00                       SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 12                                                                    
01 Supporting the introduction and enactment of federal legislation acknowledging that the                                 
02 federal government is financially responsible under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement                                 
03 Act for the remediation of contaminated land subject to conveyance under the Act.                                       
04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
05       WHEREAS Alaska Native land claims were settled differently in the state than in the                             
06 rest of the nation when, in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, instead of adopting a                              
07 reservation system, the federal government established Alaska Native village and regional                               
08 corporations and granted the corporations ownership and other rights to surface and                                     
09 subsurface land; and                                                                                                    
10       WHEREAS Alaska Native corporations were created under the Alaska Native Claims                                  
11 Settlement Act to manage land and resources for the benefit of Native shareholders in                                   
12 settlement of certain aboriginal land claims; and                                                                       
13       WHEREAS, under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the federal government                                  
14 conveyed to many Alaska Native corporations land that was contaminated by the federal                                   
15 government or by activities allowed or overseen by the federal government before the                                    
01 conveyance of the land under the Act; and                                                                               
02       WHEREAS, in 1995, the United States Congress acknowledged that contaminated                                     
03 land was being conveyed to Alaska Native corporations under the Alaska Native Claims                                    
04 Settlement Act and, in sec. 103, P.L. 104-42 (43 U.S.C. 1629f), required the United States                              
05 Secretary of the Interior to provide a detailed report on contaminated land before conveying                            
06 the land to Alaska Native corporations and organizations; and                                                           
07       WHEREAS, in December 1998, the United States Department of the Interior                                         
08 submitted a report to the United States Congress that located approximately 650 contaminated                            
09 sites on land conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act; and                                               
10       WHEREAS Alaska Native corporations, as landowners, are subject to liability under                               
11 federal and state law for the contaminated condition of their land; and                                                 
12       WHEREAS several Alaska Native corporations have incurred considerable expense                                   
13 cleaning up contaminated sites, negotiating land exchanges, and battling with the federal and                           
14 state governments to clean up sites on a case-by-case basis; and                                                        
15       WHEREAS, in recognition of this problem, United States Representative Don                                       
16 Young, on the floor of the United States House of Representatives on January 4, 1995, stated,                           
17 "it was clearly not the intention of ANCSA to extinguish Native claims by conveying                                     
18 contaminated property to recipients";                                                                                   
19       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports the introduction and                                  
20 enactment of federal legislation acknowledging that the federal government is financially                               
21 responsible under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act for the remediation of                                        
22 contaminated land subject to conveyance under the Act.                                                                  
23       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Ken Salazar, United States                             
24 Secretary of the Interior; the Honorable Ron Wyden, Chair of the Energy and Natural                                     
25 Resources Committee of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Maria Cantwell, Chair of the Indian                             
26 Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Doc Hastings, Chair of the Natural                                  
27 Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives; Neil Kornze, Principal Deputy                                 
28 Director, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior; the                                      
29 Honorable Kevin K. Washburn, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, United States                                       
30 Department of the Interior; Kim Elton, Director, Alaska Affairs, United States Department of                            
31 the Interior; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S.                                      
01 Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska                                       
02 delegation in Congress.