Encourage legislators to protect the environment

Spectrum, by Ernesta Ballard

As we consider the role of the permanent fund in Alaska's future, let's review one of our important government services.

Environmental protection and environmental health are core values of our society, having been reaffirmed many times by the United States Congress and, here in Alaska, by our legislature. State and federal laws set clear goals for clean air and water, sanitary food handling, safe drinking water, safe handling of hazardous materials and proper clean-up of pollution and waste. These laws reflect our shared belief that healthy communities depend on a healthy environment.

We also know that a healthy environment depends on a healthy society in which citizens have the will and the means to finance public services and assume responsibility for a common good. We have the will and the means in Alaska to protect our environment as we build an economy with the oil, gas, timber, minerals, coal and fish that are so plentiful in the Great Land. The words of the Legislature in state law show our will: "It is the policy of the state to conserve, improve, and protect its natural resources and environment and control water, land, and air pollution, in order to enhance the health, safety, and welfare of the people of the state and their overall economic and social well being."

Our great natural resources provide us the means. We sought statehood in part because of concern for our first developed resource -- our fish. The hated fish traps were a symbol of our frustration and target of our determination to put Alaskans in charge of Alaska's environment. We discovered oil and captured the royalty income to fund government. We converted a portion of that royalty income to the annual earnings in our permanent fund. Governor Murkowski is in his second year in office. Each of his annual budgets to the Legislature maintains a strong and well funded program in environmental protection.

As with other core services such as education and public safety, environmental protection faces unusual challenges in our unusual state. How unusual is Alaska? Alaska is the nation's only arctic state. Our environmental issues are more common to Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Greenland and Canada than to other states.

Alaska occupies 20 percent of the nation's land base, contains half the nation's wetlands, 40 percent of the nation's surface water, and has a coastline longer than the entire Lower 48. Alaska's proven and unexplored natural resources are greater than any other state. Alaska produces 25 percent of the nation's oil, more than 50 percent of the nation's seafood, and has several world class mines including the world's largest operating zinc mine. Alaska has more federal parks and preserves than any other state. The ANILCA set-aside alone doubled the size of the National Park System. Alaska's natural beauty makes it a major destination for travelers.

We have no statewide power grid, so most Alaskans depend on energy from individual community diesel generators. Municipal and industrial development under these circumstances is particularly challenging, almost always involving the need to balance impacts to land, air and water.

As we embark on oil exploration, new mining, a gas pipeline, new roads and a revitalized timber industry, we must maintain a robust balance of environmental protection and enforcement. These projects cannot proceed without regulatory approval. Without adequate funding, permitting will bog down and economic development will stall. The capital needed to finance these investments will move to more welcoming places.

Resource development and environmental protection are both part of our collective heritage. Our resources are world class. Our challenge is to match them with world-class citizenship and public service. The environmental standards we set are high. The permits we issue assure that the air and water will remain clean. Draconian cuts in state funding are incompatible with resource development and environmental protection. Permit holders and stakeholders need timely and protective service from state government.

The Legislature has before it the opportunity to continue this commitment to environmental protection and a healthy economy by passing a strong state budget. Call your representatives and urge them to vote for a long term fiscal fix for Alaskans.

Ernesta Ballard is the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.