HJR 6: 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; 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; and urging the President of the United States and the United States Congress to remediate and make free from pollutants lands in the state conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 6 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 urging the United States Department of the Interior to implement the six 05 recommendations to identify and clean up the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 06 lands in its 1998 report to the United States Congress; and urging the President of the 07 United States and the United States Congress to remediate and make free from 08 pollutants lands in the state conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. 09 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 10 WHEREAS Alaska Native land claims were settled differently in the state than in the 11 rest of the nation when, in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, instead of adopting a 12 reservation system, the federal government established Alaska Native village and regional 13 corporations and granted the corporations ownership and other rights to surface and
01 subsurface land; and 02 WHEREAS Alaska Native corporations were created under the Alaska Native Claims 03 Settlement Act to manage land and resources for the benefit of Native shareholders in 04 settlement of certain aboriginal land claims; and 05 WHEREAS, under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the federal government 06 conveyed to many Alaska Native corporations land that was contaminated by the federal 07 government or by activities allowed or overseen by the federal government before the 08 conveyance of the land under the Act; and 09 WHEREAS, in 1995, the United States Congress acknowledged that contaminated 10 land was being conveyed to Alaska Native corporations under the Alaska Native Claims 11 Settlement Act and, in sec. 103, P.L. 104-42 (43 U.S.C. 1629f), required the United States 12 Secretary of the Interior to provide a detailed report on contaminated land before conveying 13 the land to Alaska Native corporations and organizations; and 14 WHEREAS, in December 1998, the United States Department of the Interior 15 submitted a report to the United States Congress that located approximately 650 contaminated 16 sites on land conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act; and 17 WHEREAS, in that report, the United States Department of the Interior proposed six 18 recommendations to "fully identify contaminated sites and clean-up needs of Alaska Native 19 Claims Settlement Act lands"; and 20 WHEREAS the United States Department of the Interior has not fully implemented 21 any of the six recommendations it proposed to the United States Congress; and 22 WHEREAS Alaska Native corporations, as landowners, are subject to liability under 23 federal and state law for the contaminated condition of their land; and 24 WHEREAS several Alaska Native corporations have incurred considerable expense 25 cleaning up contaminated sites, negotiating land exchanges, and battling with the federal and 26 state governments to clean up sites on a case-by-case basis; and 27 WHEREAS, in recognition of this problem, United States Representative Don 28 Young, on the floor of the United States House of Representatives on January 4, 1995, stated, 29 "it was clearly not the intention of ANCSA to extinguish Native claims by conveying 30 contaminated property to recipients"; 31 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports the introduction and
01 enactment of federal legislation acknowledging that the federal government is financially 02 responsible under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act for the remediation of 03 contaminated land subject to conveyance under the Act; and be it 04 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 05 Department of the Interior to fully implement the six recommendations to identify and clean 06 up Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act lands in its 1998 report to the United States 07 Congress; and be it 08 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the President of the 09 United States and the United States Congress to take the actions necessary to remediate and 10 make free of contamination and environmental pollutants lands in the state conveyed under 11 the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. 12 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 13 the United States; the Honorable Sally Jewell, United States Secretary of the Interior; the 14 Honorable Lisa Murkowski, Chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee of the 15 U.S. Senate; the Honorable Maria Cantwell, ranking member of the Energy and Natural 16 Resources Committee of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Rob Bishop, Chair of the Natural 17 Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Kevin K. 18 Washburn, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, United States Department of the Interior; 19 Neil Kornze, Director, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the 20 Interior; Weldon Loudermilk, Director, Alaska Region, Bureau of Indian Affairs, United 21 States Department of the Interior; Kim Elton, Director, Alaska Affairs, United States 22 Department of the Interior; and the Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senator, and the Honorable 23 Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.