.
New oil projects and large mine projects sign up with them; Pt.
Thomson is an example of coordination of environmental
permitting that went pretty well.
4:42:34 PM
The State Pipeline Coordinators Office has the important
functions of right-of-way leasing and inspection of the 19
regulated pipelines between the North Slope and Kenai, TAPS
being the "big gorilla." This organization is being moved into
the oil and gas structure to save administrative costs. Most of
the office's funding comes from receipts from applicants.
COMMISSIONER MYERS said the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office
(PSIO) is an internal organization created eight or nine years
ago for looking at gathering lines within fields and that is
being rolled into that structure as well, again streamlining the
department but keeping the functions active.
The Division of Support Services is very effective with a
centralized administrative structure. In addition to manning
administration, they manage the information resource management
(IRM), the land repository data set computers. They also have
the State Recorders Office that does a good job of electronic
recording. They are implementing another cost saving measure of
consolidating recording offices over time.
SENATOR COGHILL said data recorded previously had a lot of
sensitive information, social security numbers for example, and
asked how that is being dealt with.
4:44:51 PM
The commissioner responded that DNR has to manage a lot of
confidential data and has developed firewalls between systems
and often servers are not connected. Archaeological data is
another data set that has to be maintained confidentially.
Electronic recording in all 34 districts of Alaska allows
customers to file their businesses with the State Recorder's
Office. When someone draws a map it looks pretty simple, but the
data on that map is probably coming from half a dozen different
servers in different places. This coordination role creates
efficiencies.
He said the Mental Health Trust Land Office is in DNR, but it
actually reports to the Mental Health Trust Board; it has a $4
million operating budget. Its goal is to use the land to
generate money for mental health programs. They have some very
valuable properties between Fort Knox, Chuitna, Chickaloon and
Livengood and generated $11.2 million in FY14, which is quite
remarkable considering where that office started from.
SENATOR STEDMAN said the Mental Health Office is pretty active
in Southeast. They have been very responsive and good to work
with in their land exchanges and forward thinking about the next
50 years.
SENATOR COGHILL said one of the things he struggles with is
access from state land across federal land into other state
land. Some of the boundaries are disputed and some of the access
points are disputed significantly, and the work the department
does is important in laying some of the groundwork to resolve
those issues.
4:50:15 PM
COMMISSIONER MYERS said they are keeping the ANILCA and RS2477
capacity, but it's much smaller. The reason is that meeting
economic generation is a number one priority; the number two
priority is public safety and number three was services. The
land access piece is a long term fight over a lot of different
issues and it has been funded at a high level and has
outstanding staff with great expertise and dedication. These
guys are not going to stop working these issues.
4:51:50 PM
BRENT GOODRUM, Director, Division of Mining Land and Water,
Department of Natural Resources (DNR), said that he had
participated in field research activity this summer between the
Stains and Canning Rivers confirming work done by the state, the
Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) in 2003. Some confusion has arisen around a
Supreme Court decision, "84 Original," that said the coastal
boundary is defined in 1957 by Public Land Order 2214, which
specifically names Brownwell Point and the Canning River. But
the way USFWS mapped it subsequently was different. They
extended it out to the Stains River, which is much further west.
After the 2003 field effort, the state submitted the Simpson
report sharing it with both federal agencies. Neither agency
filed a counter claim or a report, even though they were asked
to through several means or correspondence.
Based on this summer's research, he sent a letter to the BLM
asking for conveyance of approximately 20,000 acres of uplands
between the Stains and the Canning Rivers. In that same
timeframe, the Division of Oil and Gas issued offshore leases up
to the boundary that the state asserts (running from Brownwell
Point to the Canning River). A dialogue with both federal
agencies is being pursued to resolve that issue.
SENATOR COGHILL said he was grateful for their work and asked if
the legislature could do anything to back-up their actions.
SENATOR MICCICHE remarked that firefighting on the Funny River
was amazing; his town could have been engulfed. He said the
largest gathering that has occurred on the Kenai, 1,500 people,
came to say thanks to the DNR. He appreciated DNR's dedication
and being the gatekeepers and urged them to keep that spirit
alive, because that is why most people live here.
COMMISSIONER MYERS thanked him for those comments and said he
believes that DNR has a strong stewardship ethic within it and
that they want what is best for Alaska.
CHAIR GIESSEL thanked the presenters for the overview.
4:58:59 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL adjourned the Senate Resources Committee meeting
at 4:58 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| SRES-DNR Overview 02-06-2015.pdf |
SRES 2/6/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| SRES-SJR10A-Sponsor Statement-02-04-2015.pdf |
SRES 2/6/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| SRES-SJR010A.PDF |
SRES 2/6/2015 3:30:00 PM |
SJR 10 |
| SRES-SJR10-Fiscal Note-2-4-2015.pdf |
SRES 2/6/2015 3:30:00 PM |
SJR 10 |