Sponsor Statement for SJR 20

SJR 20 encourages Congress to amend the federal Clean Water Act to:

1. continue existing activities related to airport safety, logging, mining, ice pads, roads, and snow removal without being determined to add to the "cumulative" loss of wetlands nationally;
2. provide flexibility in Alaska wetlands permitting by allowing the establishment of general permits for the discharge of dredged or fill material into disposal sites;
3. eliminate existing requirements to mitigate unavoidable impacts or to prove alternative sites do not exist;
4. require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to customize a permitting process for lands conveyed under the Alaska Statehood Act and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that does not include burdensome mitigation or avoidance requirements.

SJR 20 endorses the efforts of Senators Stevens and Murkowski to amend the Clean Water Act to modify the wetlands regulatory program through S. 49.

Despite the fact that Alaska has, since the 1700s maintained 99.5% of its wetlands - environmentalists have testified before this legislature and written in the National Wetlands Newsletter that Alaska is attempting to undermine the Clean Water Act in the name of development and oil and gas exploration. They claim that tourism will suffer. The rural villages in Alaska are the ones who suffer - 98% are surrounded by or are adjacent to wetlands and have no other option but to build schools, airstrips and basic community infrastructure over marshy areas. Alaska has 170,000,000 acres of wetlands, 88% of which are publicly owned. 60,000,000 of those wetlands are under some sort of federal protection (refuge, park, wilderness). Alaskans have proven we care about our environment and can develop a sustainable economy with minimal impacts. We need not carry the guilt of the rest of the nation. I urge you to support the resolution.