Enrolled 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.
00Enrolled HJR 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 Act 03 for the remediation of contaminated land subject to conveyance under the Act; urging the 04 United States Department of the Interior to implement the six recommendations to identify 05 and clean up the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act lands in its 1998 report to the United 06 States Congress; and urging the President of the United States and the United States Congress 07 to remediate and make free from pollutants lands in the state conveyed under the Alaska 08 Native Claims Settlement Act. 09 _______________ 10 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 11 WHEREAS Alaska Native land claims were settled differently in the state than in the 12 rest of the nation when, in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, instead of adopting a 13 reservation system, the federal government established Alaska Native village and regional 14 corporations and granted the corporations ownership and other rights to surface and 15 subsurface land; and
01 WHEREAS Alaska Native corporations were created under the Alaska Native Claims 02 Settlement Act to manage land and resources for the benefit of Native shareholders in 03 settlement of certain aboriginal land claims; and 04 WHEREAS, under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the federal government 05 conveyed to many Alaska Native corporations land that was contaminated by the federal 06 government or by activities allowed or overseen by the federal government before the 07 conveyance of the land under the Act; and 08 WHEREAS, in 1995, the United States Congress acknowledged that contaminated 09 land was being conveyed to Alaska Native corporations under the Alaska Native Claims 10 Settlement Act and, in sec. 103, P.L. 104-42 (43 U.S.C. 1629f), required the United States 11 Secretary of the Interior to provide a detailed report on contaminated land before conveying 12 the land to Alaska Native corporations and organizations; and 13 WHEREAS, in December 1998, the United States Department of the Interior 14 submitted a report to the United States Congress that located approximately 650 contaminated 15 sites on land conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act; and 16 WHEREAS, in that report, the United States Department of the Interior proposed six 17 recommendations to "fully identify contaminated sites and clean-up needs of Alaska Native 18 Claims Settlement Act lands"; and 19 WHEREAS the United States Department of the Interior has not fully implemented 20 any of the six recommendations it proposed to the United States Congress; and 21 WHEREAS Alaska Native corporations, as landowners, are subject to liability under 22 federal and state law for the contaminated condition of their land; and 23 WHEREAS several Alaska Native corporations have incurred considerable expense 24 cleaning up contaminated sites, negotiating land exchanges, and battling with the federal and 25 state governments to clean up sites on a case-by-case basis; and 26 WHEREAS, in recognition of this problem, United States Representative Don 27 Young, on the floor of the United States House of Representatives on January 4, 1995, stated, 28 "it was clearly not the intention of ANCSA to extinguish Native claims by conveying 29 contaminated property to recipients"; 30 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports the introduction and 31 enactment of federal legislation acknowledging that the federal government is financially
01 responsible under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act for the remediation of 02 contaminated land subject to conveyance under the Act; and be it 03 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 04 Department of the Interior to fully implement the six recommendations to identify and clean 05 up Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act lands in its 1998 report to the United States 06 Congress; and be it 07 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the President of the 08 United States and the United States Congress to take the actions necessary to remediate and 09 make free of contamination and environmental pollutants lands in the state conveyed under 10 the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act; and be it 11 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 12 federal government to reimburse the medical expenses of residents who have health 13 conditions and complications as a result of living on contaminated and polluted lands in the 14 state conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. 15 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 16 the United States; the Honorable Sally Jewell, United States Secretary of the Interior; the 17 Honorable Lisa Murkowski, Chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee of the 18 U.S. Senate; the Honorable Maria Cantwell, ranking member of the Energy and Natural 19 Resources Committee of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Rob Bishop, Chair of the Natural 20 Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Kevin K. 21 Washburn, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, United States Department of the Interior; 22 Neil Kornze, Director, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the 23 Interior; Weldon Loudermilk, Director, Alaska Region, Bureau of Indian Affairs, United 24 States Department of the Interior; Kim Elton, Director, Alaska Affairs, United States 25 Department of the Interior; and the Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senator, and the Honorable 26 Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.