Rep. Beverly Masek State Capitol, Room 128 Juneau, AK 99801-1182 Phone: (907) 465-2679 Fax: (907) 465-4822

Rep. Drew Scalzi State Capitol, Room 13 Juneau, AK 99801-1182 Phone: (907) 465-2689 Fax: (907) 465-3472

Sponsor Statement for HB 421
Water Use and Appropriation

An Act relating to water use and appropriation.

Released: March 4, 2002

This bill directs the Department of Natural Resources to develop a standardized procedure for processing water rights applications.

Alaska's water is a public trust resource. Our state constitution tasks our legislature with the responsibility to oversee distribution of all public trust resources. The distribution of our state's water has been statutorily delegated to the administrative branch of our state government, specifically to the Commissioner of our Department of Natural Resources.

This legislation is a response to overwhelming public testimony given at meetings conducted in the fall of 2001. The meetings were initiated by the Department of Natural Resources in order to meet with various environmental groups in order to explain the proposed regulation changes to the water rights adjudication process. Many individuals voiced complaints that they were unsure as to the status of their own permit, or that they could not obtain information as to pending permits in a given area. Examples of water uses that have been distributed for bodies of water with pending applications for adjudication of a water right were revealed at these meetings. Directing the department to develop and implement a standardized procedure is an effort which will better serve the public interest regarding the distribution of our state's water.

This bill also directs the department to make public records, including pending applications for water rights adjudication, available on the internet.

It was agreed in many of the meetings this fall that the posting of information on the internet was an acceptable method of public notice, and a desirable avenue for public access to records. The department was able to use their website for several well designed pages supporting the proposed regulation changes, and should be able to implement a means of similar access to other matters of public record.

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Attachments:

• Bill History for HB 421
  
• Print Friendly Version
  Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader - 1 page(s) - 16 K

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