Opponents of a bill that would create a state process for giving waters the highest level of protection under the federal Clean Water Act say the bill would effectively deny any Alaska waters such a designation.<\/p>\n
About a dozen people spoke against a proposed bill during a Monday afternoon House Resources Committee meeting. They argued the bill, which would create a water advisory commission and legislative process for designating Outstanding National Resource Waters<\/a>, would make it unnecessarily difficult to designate what are often called Tier 3 waters<\/a>. That designation allows for only minor and temporary decreases in water quality.<\/p>\n “Requiring a Tier 3 water nomination go through a three-step political process rather than a science-based administrative process all but ensures there will never be a Tier 3 water designation in this state,” said Sarah Davidson during public testimony. Davidson is the Inside Passage Waters Program Manager for Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. She was one of a handful of SEACC staff members who gave personal testimony during the meeting.<\/p>\n House Bill 138<\/a>, which is sponsored by Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, would allow the public to nominate bodies of water and put the power of designating Tier 3 waters the hands of the Legislature, but only if nominated bodies of water received approval from a 7-person commission. There are currently no Tier 3 waters in Alaska but five bodies of water have been nominated. More public testimony for the bill will be heard Friday.<\/p>\n The commission would include the commissioners of the Alaska departments of Natural Resources, Environmental Conservation and Fish and Game as well as four designated seats to be filled by governor appointments, according to a presentation given during the meeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n That includes a seat for a tribal entity or Native corporation, environmental or conservation on-governmental organization, a resource-development NGO and a representative of local governments.<\/p>\n Rep. Sara Rasmussen, R-Anchorage, asked if the commission would be subject to legislative review.<\/p>\n