HB 169 DEPT. NAT RES. IS LEAD AGENCY FOR MINING  SENATOR LEMAN announced HB 169 to be up for consideration. ROD MOURANT, Legislative Aide to Representative Pete Kott, said this is recommendation #5 of the Alaska Minerals Commission Report 1995. It designates the Department of Natural Resources as the coordinating lead agency in all regulatory matters relating to mineral exploration, extraction, and development. SENATOR TAYLOR asked if he had reviewed his proposed amendment. MR. MOURANT said that was correct and Representative Kott fully supports the amendment. SENATOR TAYLOR moved to adopt amendment #1 and asked for unanimous consent. Number 413 SENATOR LINCOLN objected so she could understand the bill better and wanted to hear DNR's position on this. SENATOR LEMAN said he thought it meant that DNR would make the final determination, but other departments would participate in the decision. JULES TILESTON, Director, Division of Mining, emphasized that they like the uniform approach that HB 169 has, but their interpretation of coordination, as it is currently being used in the Fort Knox and the Illinois Creek, is not that they have authority to direct, but that it is a cooperative effort between the applicant and all of the permitting agencies including local governments and native corporations. He said that in their view, coordination did not mean that DNR takes on the permitting or regulatory authorities of other entities. On March 22 they suggested clarification language which comes from the reclamation law which simply reads: "This chapter does not alter or diminish the authority of another state agency or state corporation, or the University of Alaska, or a municipality under its laws or regulations." This has worked without difficulty and DNR does not seek to have final determination authority over another agency's, or another government's, existing regulatory authority over mining or mineral resource development activities. SENATOR LEMAN asked him if that is how he interprets this amendment. He answered that that is what he thought. SENATOR TAYLOR said he believed exactly the opposite of that. The buck has to stop someplace. DNR should have the final authority after consulting with those agencies and entities that should be bringing that information to them. Giving complete veto power to all the agencies forces people seeking permits to go through the same process that the Kensington and the A-J are currently caught up in right now. He thought that the bill wouldn't really do anything different without the amendment. MR. TILESTON said that right now there is no consistent approach to mining and he viewed the bill, in any of the versions, as a message that there needs to be a uniform approach which isn't currently happening. Under the amendment, in reality the commissioner of DNR would be the one who would have to defend whatever issue affected a mining venture. Number 287 SENATOR LINCOLN said she appreciated Senator Taylor's comments, but she objects to the amendment, because she thought they were going from one extreme to another. Giving DNR the final say on everything is too dangerous when they earlier made a change saying "may advise." SENATOR LEMAN said he tended to agree with Senator Taylor in that there needed to be some ultimate point at which someone takes charge and he would fully expect that DNR would do that and would not change things, like water quality standards, on its own. SENATOR LINCOLN maintained her objections. The roll was taken as follows: Senators Lincoln and Hoffman voted no; Senators Leman Pearce, Halford, and Taylor voted yes; and the amendment was adopted. Number 221 SENATOR TAYLOR moved CSSB 169 (RES) from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered. SENATOR LINCOLN asked if DNR had looked at the fiscal note with the new amendment. SENATOR LEMAN indicated that would be taken care of.