HJR 52 - OPPOSE AMERICAN HERITAGE RIVERS CHAIRMAN HALFORD called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to order at 3:40 p.m. and announced HJR 52 to be up for consideration. REPRESENTATIVE JEANNETTE JAMES, Sponsor of HJR 52, said the American Heritage River initiative is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It is something we don't need more of in Alaska, because we already have enough federal designation over some of our lands and waters. She said that President Clinton issued Executive Order 13061 directing agencies to establish and implement the initiative. It was touted as a method to give us money to clean up our rivers, but it also includes the entire watershed. John Schuller killed a grizzly bear in his own backyard and was found to be at fault because he was in the zone of imminent danger according to the Endangered Species Act. We don't want to allow the federal government to come in and put a blanket over our rivers and call them American Heritage Rivers. SENATOR TORGERSON proposed to change the last "Whereas" to "Be It Resolved." REPRESENTATIVE JAMES said she supported that. There were no objections to the adoption of the amendment and it was so ordered. MS. MEL KROGSENG said she was speaking on her own behalf as a Kenai River property owner and that although the majority of property owners objected to being included in the American Heritage Rivers, the Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board chose to make a motion to nominate the river as an American Heritage River. The statute clearly states that their authorization is purely to hold meetings on the Comprehensive Management Plan for the river and to make recommendations to the Commissioner. There was a lot of discussion on the matter and they came very close to being nominated, but the Kenai Peninsula Assembly defeated that action. She wanted them to know that the Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board seems to be taking actions that she believes are inappropriate with their mission. CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if they should be added to the list this resolution is sent to. MS. KROGSENG answered that it wouldn't be inappropriate for them to send a copy to all the other 49 states. MR. STAN LEAPHART, Citizens Advisory Commission on Federal Areas, said in August last year they submitted comments on the initiative to Katie McGinty, who is chairperson of the Council on Environmental Quality, urging that the proposed initiative not be adopted. But it was adopted over those objections. There are currently 126 rivers that have been nominated for designation and it's expected that the President will make his decision on the first 10 within the next two weeks. Their analysis indicated that at best its goals and objectives remain poorly defined and is a duplication of existing programs designed to provide assistance to local governments. At worst, it represents an entirely new federal program with no statutory authority for its creation which is a threat to state and local government authority, as well as the rights of private property owners. Although there have been some improvements to the initiative, there are still a lot of problems with it. One of the stated goals is to improve the delivery of services by the 12 departments and agencies that constituted the American Heritage Rivers' Interagency Committee. He asked why it takes the creation of a new federal program to compel these 12 agencies to do their job. The answer, of course, is that it does not. The Department is not currently performing as it should under existing statutory mandates and regulatory guidelines and they fail to see how this initiative would change that. On the contrary, by requiring agencies to focus on this new program, they will have fewer resources available for more important and legitimate programs. Better agency performance is not what this initiative is all about. It truly represents an effort to create, by executive fiat, a program that Congress refused to create in 1996 when it rejected a number of bills which would have created a National Heritage Area Partnership Program. His commission is also highly skeptical of the claim that designation of a river would only occur if there is "broad community support," particularly in light of the extremely lose definition of the term community. He used the example of the creation of the 1.7 million acre Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument over the objection of local communities by Utah's congressional delegation. Designation of a river would require adherence to a wide array of program guidelines and requirements in order to maintain the designation and qualify for federal funds. This would come at some cost to local control or loss of opportunity for the private property owner. The carrot and stick approach by the federal government means some special interest group gets the carrot and private property owners and businesses get the stick, usually in the form of more regulations and restrictive programs. Number 229 SENATOR TAYLOR asked which six rivers were on the short list to be designated. MR. LEAPHART answered that there are actually 126 rivers which are primarily in the eastern states, but the Columbia, the Rio Grande, and portions of the Upper Mississippi are some. CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked Representative James if she considered opposing the entire program, as well as being exempted. REPRESENTATIVE JAMES said she thought about it, but decided they might be stepping on some other people's toes. CHAIRMAN HALFORD said he didn't think they could do it under the current title and he didn't think it was appropriate to go through the process of a title change. SENATOR LINCOLN said under the process for nominating a river it says the communities in coordination with state, local, or tribal governments can nominate the river stretch and individuals living outside the area cannot nominate a river. This resolution says the Alaska State Legislature opposes a nomination or designation of any river in Alaska and asked if that does not preclude anyone in a community who wants to nominate their river. REPRESENTATIVE JAMES said the intent of the President's initiative was to have the people who live along the river make the nomination which is part of the problem. Along with allowing your river to be identified as an American Heritage River, you get money to clean it up and that's an inviting thing. She thought the nomination should also be agreed to by the State, because the rivers are under the power of the state, not the local people. They do not want local people to have that authority. SENATOR LINCOLN asked if someone chooses to nominate a river in their community, would they need the state's blessing, the local blessing, and the tribal blessing. If that is so, by this resolution, that will never happen. She asked if that was correct. REPRESENTATIVE JAMES said that was the purpose. SENATOR TORGERSON said he knows from experience that it does not come to the legislature for approval or to a local government. Their problem initially is that the advisory group to the Commissioner nominated it in the first place and that could be two people. To the Commissioner of Natural Resources it could be one. SENATOR LINCOLN said she wanted to understand if it says all the different bodies could nominate, but the State would not give their blessing. SENATOR TAYLOR said it goes beyond that, because the federal government has no jurisdiction over the navigable waters of the United States. There is not one single court case that indicates that isn't right. He thought the President was trying to use the initiative as leverage against the people who own property along rivers and the states who have all the rights to those waters. The Dinkum Sands case clearly indicates who has control over those navigable waters. REPRESENTATIVE JAMES supported Senator Taylor's comments and then added that the communities can nominate the rivers; and it says the federal role will be solely to support community based efforts to preserve and protect the resource. SENATOR TAYLOR moved to pass SCSHJR 52 (RES) from Committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.