The Observer, May 2004

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Session raises few issues for council

By Douglas Mertz
Legislative Monitor

No bills of critical importance to the citizens’ council got serious consideration in Juneau this year.

The issue of most interest to the council this session involved last year’s “sweep” into the general fund of some special-purpose funds, including money for the state’s oil spill program. Like many other stakeholders, the council wanted the sweeps reversed and the “swept” funds restored for their original purposes. The Legislature did so, but only in the closing hours of the session.

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) weathered the crisis with a combination of shifting appropriations and luck in that there were no major spills to drain off available funds.

Meantime, several bills that could affect the marine environment passed. A bill regarding assumption by the state of federal wastewater discharge duties (the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program) passed, but only for timber operations. The Murkowski administration decided a bill to assume the program for all purposes was premature, but may introduce it next year. A bill to regulate wastewater discharges from small cruise ships passed, but should not change things significantly.

The Legislature paid a lot of attention this year to gasline proposals, including one that would have mandated consideration of Valdez as a terminus. The result was funding for further studies, but no mandates that should trouble the council.

In the budgets that passed the Legislature – though still subject to the Governor’s vetoes – the existing level of funding for DEC’s Spill Division was essentially continued.