House Bill 191 to change coastal management program has tough going

Commissioner Irwin testified the goal of HB 191 is to make everything the same; project coordination office will be established in DNR

Kristen Nelson

PNA Editor-in-Chief

House Bill 191 made it out of the House Special Committee on Fisheries March 26 over the objections of the committee’s two Democrats and in the face of a storm of protest from fishing interests and coastal communities, who told the committee that with the elimination of coastal resource service areas and requirements that local communities be consulted, local interests would loose out.

The bill goes next to House Resources, where it was scheduled to be heard March 28. Resource groups support this attempt by the administration to make changes in the Alaska Coastal Management Program, and have argued that the present coastal management program is a “poster child” for a process that has become very inefficient. Attorney Jeff Leppo, representing the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, summed up support for the changes, telling the committee that reform is imperative. The coastal management program, he said, is the “single most problematic permitting issue” in the state.

Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, while not on House Fisheries, has taken the lead in defending the existing system. She told the committee that the present coastal management program gives a voice to local areas, particularly those without the wherewithal to organize as boroughs. She recommended that the Legislature fix problems in the existing program rather than eliminating it.

Coastal areas said the bill would take away the ability of villages to work together in managing coastal resources.

There were many comments from coastal areas: from Bethel came an objection that inputs under the new system would be limited to municipalities, while city limits in the overall picture are tiny dots on the landscape; another, from a member of a coastal area board, said the coastal resource service areas perform an important government function in bringing local knowledge to decisions.

Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin told the committee that the goal of this bill is to make everything the same, and noted that a project coordination office will be established in DNR. That office, he said, will bring together “multi-talented highly specialized people all with their own very strong technical opinions” and will also, he said, bring in affected communities.

DNR has already started discussions with federal agencies to bring them into a project team. With a team, he said, you get efficiencies, you “don’t have people going down different paths.”