By Patricia Liles
For the Journal

Supporters of the Alaska Clean Water ballot initiative rushed to Fairbanks in late October to gather signatures from Alaska Natives streaming into the Interior for the annual Alaska Federation of Natives convention.

The political move may ultimately backfire for the group pushing stringent new regulations for water discharges from mining operations.

That's because delegates attending the AFN convention in October unanimously approved a resolution opposing the water ballot initiative. After learning that the ballot issue affects mine projects throughout Alaska, AFN delegates voted to suspend rules to discuss the proposed opposition resolution, initially introduced by Doyon Ltd., the Interior Alaska regional corporation.

“Orie Williams (Doyon president and CEO) explained fairly clearly that this issue could affect the 7(i) payments in the future. The 7(i) is a really important process, where mineral wealth is shared with other Native regional corporations and Native village corporations,” said Tim Towarak, co-chair of AFN's board and president and CEO of Bering Straits Regional Corp. “Many corporations rely on that as their lifeblood, so it's a big concern for most everyone.”

The revenue sharing 7(i) provision of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act requires that any of the 12 Alaska-based regional corporations with landholdings that receive net revenue from development of subsurface or timber resources to pay 70 percent into a fund shared among all corporations.

Currently, NANA Regional Corp., with the Red Dog zinc mine, and Arctic Slope Regional Corp., with its share of the Alpine oil field, are the biggest contributors to the 7(i) fund, sharing millions of dollars each year that is distributed throughout Alaska.

“This initiative could stop the whole mining industry in Alaska and impact our ability to manage, develop and benefit from our lands,” said Helvi Sandvik, president of NANA Development Corp., the operating arm of the NANA regional corporation. “Further, all Native people would be affected because the revenues from mining on Native land are shared among all Native and Village corporations...we view this as substantially eliminating our right to consider development alternatives on our lands.”

Doyon currently has three different mining exploration companies working on its corporate-owned land, firms that spent about $3 million this year, according to Norm Phillips, resource manager at Doyon.

The Interior Alaska regional corporation hopes one or more of those companies will identify a mineable deposit, ultimately allowing Doyon to contribute to 7(i). The proposed water ballot initiative could block that economic opportunity for Doyon, Phillips said.

“The clean water initiative is poorly worded...it takes away our rights to develop our mineral resources,” he said. “We believe the state and federal regulations, as well as the conditions we place on projects on our land, will do the best to protect the environment.”

Land ownership provides an inherent vested interest for Native corporations to ensure such environmentally sound development, Sandvik said.

“Our concern is that an initiative like this fails to recognize that NANA, or any other Native corporation, more than anyone else is concerned about environmental issues in our region - we have an obligation to manage our lands in the best interest of our shareholders who will forever live off of the land,” Sandvik said. “In the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, we were given the right to make development decisions for our lands. This initiative in essence would preclude any project anywhere from going forward if water discharge would be required, regardless of whether that discharge could be done in a scientifically proven safe method. This is inappropriate.”

Prior to passing the opposition resolution, AFN delegates decided to eliminate wording that identified the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in Southwest Alaska, the volcano of heated debate between development and environmental opponents.

“We originally thought it would only affect Bristol Bay and any developments in that specific watershed...this initiative is principally done to stop Pebble, a regional issue,” Towarak said. “If so, AFN would probably not have taken a position. By agreement, members only address statewide issues.”

By including mine operations larger than 640 acres, including transportation infrastructure, the proposed water ballot initiative would include projects the size of the Rock Creek gold mine, currently being built near Nome.

Rock Creek's development has provided substantial economic benefit to Bering Straits Regional Corp. and its shareholders, Towarak said. The corporation signed a surface and subsurface lease agreement with Rock Creek developer, NovaGold Resources, and has landed several work contracts during construction of the operation.

Environmental groups challenged the federal wetlands permit for Rock Creek, a move with which Bering Straits leaders disagreed.

“We've been stewards of the land for centuries and we think we know what's good for the land, provided there is protection to the subsistence resources. We wouldn't have an agreement without these provisions,” Towarak said. “We're not discounting any lawsuits, but we want to ensure our shareholders that we're working very closely with regulatory agencies on the mining operation to make sure it is done in a safe, environmentally sound manner.”

The manner in which signatures were sought from AFN convention delegates by the water ballot supporters was also problematic, Towarak said.

“When I came up to Fairbanks, people began sticking that signature booklet in our faces and I was offended,” Towarak said. “They were not explaining what the proposition was about...the few people I saw who signed it did not understand the issue but just signed it.”

In addition to the AFN resolution, the Bering Straits corporation plans to include an article about the ballot initiative in the corporation's quarterly newsletter.

“We want to make sure people understand both sides of the issue,” Towarak said.