Legislature(2011 - 2012)BARNES 124
03/22/2012 08:00 AM House COMMUNITY & REGIONAL AFFAIRS
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB362 | |
| HB364 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 362 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 364 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HB 362-WATER AND SEWER TASK FORCE
8:05:22 AM
CHAIR MUNOZ announced that the first order of business would be
HOUSE BILL NO. 362, "An Act relating to an Alaska Water and
Sewer Task Force; and providing for an effective date."
8:05:55 AM
CHAIR MUNOZ, upon determining no one wished to testify, closed
public testimony.
8:06:00 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER moved to adopt Amendment 1, labeled 27-
LS1423\A.1, Bullard, 3/20/12, which read:
Page 3, following line 13:
Insert a new paragraph to read:
"(6) investigate and recommend strategies
to protect public investments in rural water and sewer
systems and promote the long-term operational life of
rural water and sewer systems by ensuring, to the
greatest extent possible, that the systems can be
maintained by local personnel and with local
resources;"
Renumber the following paragraphs accordingly.
8:06:40 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER explained that he is offering Amendment 1
to punctuate his desire that any investment the state makes into
water and sewer infrastructure in rural Alaska is designed with
the focus on maintainability and sustainability.
8:07:23 AM
REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said that he didn't object to Amendment
1 as it's good policy to ensure maintainability. However, the
same type of criteria isn't in place when the state provides
funding to cities and boroughs.
REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER acknowledged that's the case, and added
that perhaps such criteria should be in place [when the state
provides funding to cities and boroughs]. He related that
Amendment 1 addresses concerns he has heard regarding the lack
of training and relevant skills, particularly in smaller
villages.
8:08:18 AM
REPRESENTATIVE DICK said he didn't believe Amendment 1 is
inappropriate; rather it calls attention to some real needs and
doesn't mandate anything.
8:08:48 AM
REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER related that a constituent had expressed
concern that in rural Alaska water and sewer projects for local
government, state government, and school districts are sometimes
done separately. Therefore, the constituent had suggested
improvements to achieve a bigger bang for the buck, which seems
to parallel Amendment 1.
8:09:47 AM
PAUL LABOLLE, Staff, Representative Foster, Alaska State
Legislature, specified that the language on page 3, lines 12-13,
attempt to address Representative Gardner's concern. The
language would also seem to address Representative Saddler's
concern. He told the committee that the sponsor of HB 262 and
the sponsor of its companion legislation agreed that Amendment 1
was good and amplified the need to address things locally. In
order to address Representative Austerman's concern, the
committee could make an amendment to Amendment 1 such that the
term "possible" is changed to "practical".
8:10:58 AM
REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER moved to adopt an amendment to Amendment
1, such that the term "possible" in the new paragraph proposed
by Amendment 1 is changed to "practical". There being no
objection, the amendment to Amendment 1 was adopted.
8:11:18 AM
CHAIR MUNOZ announced that before the committee is now Amendment
1, as amended. Upon determining there was no objection,
Amendment 1, as amended, was adopted.
8:11:35 AM
REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER pointed out that the sponsor statement
says currently there are 6,000 homes without water or sewer and
that the $51.5 million in the state's budget for village water
and sewer projects is 8 percent of the known need. Therefore,
she calculated that $643 million would be required to address
the entire known need, which would mean $107,000 per household.
8:12:31 AM
REPRESENTATIVE FOSTER related his understanding that nearly $300
million was for 6,000 homes to be connected for first-time
service and almost $400 million was for upgrades and expansions
for aging infrastructure. Therefore, it would impact many more
than 6,000 homes.
MR. LABOLLE, referring to an email from Bill Griffith dated
November 10, 2011, agreed with Representative Foster's
clarification. He noted that the water and sewer systems go to
private homes, public buildings, and businesses.
8:13:53 AM
REPRESENTATIVE FOSTER informed the committee that $292 million
is necessary to address first-service needs and $410 million is
the total cost to address expansion, upgrade, and replacement.
8:14:30 AM
REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER moved to report HB 362, as amended, out
of committee with individual recommendations and the
accompanying fiscal notes.
8:15:20 AM
REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA said that although HB 362 and the
amendment are wonderful, there are holes in the legislation in
regard to the tribal health work. There needs to be a real
understanding by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
(ANTHC). She informed the committee that two years ago, there
was review of the cost of fuel to run water and sewer systems.
She then expressed concern about the timeline and the lack of
involvement of the tribal health persons.
MR. LABOLLE stated that discussions with the sponsor of HB 362
and the sponsor of the companion legislation have included
ANTHC. The ANTHC has expressed interest in membership on the
board, but the sponsor of the Senate legislation decided to use
them as technical witnesses rather than members of the board.
The intention was to utilize ANTHC as a resource outside of the
decision-making process of the board such that there would be a
separate unit analyzing the work being done by others.
Therefore, there would be no vested interest within the board
with either Village Safe Water or ANTHC. He reminded the
committee that ANTHC shares responsibility for water and sewer
projects with the Division of Village Safe Water within the
Department of Environmental Conservation.
8:17:53 AM
REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA provided the committee with a copy of the
"Energy for Sustainable Alaska" by Commonwealth North. She
emphasized that key to addressing this problem is including
sustainability. Referring to research she requested from
Legislative Research in 2009, she expressed the need to
acknowledge the recommendations of past groups that have been
ignored.
MR. LABOLLE opined that Representative Cissna is speaking to the
intent of HB 362 itself. He acknowledged that there have been
various efforts prior to this legislation. To his knowledge the
difference with the proposal in HB 362 is that it proposes a
legislative task force and thus the members of the task force
are also in charge of the budget. In other words, an
administrative task force doesn't have the cache within the
appropriating body that a legislative task force would have. In
terms of the cost of fuel/heat, he confirmed those are issues to
which the task force will be seeking answers. For instance,
waste heat has been a major approach used to reduce the cost of
keeping the temperature of the water and sewer lines [at the
appropriate level]. Moreover, Mr. LaBolle mentioned that just
last week he had a discussion with ANTHC regarding the
possibility of using district heat in conjunction with existing
above-ground utility corridors in order to achieve economies of
scale for the three basic utilities. The proposed task force,
he opined, is seeking to review the concerns expressed by
Representative Cissna.
8:20:34 AM
There being no objection, HB 362, as amended, was reported from
the House Community and Regional Affairs Standing Committee.
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