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A FAIR, FLEXIBLE, AND EFFECTIVE APPROACH 23 



• Legislative Clarification of Scope of Activities Regulated Under Section 404. 

 Congress should amend the Qean Water Act to make it consistent with the agencies' 

 nilemaking. 



K. STATE OF ALASKA 



Issue Definition: The extent and nature of Alaska wetlands reflect, in part, climatological and 

 physiographic conditions found in no other State. More than 99 percent of Alaska's wetlands 

 remain, and much of the State's developable lands are wetlands. This abundance of wetlands in 

 combination with Alaska's short building season, leads some to claim that the Section 404 

 program places a heavier burden on Alaskans than on the rest of the country. 



The previous Administration attempted to address some of these concerns by proposing the 

 'Alaska 1% rule" which would have exempted wetlands in Alaska from mitigation requirements 

 until one percent of Alaska's wetland resources had been developed. The "Alaska 1% rule" was 

 published for public comment in November 1992, and 83 percent of the over 6,500 comments 

 received objected to the rule, raising concerns about its potential impact on the environment. 



Objections to the proposed rule focused on several key considerations: 



• An additional 1.5 million acres of Alaska's wetlands would be destroyed before the one percent 

 threshold would be met, including potentially all of Alaska's 345,000 acres of extremely valuable 

 coastal wetlands. Wetlands losses in Alaska have historically been greatest in coastal areas where 

 the State's population is concentrated. For example, losses of high value coastal wetlands near 

 the cities of Anchorage and Juneau are estimated to exceed 50 percent of their historic base. 



• The proposed rule would hinder management efforts for several Federally listed or proposed 

 threatened and endangered species that utilize Alaska's coastal wetlands, as well as hastening the 

 listing of additional candidate species. 



• Although full in-kind compensation is often not possible or practicable, opportunities do exist 

 for restoration or rehabilitation of disturbed areas in proximity to a proposed development that 

 have the potential to benefit affected fish and wildlife populations. 



• There is enough flexibility in the existing Section 404 regulatory program to respond to 

 Alaska's unique concerns administratively. During the last 20 years, of the approximately 4,000 

 permit applications received by the Corps' Alaska Dispict, only 108 (2.7 percent) were denied; 

 the remaining applications were either issued as individual or general permiu, or withdrawn. Of 

 the more than 3,000 individual permits issued, only 15 (0.5 percent) required compensatory 

 mitigation. \ 



