Alaska Enters WOTUS Court Battle, Again
To fight what he considers federal overreach, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy Oct. 25 announced that Attorney General Treg Taylor has joined in an amicus brief calling on the high court to clarify WOTUS. “As the federal government moves to increase control over Alaskans by expansively defining WOTUS, it’s more important than ever to fight to preserve our autonomy,” said Dunleavy. Under an Obama-era rule finalized in 2015, WOTUS would have been expanded to include anything that remotely resembled a stream – a bed, bank, and ordinary high-water mark – even arroyos and other gullies where water only flows during infrequent heavy rainfall events. Nearby waters, including wetlands and other watery features within 1,500 feet of navigable waters and sometimes such features within 4,000 feet of high tide or high-water mark of a stream, also would have been covered under the rule. Even if a small portion of one of these neighboring wet features falls within the guidelines, the entire area is subject to “significant nexus” analysis under the new WOTUS rule, which could extend Clean Water Act authority over the entire area, even if it is not connected
By Shane Lasley, North of 60 Mining News Alaska once again finds itself joining other states in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rein in a broadened definition of “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS, a federal environmental rule that could significantly impact the management of private and public property across the Last Frontier. WOTUS has been a concern for Alaska and many other states since the Obama Administration set out to broaden the definition of U.S. waters in 2014, a move that would significantly expand the geographic scope of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. This transfer of authority away from states is especially profound for Alaska, which already hosts 175 million acres of wetlands, or roughly 43 percent of the state’s surface area. With a broader definition of U.S. waters, much larger swaths of Alaska would fall under federal control and the burdensome regulatory requirements that come with that. Mining, road construction, pipeline and utility installations, commercial, and even residential construction would be affected by an expanded WOTUS definition.
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November 2021 I The Alaska Miner I www.alaskaminers.org
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