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House Resources gets ANWR border update State working to resolve ownership of some 20,000 onshore, 3,000 offshore acres it claims as part of statehood land entitlement Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The state is continuing work to get back some 23,000 acres on the boundary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which it claimed at statehood, but has lost through federal revision of maps of the refuge boundary.
Brent Goodrum, director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water in the Department of Natural Resources, provided an update of the boundary dispute to the House Resources Committee Feb. 4.
The boundary dispute, as reported by Petroleum News Oct. 26 of last year, has been ongoing for decades.
In 1964 the state filed general grant selection for lands adjacent to ANWR, then called the Arctic National Wildlife Range, including land west of the Canning River. That land selection was tentatively approved by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that same year.
When the state requested clarification of the range boundary in 1965, however, BLM amended the tentative approval, reducing the acres conveyed to the state.
In 1974 the state received patent to land west of the Staines River, and in 1978 reasserted claim to land west of the Canning River - the acreage dropped from the state’s original grant selection in 1965.
1980 saw the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and creation of ANWR, and in 1981 the state “top filed” for land west of the Canning River under Section 906(e) of ANILCA.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published legal descriptions for ANILCA conservation system units in 1983.
In 1992 the state relinquished selection of “those lands within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” but in 1993 the state reasserted “top filing” on land west of the Canning River.
In 2000 the state again reasserted selection for land west of the Canning River and in 2003 the state and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted joint field inspection of the ANWR boundary. A report by DNR highlighted errors in the federal description of the disputed boundary.
Goodrum told the committee the 2003 joint inspection was first led by the Department of the Interior with specialists from BLM and FWS; then the state led a three-day inspection of the area.
The Simpson Report, generated by the state, was supplied to both federal agencies, Goodrum said, but neither of those agencies generated a report back to the state. The state requested copies of reports, he said, but none were generated and the issue went cold.
2011 sale Following a 2011 DNR Division of Oil and Gas lease sale, including bids on tracts near the disputed boundary, that division began working with the Division of Mining, Land and Water to obtain acreage calculations.
By 2012, staff from the two divisions determined that the boundary issue needed more clarification.
Goodrum said the onshore and offshore boundary disputes involve different legal claims, with the Department of Law and the Division of Oil and Gas working the offshore claims for some 3,000 acres and Law and the Division of Mining, Land and Water working the onshore claims for some 20,000 acres.
In 2013 DNR began work to support priority conveyance of uplands and state assertions regarding state/federal land ownership at the ANWR boundary.
In July 2014 DNR and the Alaska Department of Law conducted field inspections at the ANWR boundary, and Goodrum said those inspections led the state to believe that its 2003 findings were correct.
In August through September DNR conducted additional review using information gathered during field inspection and in October, DNR requested priority conveyance of lands west of the Canning River.
Goodrum said the federal agencies have not responded to the state’s October request for priority conveyance, but said it is the state’s intention to work with the federal agencies to bring closure to this issue.
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