Legislature(2015 - 2016)BUTROVICH 205
03/18/2015 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
Note: the audio ![]()
and video ![]()
recordings are distinct records and are obtained from different sources. As such there may be key differences between the two. The audio recordings are captured by our records offices as the official record of the meeting and will have more accurate timestamps. Use the icons to switch between them.
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HJR6 | |
| SB57 | |
| Confirmation Hearing: Department of Natural Resources | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| = | HJR 6 | ||
| + | SB 57 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
HJR 6-FEDERAL CONTAMINATION OF ANCSA LANDS
3:31:00 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL announced HJR 6 to be up for consideration.
SENATOR STOLTZE joined the committee.
JEFF TURNER, staff to Representative Charisse Millett, sponsor
of HJR 6, said this is essentially the same resolution passed by
the legislature last year. When the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act (ANCSA) was passed in 1971, some lands were
transferred to the newly formed Native corporations that were
found to be contaminated, which prevent the traditional use of
many of those lands, which goes against the intent and spirit of
the law.
In 1998, the Department of Interior prepared a report with six
recommendations ranging from creating a forum made up of the
entities involved in this issue to identifying all of the
contaminated sites, to giving the landowners assurances that
liability for the contamination would not be transferred to
them. Seventeen years later none of those recommendations have
been acted on.
3:32:14 PM
He said that Representative Millett had spoken to Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) officials, but made little progress. To keep up
the pressure on the federal government, she sponsored this
legislation again to hopefully get results similar to what was
accomplished with the travesty wells.
3:33:01 PM
At ease
3:33:29 PM
SENATOR COSTELLO moved Amendment 1.
29-LS0269\A.1
Nauman
3/14/15
AMENDMENT 1
OFFERED IN THE SENATE
Page 3, line 11:
Delete "."
Insert "; and be it"
Page 3, following line 11:
Insert new material to read:
"FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State
Legislature urges the United States federal government
to reimburse the medical expenses of residents who
have health conditions and complications as a result
of living on contaminated and polluted lands in the
state conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act."
SENATOR STOLTZE objected for discussion purposes.
SENATOR COSTELLO explained that this amendment adds a further
resolve section on page 3, following line 11, urging the federal
government to reimburse medical expenses to those who have
health conditions as a result of living on contaminated lands
the state conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
(ANCSA).
SENATOR STOLTZE removed his objection.
SENATOR MICCICHE objected for discussion purposes. He was
concerned that the undetermined amount of liability might
complicate the resolution as opposed to just a statement that we
expect the lands to be cleaned up.
MR. TURNER said the sponsor supported the amendment. Patrick
Marshall, a constituent of Senator Stedman's, brought this
amendment forward.
SENATOR MICCICHE removed his objection.
CHAIR GIESSEL, finding no further objections, announced that
Amendment 1 was adopted.
3:36:03 PM
NICHOLA RUEDY, Executive Director, Alaska Native Village
Corporation Association (ANVCA), Anchorage, Alaska, supported
HJR 6. She related some history of the contamination. When the
federal government conveyed millions of acres of land to Alaska
Native Corporations, it included lands with various types of
hazardous waste and toxic materials that posed significant
health risk to humans, animals, and environment, such as
arsenic, asbestos, PCBs, mining waste, chemicals, petroleum and
oil solvents, mercury, and toxic metals.
During the 1990s, the Alaska Native community raised concerns
about the contaminated lands the Department of Interior conveyed
to them, and, in 1995, Congress directed the Secretary of
Interior to prepare a report about the extent of their
contamination. In December 1998, the department submitted a
report entitled "Hazardous Substance Contamination of Alaska
Native Claims Settlement Act Lands in Alaska." In it they
acknowledged conveying approximately 650 contaminated sites and
identified numerous hazardous wastes including known
carcinogens. Recognizing the injustice, the department
recommended fully identifying the sites along with clean up
recommendations. But extensive research indicates that no
efforts have been made to implement any of them.
3:38:18 PM
JULIANNA SHANE, Director, Tanadgusix Corporation, St. Paul
Island, Alaska, supported HJR 6. She said she grew up around so
much petroleum contaminated soils that she didn't know any
different. From 1986-2000, cleanup work was done by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the Pribiloff
Islands under the Fur Seal Act. Since the mid-90s the cleanup
has cost $76 million of both islands. Now, they are in the final
stages of trying to receive the property back from the federal
government.
She wanted them to know that this work can be done internally.
Corporate shareholders have now been trained to do this cleanup
work and one of the companies even does cleanup nationwide.
