SB 356-GENERAL PERMIT FOR WATER/WASTE DISPOSAL  CHAIRMAN TORGERSON announced SB 356 to be up for consideration. SENATOR GENE THERRIAULT, sponsor of SB 356, said the legislation was introduced to assure that the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) could continue to issue the general permits as it has done for a number of years. He explained: Legislation was passed a couple of years ago that allowed the DEC to work on a uniform fee structure for general permits that were to be issued for ongoing or basic types of permitted activities, HB 361. This bill is to insure the DEC has the underlying statutory authority to actually issue the permits that the legislature approved the fee structure for then. Examples of the types of permits are remote camps or lodges, logging camps, fish hatcheries, sewer systems for communities with fewer than 1,000 people, and some oil well drilling operations. The value of the general permits are that they allow DEC to avoid duplication by creating one permit instead of multiple identical permits for activities where the risk of impact to the environment is either low or can be easily mitigated with common treatment practices. General permits save DEC and the regulated community time and money while accomplishing the goal of environmental protection. General permits go hand in hand with the permit fee structure that was created. General permits also allow DEC to allocate more resources to field site visits and inspections, because they don't have to have personnel tied up in the department sort of reinventing the wheel over and over. He said they worked with DEC to draft this language and that committee packets contain a letter from DEC that contains two concerns. The first concern is on page 1: First, general permits, in our view, are appropriate only when the risk and impact to the environment is either low or can be readily and fully mitigated with common treatment practices. SENATOR THERRIAULT thought this concern was addressed in Section 3 on page 2, lines 23 - 25, of the bill, which reads: A general permit may be issued only if the commissioner determines that the activities that will be authorized under the permit are similar in nature and will cause only minimal adverse environmental effects when performed separately and in the aggregate. SENATOR THERRIAULT said Section 3 gives the commissioner wide latitude to determine when the permit is appropriate. He noted DEC's second concern reads: The procedures for developing and issuing general permits set out in statute, must describe how the public can comment on a proposed general permit and must provide for a reasonable dissemination of information on which the facilities or activities are operating under a general permit. He believes Section 6 addresses that concern and read: The commissioner shall immediately send copies of the application or proposal to the commissioner of fish and game, the commissioner of natural resources, the commissioner of community and economic development and the commissioner of health and social services. Section 6 explains how the information is provided to other departments that might have a concern. CHAIRMAN TORGERSON asked Mr. Chapple, DEC, if his department's concerns were addressed in the bill. MR. TOM CHAPPLE, Director, Air and Water Quality, DEC, said he supported SB 356 as written. MR. BILL JEFFRESS, Manager, Environmental Services, Fairbanks Coal Mining, and Vice President, Council of Alaska Producers, said as the Vice President of the Producers' Council he was a representative of the DEC sponsored work group that came up with recommendations over the course of a year and a half. He commented: One of the things we found very important and crucial to DEC's credibility as a regulating community is these general permits and, as Senator Therriault said, this is an efficient way of minimizing the amount of resources DEC expends on writing individual permits that cover basically the same issues. The general permits cut down on the redundancy and what is really important is to show a field presence. I think it's good for the regulated community and the credibility of DEC's program as far as their oversight and making sure that the resources of Alaska are protected. I think Senator Therriault did an excellent job of characterizing all of the bill. What we wanted to emphasize is that we not only supported HB 361, but SB 356 clarifies what exactly DEC's authority is. We support the bill. MS. CHARLOTTE MCCAY, Senior Administrator, Environmental and Regulatory Affairs, Tec-Cominco Alaska, operators of the Red Dog Mine, said: Industry is reliant on DEC for numerous important permits. DEC can be most effective by providing standardized general permits for similar facilities with similar environmental risks. This frees DEC's time and resources to address more significant and individualized permits. DEC is then more efficient in fulfilling their duties and industry receives more timely permits. At Red Dog, we had many permits. That takes a lot of time and it's important to us that they be available as best possible. MR. TAD OWENS, Executive Director, Resource Development Council (RDC), said the RDC has worked with the legislature and DEC over the last several years on permit streamlining and this bill is another step in that direction. He elaborated: There are two reasons why RDC is strongly in support of this legislation. The first is we feel general permits are a real win-win. It not only allows DEC to operate more efficiently and allocate their resources more effectively across the broad array of services they need to provide, but it gives industry a great deal more predictability and certainty and simplicity in dealing with essentially repetitive and diminimous activities in terms of environmental impact. And, secondly, as Senator Therriault mentioned, we worked very closely with the legislature on HB 361 and are very happy to report that industry and the agencies have fared very well under that new fee structure and this bill essentially assures that DEC will be able to match up general permits with the fixed fees that HB 361 supported… We very much support the bill. CHAIRMAN TORGERSON thanked everyone for their testimony and said they would hold the bill for a quorum. SB 356-GENERAL PERMIT FOR WATER/WASTE DISPOSAL  CHAIRMAN TORGERSON announced SB 356 to be up for consideration. SENATOR WILKEN moved SB 356 from committee with individual recommendations and zero fiscal note. There were no objections and it was so ordered.