Petition Status

BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:

Section 1. Purpose. The purpose of this Act is to protect the statewide public interest in water quality by limiting the discharge or release of certain toxic pollutants on the land and waters of the state, and by establishing management standards and other regulatory prescriptions to ensure that Alaska’s waterways, streams, rivers and lakes, an important public asset, are not adversely impacted by new large scale metallic mineral mining operations and that such prospective operations are appropriately regulated to assure no adverse effects on the state’s clean waters.

Section 2. Regulatory standards affecting streams and waters.

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, approvals, authorizations, licenses and permits for a prospective large scale metallic operation may not be granted or issued to a person or entity to allow activity that directly or indirectly:

(1) releases or discharges a toxic pollutant or pollutants, in a measurable amount that will effect human health or welfare or any stage of the life cycle of salmon, into, any surface or subsurface water, or tributary there to; or that

(2) stores or disposes of metallic mineral mining wastes, including overburden, waste rock, and tailings in a way that could result in the release or discharge of sulfuric acid, other acids, dissolved metals, toxic pollutants or other compounds thereof that will effect, directly or indirectly, surface or subsurface water or tributaries thereto used for human consumption or salmon spawning, rearing, migration or propagation.;

(b) This measure is intended to regulate the operations described herein to prevent the release or discharge of toxic pollutants and other chemicals into the waters of the state. This measure shall not result in the appropriation of lands or waters of the state in any fashion associated with new large scale mining operations. Use of the surface and subsurface waters and the land of the state for a prospective large scale metallic mining operation is not prohibited but is subject to regulation to ensure protection of human health, and welfare and conservation of other state resources which also rely on the waters and land of the state.

Section 3. Scope. Section 2 of this Act does not apply to existing large scale metallic mineral mining operations that have received all required federal, state, and local permits, authorizations, licenses, and approvals on or before the effective date of this Act or to future operations of existing facilities at those sites.

Section 4. Savings Clause. It is the intention of the people of Alaska that each of the provisions of this Act or any portion thereof shall be independent of each of the others, so that the invalidity of any provision or portion thereof shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions or portions thereof, and that all valid provisions and portions thereof shall be effective irrespective of the invalidity of any other provision or portion thereof. Upon enactment, the state shall take all actions necessary to ensure the maximum enforceability of this act. !

Section 5 Definitions.

(a) “large scale metallic mineral mining operation” means a mining operation that extracts metallic minerals or deposits and utilizes or disturbs in excess of 640 acres of lands or waters, either alone or in combination with adjoining, related or concurrent mining activities or operations. This term includes all components of a mining project, including but not limited 10: .

(1) mining, processing, the treatment of ore in preparation for extraction of minerals, and waste or overburden storage or disposal;

(2) any construction or operation of facilities, roads, transmission lines, pipelines, separation facilities, and other support and ancillary facilities;

(3) any mining or treatment plant or equipment connected with the project, underground or on the surface, that contributes or may contribute to the extraction or treatment of metallic minerals or other mineral product; and

(4) any site of tunneling, shaft-sinking, quarrying, or excavation of rock for other purposes, including the construction of water or roadway tunnels, drains or underground sites for the housing of industrial plants or other facilities.

(b) “toxic pollutants” means those substances or substance combinations, including disease-causing agents, which after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into a human, fish or wildlife organism, either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, will, on the basis of information available, cause death, disease, malignancy, behavioral abnormalities, abnormalities, or malfunctions in growth, development, behavior, or reproduction, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions or physical or physiological abnormalities or _defo1]11ations in such organisms or their offspring; “toxic pollutants” includes the following substances, and any other substance identified as a toxic pollutant under 33 U.S.C. 1317(a):

2-chlorophenol; 2,4-dichloraphenol; 2,4-dimethylphenol; ac naphthene; acrolein; acrylonitrile; Aldrin/Dieldrin; ammonia; antimony;° arsenic; . asbestos; benzene; benzidine; beryllium; cadmium; carbon tetrachloride; Chlordane; chlorinated benzenes; chlorinated naphthalene; chlorinated ethanes; chlorine; chloroalkyl ethers; chloroform; chlorophenols; chlorophenoxy herbicides; chromium; copper; cyanide; DDT; Demeton; dichlorobenzenes; dichlorobenzidine; dichloroethylenes; dichloropropane; dichloropropene; dinitrotoluene; diphenlyhydrazine; Endosulfan; Endrin; ethylbenzene; fluoranthene; Guthion; haloethers; halomethanes; Heptachlor; hexachlorobutadiene; hexachlorocyclohexane; hexachlorocyclopentadiene; isphorone; lead; Lindane; Malathion; mercury; methoxychlor; Mirex; napthalene; nickel; nitrobenzene; nitrophenols; nitrosarnines; p-dioxin; Parathion; PCBs; pentachlorophenol; phenol; phthalate esters; polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons; selenium; silver; sulfuric acid, tetrachloroethylene; thallium; toluene; Toxaphene; trichloroethylene; vinyl chloride; and zinc;