Opinions

Governor fails to protect Alaska fisheries with Senate Bill 163

In the last month, we were concerned about a bill, Senate Bill 163, introduced by Gov. Bill Walker, that would politicize the process for safeguarding valuable salmon streams in Alaska and make it harder for Alaska tribes, fishermen and the public to say certain waters are simply too important to be polluted and degraded. This week, we are downright angry, and Alaskans worried about our fiscal crisis should be too.

Alaska has long needed a process for designating "Outstanding Natural Resource Waters" so we can be in compliance with the national Clean Water Act. This session, the governor has proposed a bill -- a holdover from the Parnell administration -- that politicizes and complicates this process ignoring the advice and input of thousands of Alaska residents.

Alaskan leaders, fishermen, business owners and tribal members like ourselves joined together this month to call on Walker to improve his record on fisheries and clean water policies after we saw this bill and other actions from the administration that set sustainable fisheries policy backwards. After all, based on economic values alone, clean water supports fisheries and visitor industries worth billions to the state of Alaska -- and the value of clean water to our way of life is immeasurable.

We called on Walker to withdraw his support for SB 163 and implement the policies his transition team recommended as a top priority.

Initially, the governor's response to our call was encouraging, "Lt. Gov. Mallott and I remain committed to ensuring safe and sustainable fisheries and protecting the waterways throughout Alaska, we want to make sure that the voices of all stakeholders are heard as we work with the Legislature, per the Constitution, to establish sound fish policy."

Unfortunately, his actions speak far louder than his words.

After such a statement, the Senate just released a new version of the bill that is even uglier than before. The bill still makes it extremely difficult for Alaskans to nominate waters for our highest protections -- and worse, the bill now appears to make it impossible for Alaskan tribes or fishing organizations to do so.

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Then, our governor sent three of his state commissioners to pen an commentary on the matter, published in Alaska Dispatch News. The commissioners did nothing but deceive the public on the intent and implications of the new version of his bill.

In truth, passing SB 163 would create the most costly and cumbersome process imaginable for Alaskans to protect our most important waters, and would give the state more discretion not to ever even consider those we nominate.

Given Alaska's financial situation, this is an enormous mistake for Alaska. If managed conservatively and judiciously, our waterways and fisheries will sustain Alaska's economy and society well into the future. Protecting them as best we can today is an investment in our economy and should be streamlined, not complicated and politicized.

You'll be hearing mixed messages in the coming days as this bill moves through the Senate. But as people who rely upon both Alaska's fisheries and clean water for our way of life, who want to see them protected for our children and grandchildren, we'll tell you our governor is not acting in our best interest on this. Plain and simple, under this bill, Alaskans would be asked to open their pocketbooks and jump through dozens of hoops to protect our water quality, even though Outside corporations continue to get permits to discharge waste into our waters all the time.

The new version of this bill is simply putting bad lipstick on a pig. Alaskans need healthy salmon runs to sustain our families, communities and economies. We should be able to nominate our most prized waters to preserve our salmon runs for future generations. We plan to tell our senators and the governor to withdraw support from SB 163 and I hope you will too. Our salmon and the health of our most important Alaska waterways could depend on it.

Dorothy Larson is tribal administrator of the Curyung Tribal Council in Dillingham. Mike Friccero is a commercial fisherman from Kodiak. Raymond Sensmeier is a member of the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe Council. Also contributing to this commentary were Melanie Brown, a Bristol Bay setnetter out of Juneau and Mike Wood, a Cook Inlet setnetter and carpenter from Chase.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com or click here to submit via any web browser.

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