[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 4 (Monday, January 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S680-S681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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           ALASKA WETLANDS CONSERVATION CREDIT PROCEDURES ACT

 Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, on January 4 I introduced S. 49, 
the Alaska Wetlands Conservation Credit Procedures Act. The bill was 
not printed at that point in the Record so I now ask that it be 
printed.
  The bill follows:

                                 S. 49

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION. 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Alaska Wetlands Conservation 
     Credit Procedures Act of 1994''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       The Congress finds that--
       (1) according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
     approximately 170,200,000 acres of wetlands existed in Alaska 
     in the 1780's and approximately 170,000,000 acres of wetlands 
     exist now, representing a loss rate of less than one-tenth of 
     1 percent through human and natural processes;
       (2) according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife more than 221 
     million acres of wetlands existed at the time of Colonial 
     America in the area that is now the contiguous United States 
     and 117 million of those acres, roughly 53 percent, have been 
     filled, drained, or otherwise removed from wetland status;
       (3) Alaska contains more wetlands than any other State, and 
     more wetlands than all other States combined;
       (4) eighty-eight percent of Alaska's wetlands are publicly 
     owned, whereas only 26 percent of the wetlands in the 
     contiguous 48 States are in public ownership;
       (5) approximately 98 percent of all Alaskan communities, 
     including 200 of 209 remote villages in Alaska, are located 
     in or adjacent to wetlands;
       (6) approximately 62 percent of all federally designated 
     wilderness lands, 70 percent of all Federal park lands, and 
     90 percent of all Federal refuge lands are located in Alaska, 
     thus providing protection to approximately 60 million acres 
     of wetlands;
       (7) more than 60 million acres of wetland are conserved in 
     some form by land designations that restrict utilization or 
     degradation of wetlands;
       (8) 104 million acres of land were granted to the State of 
     Alaska at statehood for purposes of economic development;
       (9) approximately 43 million acres of land were granted to 
     Native Alaskans through regional and village corporations 
     and native allotments for their use and between 45 percent 
     and 100 percent of each Native corporations' land is 
     categorized as wetlands;
       (10) development of basic community infrastructure in 
     Alaska, where approximately 75 percent of the nonmountainous 
     areas are wetlands, is often delayed sometimes prevented by 
     the wetlands regulatory program for minimal identifiable 
     environmental benefit;
       (11) the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act formerly regulated 
     disposition of dredge spoils in navigable waters, which did 
     not include wetlands, to keep navigable waters free of 
     impairments;
       (12) the 1972 Clean Water Act formed the basis for a broad 
     expansion of Federal jurisdiction over wetlands by modifying 
     the definition of ``navigable waters' to include all ``waters 
     in the United States'';
       (13) in 1975, a U.S. District Court ordered the Corps to 
     publish revised regulations concerning the scope of the 
     section 404 program, regulations that expanded the scope of 
     the program to include the discharge of dredged and fill 
     material into wetlands;
       (14) the wetlands regulatory program was expanded yet again 
     by regulatory action to include isolated wetlands, those that 
     are not adjacent to navigable waters, and such an expansion 
     formed the basis for burdensome intrusions on the property 
     rights of Alaskans, Alaskan Native Corporations, the State of 
     Alaska, and property owners in Alaska;
       (15) expansion of the wetlands regulatory program in this 
     manner is beyond what the Congress intended when it passed 
     the Clean Water Act and the expansion has placed increasing 
     and unnecessary economic and administrative burdens on 
     private property owners, small businesses, city governments, 
     State governments, farmers, ranchers, and other for 
     negligible environmental benefit associated with wetland 
     permits;
       (16) for Alaska, a State with substantial conserved 
     wetlands and less than 1 percent private, noncorporate land 
     ownership, the burdens of the current wetlands regulatory 
     program unnecessarily inhibit reasonable community growth and 
     environmentally benign, sensitive resource development;
       (17) Alaska villages, municipalities, boroughs, city 
     governments, and Native organizations are experiencing 
     increasing frustration with the constraints of the wetlands 
     regulatory program because it interferes with the location of 
     community centers, airports, sanitation systems, roads, 
     schools, industrial areas, and other critical community 
     infrastructure;
       (18) policies that purport to achieve ``no net loss'' of 
     wetlands reflect a Federal response to the 53 percent loss of 
     the wetlands base in the South 48, a calculation that 
     excludes Alaska wetlands;
       (19) total wetlands loss in Alaska is less than one-tenth 
     of 1 percent of the total wetlands acreage in Alaska;
       (20) individual landowners in Alaska have experienced 
     devaluations of up to 97 percent of their property value due 
     to wetlands regulations and the tax base of many communities 
     has diminished by those regulations.

     SEC. 3 AMENDMENT TO THE FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT.

