HB 74/ SB 268 Information

In 2006, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation adopted new rules to allow mixing zones in areas where salmon and other fish spawn. HB 74, sponsored by representatives Seaton (R-Homer), Gara (D-Anchorage), and LeDoux (R-Kodiak), SB 238 introduced and sponsored by Senator Gary Stevens (R- Kodiak) would ban mixing zones in spawning areas to protect Alaska’s wild salmon and other fish species that are vital to commercial, subsistence and recreational users.

A “mixing zone” is an area in a water body where pollution levels exceed water quality standards designed to protect people and fish. While mixing zones have generally been authorized in Alaska, state regulations previously prohibited mixing zones in freshwater areas where fish spawn.

To send your legislator a Public Opinion Message about HB 74/SB 238 click here.

How do DEC's regulations compare with HB 74/SB 238?

HB 74/SB 238 (“An Act prohibiting mixing zones in freshwater spawning waters”), sponsored by Reps. Seaton, Gara and LeDoux, offers clear and commonsense legislation that would provide statutory protection for Alaska’s wild salmon and other species of fish. DEC’s new regulations (adopted January 12th, 2006) are full of loopholes and do not offer full protection for wild salmon and other fish.

• DEC’s new regulations allow for mixing zone permit exemptions in spawning areas for several pecies of fish, such as trout, pike, grayling, char, and others, which are protected under HB 74. [18 AAC 70.240(g)]
• DEC’s new regulations contain a “grandfather rule” where any applicant can renew mixing zone permits even if salmon or other fish begin spawning. [18 AAC 70.240(i)]  HB 74/ SB 238 allows only a municipal wastewater facility a renewal of this kind, addressing a few communities’ special needs for a mixing zone.

• HB 74 / SB 238 contains a provision allowing for mixing zones in artificially constructed water bodies where salmon began colonizing, thus ensuring wastewater treatment plants such as that in Valdez can continue operations without regulatory concerns.

• The municipalities of Juneau, Wrangell, Port Alexander, Tenakee Springs, Pelican, Yakutat, Soldotna, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, and, most recently, Haines, all have passed resolutions opposing mixing zones in freshwater spawning areas.
• According to DEC’s Lynn Kent (Juneau Empire, 1/15/06) even salmon spawning areas are subject to mixing zones if salmon, alevin, or eggs are not present.  This suggests that a permit applicant (on whom the burden of proof rests) must go out and do streambottom studies on an the entire river bottom in the proposed mixing zone area to determine whether or not eggs are present. [18 AAC 70.240(j)]
• The new regulations do not explicitly prohibit mixing zones in salmon rearing areas.  Mixing zones will be allowed as long as evidence provided by the applicant determine that the mixing zone will not “adversely affect the present and future capacity of an area to support spawning, incubation, or rearing of any of the five species of Pacific Salmon.” [18 AAC 70.240(e), 18 AAC 70.240(j)]
• DEC’s new regulations state that the applicant must provide the evidence that fish will not be harmed by a mixing zone.  Since the Department of Fish and Game and Department of Natural Resources (by their own admission) both lack the funding or staff to monitor all mixing zones, there is not necessarily any check on the potential damage of a mixing zone. 

Key questions for DEC regulators:

• Why do the new regulations not appear to protect salmon during incubation and rearing phases?
• How can the applicant prove that a discharge will not adversely affect the present or future productivity of an area without discharging into the stream and watching what happens

Please contact the Juneau Watchdog if you have any questions or would like more information.