'Bill of Rights' goes to Juneau

PALMER -- Some Valley residents are hoping state legislators will take notice as they head to Juneau with a new "Bill of Rights" in hand.

The "Alaska Property Owners' Bill of Rights" will be handed out to every legislator in the state's capital over the coming week, in hopes of convincing them of the need for protections for property owners on whose property mineral rights have been leased.

"We're here because the Legislature, by and large, has disregarded those calls and have continued to let the barn doors swing, long after the horse has gotten out," said Friends of Mat-Su president Chris Whittington-Evans. "Today property owners in the Valley and across the state put our legislators on notice -- here are the remedies we expect and now is the time to act. Our rights are being given away at a dollar per acre -- how many of you would give 10 times that amount to keep your land the way it is?"

The audience of about 50 at Colony Inn, where a press conference was held to release the bill of rights Thursday, erupted into applause at Whittington-Evans' comment. More Alaskans gathered Thursday in Homer at a similar meeting, steered by the Kachemak Bay Property Owners Alliance.

The bill of rights Whittington-Evans and others are toting to Juneau to distribute to legislators is an attempt to secure for property owners more of a voice in determining whether their property can be explored or developed for shallow-bed natural gas. It also reiterates a request for lease buybacks -- a frequent request from FOMs and others concerned about what they call hastily developed laws addressing CBM development.

"If the Legislature is not willing to buy back those leases, then I want to buy back my own lease -- and I'll pay more than $1 an acre," said Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Betty Vehrs at the meeting.

Some at the meeting spoke to concerns addressed in other sections of the bill of rights -- concerns such as the need for baseline studies of water quality and quantity in areas proposed for leasing, the desire to give local governments the power to adjust regulations to protect their residents and expanded notice requirements. Some said many of those concerns could have been addressed long ago, had the potential for CBM development been presented differently.

"We did not have all the pieces of the puzzle. We heard how it was good, but what were the hazards? … Those questions were never addressed … those issues were never even brought up in a forum, and that's one way trust could be built up in the public," said Mark Clark, a Sutton resident who has said at different meetings that watersheds in the area could be affected by drilling. "I feel very threatened by this whole development because, for some reason, this information is not being put out there for us to evaluate, so the public can decide on their own whether it's acceptable."

Arvita McConnell, who owns mineral rights to property she once owned in Sutton, said at nearly 84 years of age, she's ready to fight for protection for herself and other Sutton residents.

"I don't intend to sit still -- they may think 'Oh, that little old woman doesn't know this, that or the other thing' -- try me!," McConnell said. "When you're fighting for the right, you've got to get in there and fight and don't warn them -- go in there and knock their heads off."