Contributed Photos Alaska DEC Commissioner Jason Brune talks with AMA members at a recent breakfast in Anchorage about the department’s continued funding of programs supporting mining.
al parks and wildlife refuges. The ongoing federal actions and interpretations of ANILCA by federal agencies can be contrary to Alaska’s interests and must be closely monitored by the state. There are no big impacts in the DEC budget, ei- ther. Many of DEC’s permit functions, at least for resource industries like mining, are supported by fees. Reductions in general fund appropriations have less of an impact. Through DEC the state has “primacy” to man- age several major federal regulatory programs, such as for air quality permits under the federal Clean Air Act and for part of the Clean Water Act for wastewater discharges. There is no plan to change any of the responsi- bility for primacy, since having the state manage _SP^PXLUZ]QPOP]LW[P]XT_^LWWZb^LʮPcTMTWT_d_Z adapt to Alaskan conditions that is less possible under federal management by the U.S. Environ- mental Protection Agency. One change in DEC that some in the resource industry community may not be happy about is _SP PWTXTYL_TZY ZQ L ^_Lʬ PNZYZXT^_ _Z OZ TYOP - pendent economic analyses of proposed new state regulations. ?SP[Z^T_TZYbL^LN_`LWWdYZ_^_LʬPOWL^_dPL] in the prior administration, but the new adminis- tration proposes to eliminate it, arguing that new regulations are already subject to public review
The state does this now in “out-sourcing” cer- tain vehicle registration activities and other func- tions for the Division of Motor Vehicles. The plan now is to close the permanent record- TYR ZʯNP^ TY 1LT]MLYV^ ;LWXP] 6PYLT LYO 5` - YPL`LYO_ZNZY^ZWTOL_P]PNZ]O^LYO^_LʬTY_SP ,YNSZ]LRPZʯNP Overall, it’s pretty much status quo in the DNR and DEC, the agencies most important to miners. “Our priority is to preserve and protect programs that provide support for core industries like min- ing,” said Dan Saddler, spokesperson for the DNR who is also a former state legislator. “There are no declines in the budget in pro- grams that support mining. Where there are im- pacts, “we can do the work with no loss in service. We will be doing what we’ve always done,” Sad- dler said. Commissioner Jason Brune at the DEC echoed this: “The FY20 budget does not impact DEC’s ability to issue timely, well-written, legally de- fensible permits,” he said. Meanwhile, one function that has been retained TY/9=T^_SP,947.,NZZ]OTYL_Z]L^_Lʬ[Z^T_TZY for a person monitoring federal agencies who are implementing terms of the federal Alaska National Interest Lands and Conservation Act, or ANILCA. This federal law, passed in 1980, established large federal land conservation units like nation-
The Alaska Miner
April 2019
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