Water-Mining Initiative Fails Legal Test

June 22, 2007, Anchorage, Alaska – Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell denied certification yesterday of an application for an initiative related to water and mining. The initiative would have set out water quality-related prohibitions for any new metallic mining operations over 640 acres in size.

According to Lieutenant Governor Parnell, “The initiative would impermissibly allocate public lands and waters away from mining uses. The people, via Alaska’s constitution and statutes, reserved these powers of appropriation to the legislature.”

Lieutenant Governor Parnell’s decision was supported by an Alaska Department of Law legal opinion, dated June 21, 2007, which concluded that “the initiative goes beyond regulation and is an impermissible allocation of public assets.” The Department of Law relied on Alaska Supreme Court case precedent to conclude that the initiative improperly prevents concurrent use of resources by allocating both public land and water away from mining activity. The lieutenant governor’s decision may be appealed within 30 days.

The Department of Law’s memo is available online
The lieutenant governor’s letter to the initiative’s sponsors is available online

The Division of Elections memorandum is available online