The Alaska Mine Permitting Process

Recent Changes in the Permitting Process

In 2003, the then administration of Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski led efforts to promote mining and other types of non-renewable resource development to the detriment of fish and wildlife habitat protection. These efforts culminated in revisions to fish habitat and water quality statutes and regulations in a manner that substantially reduced their effectiveness.

These actions included:

(a) Governor Murkowski's issuance of Executive Order 107, which transferred the Habitat Division (and related statutes which protect fish habitat) out of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and into the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (ADNR). The Habitat Division and it's regulatory scheme had been administered by ADF&G since statehood.

(b) Weakening the Alaska Coastal Management Program (ACMP). The Murkowski Administration transferred the ACMP from the Governor's Office, where it had successfully resolved interagency differences, to ADNR. ADNR then gutted the enforceable ACMP standards that had protected habitat. The Legislature then revised the ACMP statutes to eliminate a citizen's right of judicial enforcement, restricted local government's ability to craft local standards for fish protection and reduced the boundaries of local coastal plans.

(c) Weakening, by subjecting to DNR review, ADF&G's implementation of the federal Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, by which ADF&G coordinates with federal agencies on federal permits to assure that those permits protect fish under ADF&G standards and science;

(d) Directing DEC to adopt regulations to allow mixing zones in fish spawning areas, to "legalize" pre-existing violations, and:

(e) Adopting a Revised the Bristol Bay Area Plan in 2005 which favor's mining over protection of fish habitat which had been paramount in the area plan since it was first issued in 1984."

By transferring all of the fish habitat protection authority to ADNR, Murkowski changed the basic premise of fish habitat protection from ADF&G's statutory mandate to protect , preserve, maintain , and where possible extend the fish and wildlife resources of the State in the interest of the economy and general well being of the State , to ADNR's general statutory direction to develop natural resources and to balance many competing resource interests. The changes to the Bristol Bay Area Plan are particularly problematic, because the plan makes mining the primary use of a very large portion of the upper Koktuli and Upper Talarik Creek watersheds.

Thanks to Murkowski, Pebble permitting is in wrong hands
Compass: Points of view from the community

By MARK RICHARDS

Published: July 2, 2007, Anchorage Daily News
Last Modified: July 2, 2007 at 02:35 AM

Recently, Ginger Johnson, board member of Truth About Pebble, the organization devoted to seeing the giant Pebble Mine Project come to fruition, said in the Daily News: "There are strict laws that must be followed for any mine to be built. Pebble will require 67 different permits. There are processes in place to ensure that developments like Pebble mine are safe."

What she and Truth About Pebble neglect to tell us is that those "strict laws" that are supposed to "ensure that developments like Pebble mine are safe" were watered down considerably by the Murkowski administration in order to grease the skids for more resource development like the Pebble Project.

For nearly 50 years, the Habitat and Restoration Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game effectively oversaw permitting of mines to ensure adequate protections of our fisheries and waters.

Under Frank Murkowski, the habitat division was removed by executive order and placed within the Department of Natural Resources. Thirty percent of the former Habitat division positions were cut.

Executive Order 107 effectively removed permitting authority from the agency committed to ensuring sustainable fisheries and gave that authority to the agency committed to resource development. It was no secret that Murkowski did this at the behest of the timber and mining industry.

During the last legislative session, House Bill 41 sought to overturn the executive order and return the Habitat and Restoration Division and its permitting authority back to Fish and Game. During hearings on HB 41, one of the most telling testimonies as to why moving the division was a grave mistake came from fish and game habitat biologist Matthew LaCroix.

LaCroix worked in the Habitat division of Fish and Game prior to the move. He was one of the habitat biologists transferred to the new Office of Habitat Management and Permitting within DNR, where he worked for two and one-half years.

He got to witness first hand how having permitting authority within DNR was negatively affecting the future of our fisheries and waters. He saw how the analysis and opinions of habitat biologists on various projects were now discounted or changed in order to better suit the desires of resource extraction and development. He saw how the "corporate culture" and mission of DNR so differed from the culture and mission of the Department of Fish and Game.

Unfortunately, HB 41 never moved out of committee for a floor vote. As of this writing, Governor Palin has refused to rescind the executive order, which she has the authority as governor to do.

The end result?

What could be the largest open pit mine in North America, in the heart of Bristol Bay watersheds that produce one of the world's last great wild salmon runs, is being permitted by the very agency committed to seeing such projects take place. We have lost the checks and balances formerly in place. As LaCroix said, "The benefit of the doubt is (now) given to project proponents and developers, as opposed to the resource."

The current "spin" by Pebble supporters is the same spin Ginger Johnson is using: "There are processes in place to ensure that developments like Pebble mine are safe."

But are they enough?

Ask yourself why the mining industry lobbied to revamp our system of permitting mines, and why Murkowski among all our former governors would suddenly negate the wisdom and foresight of our first legislators and remove the system of checks and balances that had served us so well for so long?

Ask yourself, too, if a cut in experienced habitat biologists and staff, along with a desire for faster permitting times, is better for the resource or the project proponents.

The real truth about Pebble is that we aren't being told the whole truth.

Mark Richards lives near Eagle, Alaska, and is co-chair of Alaska Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. Read LaCroix's testimony at www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_minutes_comm.asp?hse=H&session=25&comm=FSH&date=20070214&time=0832

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For more information on Alaska's mine permitting process, please contact:
The Renewable Resources Coalition, Inc.
Email: info@renewableresourcescoalition.org
or Telephone: (907) 743-1900