The increasing crush of complex issues and decisions facing state land managers has a silver lining for Alaskans and our mining industry. It means things are happening. The busier we are at the Department of Natural Resources, the better Alaska is doing, in terms of jobs, revenue and overall economic health.
Much already has been said in this publication about the difficulties facing large mining projects in Alaska. On many fronts, the State is engaged in a continual battle to maintain and protect a state and federal permitting system for large mines that has worked very well in Alaska. So I will focus on some other issues that have not received quite as much attention.
We are pleased to report that Alaska’s placer miners just finished off a busy summer season. DNR processed 447 placer mining applications this year, with about 312 operations on state land. Our staff spends a considerable amount of time in the field visiting these operations and provides much assistance to these miners to ensure responsible operations.
That said, small-scale miners in Alaska face some serious issues, with more stringent federal regulations and policies under development. Our staff is working closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as it rewrites its general permit for small placer mining operations. The Corps’ draft permit recently published for public comment has elicited considerable concern, and DNR is asking the Corps to develop a general permit that is workable for the small miners. The Corps is not the only federal agency focused on placer mining right now: the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is in the process of revising placer mining reclamation performance standards and re-writing its staff procedures on placer mine permitting.
Wetland issues remain at the forefront of our efforts to improve the permitting environment in Alaska. We are still extremely interested in the possibility of the State of Alaska assuming the wetlands permitting program for Alaska from the Corps. I believe that in the long run, more state control over this critical permitting function can only benefit us. The state has had much success in assuming another major permitting program from the federal government – the wastewater discharge permit program.
In addition to state assumption, the State is also looking at ways to better handle wetlands compensatory mitigation. Currently, the norm in Alaska is for a project proponent to pay ever-increasing sums of money for every acre of disturbed wetlands or impacted streams – money that is subsequently used to buy and lock up additional land. Alaska has largely-intact wetlands and more wetlands acreage than anywhere else in the United States. Lower 48 compensatory solutions don’t work here because we don’t have many degraded natural areas to restore. Can’t we use this money to instead address real environmental problems? Restoring fish habitat by fixing perched culverts, for example? The state is looking for solutions that will help public and private development. Until then, small-scale placer miners, homebuilders and our own Department of Transportation and Public Facilities are caught by regulations that are not flexible for our unique and abundant natural lands.
We are always looking for ways to improve our permitting process. One of our strongest efforts is in developing a modernized system to manage the permitting business process in DNR’s Division of Mining, Land and Water. This division has the highest permitting workload within our department, and has developed a serious backlog over the years (we have cut this backlog by over 50 percent in the last few years!). Our updated business process is already handling some of the permitting workload and we continue to make improvements almost daily. In time, we hope that we can thoroughly modernize the permitting systems not only within this division but throughout the entire department.
Our staff at the Division of Geologic and Geophysical Surveys has been busy, too. This year, DGGS has released airborne geophysical surveys for more than 2,500 square miles (6,477 square kilometers) of new ground in the Wrangellia and Farewell areas. It also has published data from the re-analysis of thousands of old samples collected by the BLM, the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and the U.S. Geological Survey with modern analytical techniques. To find this information, please visit http://www.dggs.alaska.gov/
But perhaps the most exciting news from DGGS is the imminent opening of its new Geologic Materials Center facility in Anchorage. As many of you probably know, the old facility in Eagle River was worse than inadequate. The new location, a large warehouse space previously occupied by a Sam’s Club, will not only provide secure storage, but also improved accessibility to our geologic materials for decades to come. This new facility will allow school groups and the public to understand the importance of geology to every Alaskan. We expect the entire collection of geologic materials from Eagle River to the new center to be moved by early next summer.
Another exciting development for us is the creation of the Governor’s Alaska Geospatial Council. This body is tasked with developing a system to better coordinate geospatial data throughout the state, and also with completing a new and accurate digital base map of the state using new satellite imagery and an accurate digital elevation model. The council has already acquired new 2.5 meter SPOT satellite imagery for the entire state, and it is about halfway done with a statewide 5-meter digital elevation model. This base map will prove valuable to scientific researchers and the general public – not to mention mineral explorers– and is driving the development of the new USGS topographic maps. For more information, go to http://agc.dnr.alaska.gov/
I have described just a few of the projects we are working on. It has been an exciting time here at DNR, and we are all trying hard to continually find ways to improve the way we manage Alaskans’ vast portfolio of natural resources.
