Money for Nothing
We dug in on digging up wetlands this morning in the Senate Finance Committee. The state’s been noodling on the idea of taking 404 primacy for years.
If that happens, the state would be responsible for around 75% of permits to drain, dredge, or fill Alaska wetlands. That's what section 404 of the relevant federal law is about. Right now the federal EPA does all of them. If the state took over as the primary permitter, we'd call that "taking primacy." Uncle Sam would still keep certain wetlands, including ones with water affecting interstate commerce.
Last year DEC asked for the money to do this, but the legislature balked and instead appropriated $1 million to study the concept. The report said 404 primacy will be better for permittees since the state could use more flexible mitigation plans and it’ll be easier to deal with DEC than EPA. But the federal government already has the flexibility they're talking about. Juneau used it for the most recent segment of the downtown seawalk.
And DEC would still need to enforce all the federal standards. Plus, the report predicts fees to applicants would go up. Plus, Alaska Tribes will lose the right to engage in government-to-government conversations with the feds about permit impacts.
Only three other states have 404 primacy. Florida was the most recent, and they had big cost overruns. Taking it on also opens up the state up to lawsuits about the permits, which would have to be funded with state dollars.
So what are the next steps? The governor’s asking for about $5 million in this year’s budget. We couldn’t actually get primacy from the EPA until 2025, but we’d need to staff up and fully fund the program this year to be ready.
If there were no surprises, the program would need 32 new state employees and cost the general fund about $5 million a year into the indefinite future.
I don't mind adding state workers if Alaskans get good value out of their salaries. But I don't see it here. I got the sense a majority of the Finance Committee members had significant concerns, too. This is one to keep an eye on!