       The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et 
     seq.) is amended--
       (a) in section 101(a) (33 U.S.C. 1251(a)) by--
       (1) striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (6);
       (2) striking the period at the end of paragraph (7) and 
     inserting in lieu thereof ``; and''; and
       (3) adding the following new paragraphs:
       ``(8) it is the national policy to--(A) achieve a balance 
     between wetlands conservation and adverse economic impacts on 
     local, regional, and private economic interests and (B) to 
     eliminate the regulatory taking of private property by the 
     regulatory program authorized under section 404;
       ``(9) it is the national policy to encourage localized 
     wetlands planning, without mandating it and by providing 
     funds to encourage it, and such planning shall allow local 
     political subdivisions and local governments to apply 
     differential standards for the issuance of wetlands permits 
     based on factors that include the relative amount of 
     conserved wetlands habitat and the wetlands loss rate in the 
     State in which such political subdivision or local government 
     is located; and
       ``(10) it is the national policy that compensatory 
     mitigation on wetlands or potential wetlands located outside 
     the boundaries of a State shall not be required, requested, 
     or otherwise utilized to offset impacts to wetlands inside 
     that State.''.
       (b) in section 404(b) (33 U.S.C. 1344(b)) by inserting 
     immediately after ``anchorage'' the following: ``; provided 
     however, that the guidelines adopted pursuant to clause (1) 
     for a State with substantial conserved wetlands areas--
       ``(A) shall not include requirements or standards for 
     mitigation to compensate for wetlands loss and adverse 
     impacts to wetlands;
       ``(B) may include requirements or standards for 
     minimization of adverse impacts to wetlands; and
       ``(C) may include standards or requirements for avoidance 
     of impacts only if the permit applicant is not required to 
     establish that upland alternative sites do not 
     exists.''. [[Page S681]] 
       (c) in section 404(e) (33 U.S.C. 1344(e)) by inserting at 
     the end the following new paragraph--
       ``(3) Notwithstanding the requirements of paragraphs 
     (1) and (2), at the request of a State with substantial 
     conserved wetlands areas, the Secretary shall issue 
     general permits for such States and the requirements under 
     which such general permits are issued shall contain a 
     regulatory standard for discharge of dredged or fill 
     material into navigable waters in such State, including 
     wetlands, that is no greater than the standard under 
     subsection (b).''.
       (d) in section 404(f)(1) (33 U.S.C. 1344(f)(1)) by--
       (1) striking the comma at the end of subparagraph (F) and 
     inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon; and
       (2) adding the following new subparagraphs--
       ``(G) associated with airport safety (ground and air) in a 
     State with substantial conserved wetlands areas, and in any 
     case associated with airport safety (gound and air) when the 
     Secretary of Transportation determines that it is advisable 
     for public safety reasons and deems it necessary;
       ``(H) for construction and maintenance of log transfer 
     facilities associated with log transportation activities;
       ``(I) for construction of tailings impoundments utilized 
     for treatment facilities (as determined by the development 
     document) for the mining subcategory for which the tailings 
     impoundment is constructed;
       ``(J) for construction of ice pads and ice roads and for 
     purposes of snow storage and removal,''.
       (e) by adding at the end of section 404 (33 U.S.C. 1344) 
     the following new subsections--
       ``(s) Definitions.--For purposes of this section the term--
       ``(1) `conserved wetlands' means wetlands that are located 
     in the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, 
     National Wilderness System, the Wild and Scenic River System, 
     and other similar Federal conservation systems, combined with 
     wetlands located in comparable types of conservation systems 
     established under State and local authority within State and 
     local land use systems.
       ``(2) `economic base lands' means lands conveyed to, 
     selected by, or owned by Alaska Native entities pursuant to 
     the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Public Law 92-203, 
     as amended, or the Alaska Native Allotment of 1906 (34 stat. 
     197), and lands conveyed to, selected by, or owned by the 
     State of Alaska pursuant to the Alaska Statehood Act, Public 
     Law 85-508, as amended.
       ``(3) `State with substantial conserved wetlands areas' 
     means any State which--
       ``(A) contains at least 15 acres of wetlands for each acre 
     of wetlands filled, drained, or otherwise converted within 
     such State (based upon wetlands loss statistics reported in 
     the 1990 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wetlands Trends 
     Report to Congress entitled `Wetlands Losses In the United 
     States 1780's to 1980's'); or
       ``(B) the Secretary of the Army determines has sufficient 
     conserved wetlands areas to provide adequate wetlands 
     conservation in such State, based on the policies set 
     forth in this Act.
       ``(t) Alaska Native and State of Alaska Lands.--
       ``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall issue individual and 
     general permits pursuant to the standards and requirements of 
     subsections (a) and (b) for a State with substantial 
     conserved wetlands areas.
       ``(2) Permit considerations.--For permits issued pursuant 
     to this section for economic base lands, in addition to the 
     requirements in subsections (a) and (b), the Secretary 
     shall--
       ``(A) balance the standards and policies of this Act 
     against the obligations of the United States to allow 
     economic base lands to be beneficially used to create and 
     sustain economic activity;
       ``(B) with respect to Alaska Native lands, give substantial 
     weight to the social and economic needs of Alaska Natives; 
     and
       ``(C) account for regional differences in the abundance and 
     value of wetlands.
       ``(3) General permits.--For permits issued under this 
     section on lands owned by Alaska villages, the Secretary 
     shall issue general permits for disposition of dredged and 
     fill material for critical infrastructure including water and 
     sewer systems, airports, roads, communication sites, fuel 
     storage sites, landfills, housing, hospitals, medical 
     clinics, schools, and other community infrastructure in rural 
     Alaska villages without a determination that activities 
     authorized by such a general permit cause only minimal 
     adverse environmental effects when performed separately and 
     will have only minimal cumulative adverse effects on the 
     environment.
       ``(4) Other considerations.--The Secretary shall consult 
     with and provide assistance to Alaska Natives (including 
     Alaska Native Corporations) and the State of Alaska regarding 
     promulgation and administration of policies and regulations 
     under this section.''.

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