SB 197-NATURALLY OCCURRING ASBESTOS  1:38:01 PM CHAIR EGAN announced SB 197 to be up for consideration. 1:38:12 PM DAVID SCOTT, staff to Senator Donald Olson, sponsor of SB 197, said this bill provides a one-year extension to the deadline for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOTPF) to adopt or prescribe a method of bulk testing for gravel or other aggregate material containing naturally occurring asbestos under AS 44.42.420(a). He explained that the underlying bill (House Bill 258), which passed in the 27th legislature, required DOTPF to put into place a system and requirements for this testing, but DOTPF has been unable to quickly establish those regulations. Section 1 of SB 197 is the extension for interim project authorization and Section 2 extends the immunity clause in the underlying legislation. 1:40:24 PM ROGER HEALY, Chief Engineer, Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOTPF), Juneau, Alaska, introduced himself. SENATOR FAIRCLOUGH asked why the regulations are not written. MR. HEALY answered that the program is unique within the nation and state, and the department ran into hiring difficulties originally, but someone has been hired and the draft regulations were issued last week. The department is are on schedule to hold the public hearings in the week of April 14 in Juneau, Fairbanks, and Ambler. SENATOR FAIRCLOUGH stated that Representative Joule, who passed the original legislation, was trying to make aggregate available in his community, but it, unfortunately, contains asbestos. She asked if DOTPF had done everything it could to protect the health of the individuals as well as the state and the region where the aggregate is being used. MR. HEALY explained that the original bill provided a period for implementation of interim regulations, which served the purpose of identifying designated areas within the state where this immunity would apply. Ambler is the one area that was designated. Under those interim procedures, the department received and approved a number of applications for projects from the Housing Authority and a few smaller projects including smaller DOTPF projects, namely the airport reconstruction. The interim provision allowed those applications and that project to go forward. 1:43:48 PM Regarding the overall health of the community as a result of these projects, the interim procedures and application approvals identified the provisions within the bill requiring the final product to have some type of coverage over the naturally occurring asbestos material that is identified. 1:44:37 PM POKE HAFFNER, Assistant Attorney General representing DOTPF, Civil Division, Transportation Section, Department of Law (DOL), Anchorage, Alaska, testified that under AS 01.10.100(a), the authorizations DOTPF provided under its interim authority are effective even though the interim authority expired at the end of December. The point of having the extension of the interim authority is in the event that there are additional requests for approval of either naturally occurring asbestos areas or a site- specific plan that comes in before the regulations can become final. SENATOR FRENCH commented that he wasn't a fan of this bill, but wouldn't stop it from going forward. SENATOR FAIRCLOUGH moved to report SB 194, labeled 28-LS1513\A, from committee with attached fiscal note(s) and individual recommendations. There were no objections and SB 197 passed from the Senate Transportation Standing Committee.