MS. SHANE said she is from a family of 11 and her husband was
from a family of 15. They watched as four of his sisters, one
from brain cancer, one from stomach cancer, one from kidney
cancer, passed and she recently lost her husband from small cell
lung cancer. Their shareholders have one of the highest rates of
cancer. All the other villages need to be cleaned, not just the
Pribiloffs.
3:41:29 PM
JIM ARNESEN, Corporate, Lands, and Regulatory Manager, Eklutna
Inc., Eagle River, Alaska, supported HJR 6. He said Eklutna had
received a number of contaminated lands through ANCSA; one of
the more prominent areas is in the heart of the Native Village
of Eklutna, itself. It is the former site for the U.S. Army Camp
Mohawk, the BIA Eklutna Boarding School, and the Railroad
quarry. Over the last few years they village received grant
funds for investigation and remediation activities. Currently,
the Corps of Engineers is out there working to attempt further
remediation of petroleum product contamination. Presently, they
are waiting for results of testing from the Corps.
Other contaminated sites include the original Matanuska town
site that had been used by a former polluter from Anchorage who
is now deceased. He had placed a large number of contaminated
materials of various kinds and quantities all around the
properties and some have migrated.
They also received an old homestead that they spent substantial
funds of their own to cleanup. The operation consisted mostly of
surface debris from Donnelly who operated an illegal junk yard
on the property. This property is impaired and will probably
require more remediation in the future.
MR. ARNESEN said they have property near the Birchwood
Recreation and Shooting Park where trespass shooters have
contaminated property with lead and they are in the process of
determining the levels of contamination which will guide the
remediation effort.
He said the municipality had a project to replace the old
Eklutna Bridge that led to the discovery of lead paint
contamination below the bridge that will require remediation.
More recently, potential contamination was discovered and
believed to be emanating from the old Peters Creek landfill.
Eklutna has received other properties that have been used by
various governmental units and as they go to develop these
properties they run into contamination, buried pits, and all
kinds of toxins. The cost of remediating these properties has
been a financial burden and has at time prevented, stopped or
delayed a project.
MR. ARNESEN said Eklutna believes the contamination on Native
lands caused by former governmental units or others has not been
addressed satisfactorily and that those impacted lands are a
burden and a hurdle for economic development opportunities. The
federal government has the financial and moral obligation to
remediate the contaminated sites and reimburse funds spent by
Native corporations on cleaning them up. He also agreed with
Amendment 1.
3:46:17 PM
SENATOR STOLTZE said he appreciated what Eklutna is doing as a
good steward of the resources.
SENATOR COSTELLO asked if the Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) has a list of the 650 contaminated sites and
monitors them in some capacity.
KRISTIN RYAN, Director, Division of Spill Prevention and
Response (SPAR), Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC),
answered yes; they have a database of all contaminated sites in
the state that were caused by the federal government. In fact,
the Department of Interior (DOI) relies on it as the best source
of information on contaminated sites in the state.
SENATOR COSTELLO asked if there had ever been a conversation
about taking the feds to court over this.
MS. RYAN answered that the department has several MOUs with
multiple federal agencies that are working on cleaning up
contamination that they own or inherited and she prefers to make
that kind of progress as opposed to taking legal action, and
some sites are already under active remediation work. The
department is continuing to work with the federal government on
the ones they have cleanup standards disagreements with.
SENATOR COSTELLO asked if she supported the amendment.
MS. RYAN said the few claims of medical concern that she knows
of were difficult to prove. It's very difficult to make the
direction connection of old contamination to a potential health
issue.
SENATOR STOLTZE asked if the state is spending SPAR funds on
some of these federally contaminated sites.
MS. RYAN answered that the SOA spends some money to get the
federal government to honor its obligations under federal and
state law. The state gets reimbursed for the majority of those
expenses through the MOUs, but at times it takes years to reach
settlement. Approximately $8 million in federal money that comes
into the contaminated site program is spent to cover oversight
of cleanup of the sites.
CHAIR GIESSEL, finding no further comments, closed public
testimony.
MR. TURNER thanked the committee for their attention on this
issue and said the sponsor is convinced this resolution will
have equally similar results as her resolution for cleanup of
the travesty wells.
SENATOR MICCICHE commented that at some point they will have to
start putting teeth into these requests.
SENATOR COSTELLO moved to report HJR 6, version 29-LS0269\A, as
amended from committee with individual recommendations and
attached zero fiscal note. There were no objections and SCS HJR
6(RES) moved from the Senate Resources Standing Committee.