Senate budget will determine fate of wetlands permits management
After considerable internal negoti- ation, the Alaska House has approved funding for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, or DEC, to roll out a long-planned program to have the state assume “primacy,” or management responsibility, for fed- eral Clean Water Act dredge and fill permitting program. Dredge and fill permitting is cur - rently done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Now it’s up to the Alaska Senate to agree if that funding makes it into the final budget. First-year funding for the state-run program is estimated at $4.9 million, with an ongoing cost of $4.7 million as the program continues. Development of the state application and program material will take approximately two years and will require general funds. Once approved, expected in late-2025, the program is expected to be funded through a combination of state general fund, fees paid by applicants, and pos- sibly federal funds. The Legislature actually authorized
DEC to pursue approval of the dredge and fill program several years ago but funding was removed for the first and subsequent years of the project. Although a state-managed pro- gram must follow national require- ments set out by the federal Clean Water Act, a key advantage is that the state will have more desire and flex - ibility to implement the permit pro- gram to fit Alaska conditions, where currently the Corps does not have the same initative. Another big advantage, Brune said, is that Alaskans will be managing the program rather than federal officials. The federal Clean Air and Clean Water Acts have provisions where- by states can operate the programs through a process known as “prima - cy.” Both federal laws give states the flexibility to fit permits to regional conditions. Alaska has long had Clean Air Act primacy, so that air quality permits for projects are issued by DEC, and not EPA. More recently the state was
given primacy over the wastewater discharge permit requirements of the Clean Water Act, so that DEC regulates discharges from industrial facilities and municipal sewage systems. Most recently primacy was given the state over hazardous waste regulation. Having primacy over wetlands permits is the last piece, and it is one that will touch Alaska firms and indi - viduals most directly. That is because any structure built in the “Waters of the United States,” a legal designa- tion that is being interpreted broadly to include most of Alaska’s wetlands, must have a dredge and fill permit. Another advantage of a state-man- aged wetlands permitting program is that there can be more flexibility for wider use of “general” permits, or ge - neric permits that give permission for activities of certain types, as opposed to a specific permit for a project. DEC believes expanded use of gen- eral permits will streamline the pro- cess, enabling authorizations to hap- pen more quickly.
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The Alaska Miner
Spring 2023
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