Important House Fisheries Committee

Mixing Zones - Special Action Alert

The House Fisheries Committee is holding hearings on Rep Paul Seaton's legislation to ban mixing zones in salmon rearing and migration areas (HB 328).

If passed, the bill would overrule the state's misguided new rules permitting the pollution of our salmon rearing and migration areas (see below).

The committee is co-chaired by Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux and Re. Bill Thomas. Rep LeDoux seems to be the friendliest of the two since she represents many of the impacted Pebble Mine villages. Rep. Thomas' leanings are unknown.

Because of this, we should attempt to get letters to the committee in support of this
legislation asap. To insure timely receipt, we suggest that they be faxed. Rep. LeDoux's fax number is 907.465.4956. and Rep. Thomas' fax is 907.465.2652.

Let's show our support loudly by faxing correspondence and by having folks
testify in favor of the bill.

We need your help Now by faxing your support of HB 328 to:

Rep. Bill Thomas
Fax No. - (907) 465-2652
( Email if no fax - Rep_Bill_Thomas@legis.state.ak.us )

FOOTNOTES:

-- Cook Inlet Keeper Press Release of January 13, 2006

Mixing Zone Changes Won’t Ensure Healthy Salmon, Cook Inlet Keeper Says -
AK Salmon and Other Fish in Danger...

Anchorage, AK – Responding to a strong public outcry, Governor Frank Murkowski backed off -- but only in part – from his much-maligned proposal to remove the current state prohibition on mixing zones in salmon and other fish-bearing streams. The new Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) rule adopted on January 12, 2006 and announced at a press conference today does not prohibit mixing zones in salmon rearing and migration areas (only in spawning areas) and opens a new regulatory loophole allowing mixing zones in spawning areas for fish such as grayling and trout.

“Allowing mixing zones is bad policy which only benefits dischargers,” stated Cook Inlet Keeper Senior Engineer Lois Epstein. “If we want to produce and market healthy, wild Alaska salmon, we need to prevent contamination of their habitat during spawning, rearing, and migration. The legislature needs to continue its plan to hold hearings on mixing zones, which are only one part of the Murkowski Administration’s extremist, anti-salmon agenda.”

Hundreds of comments from communities, fishing organizations, scientists, and the public opposed the Governor’s first mixing zone proposal, issued in summer 2004. DEC’s second mixing zone proposal, issued in fall 2005, contained minimal changes from the previous version and likewise was widely opposed. HB 328, prefiled before the legislative session began by Representative Paul Seaton and three other Republican legislators, includes a ban on mixing zones in salmon and other fish spawning areas and is scheduled for a hearing on January 20 in the House Fisheries Committee.

According to Epstein, “Governor Murkowski has pursued an extreme, anti-fish agenda while in office. In addition to attempting to revoke the current mixing zone prohibition, Governor Murkowski muzzled state fisheries biologists by moving them into the natural resource development agency, through bureaucratic changes greatly undermined the state’s Coastal Management Program, and proposed allowing aerial spraying of pesticides near salmon streams in Southeast Alaska.”