Alaska case goes to high court

By The Associated Press

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JUNEAU — The U.S. Supreme Court next month will hear arguments on whether the federal government should give the state ownership of submerged lands in Glacier Bay and other spots in Southeast Alaska.

The case began when Alaska commercial fishermen were angered by the National Park Service's decision in 1998 to phase out fishing in Glacier Bay. The state sued, saying that Congress never intended to include the bay itself when it created a national monument there in 1925.

State attorneys are also asking the court to resolve a 34-year-old state-federal boundary dispute over the rest of Southeast Alaska's inland waters.

"It's part of that ancient battle of who owns the land in Alaska," said Avrum Gross, a former state attorney general who fought the federal government in suits over oil- and gas-laden marine deposits in the Beaufort Sea and Cook Inlet.

Both sides have agreed that Alaska has rights to most of the submerged lands in Southeast Alaska, whittling down the disputed territory by about 80 percent.

But the U.S. Department of Justice is fighting Alaska's attempt to acquire submerged land in Glacier Bay and smaller pockets — also called "doughnut holes" — in Chatham Strait, Frederick Sound, Stephens Passage and other inland channels. The doughnut holes are in isolated spots more than three miles from the shoreline.

The Justice Department in September accused the state of using flawed arguments to obtain the doughnut holes and Glacier Bay.

It disagreed with the state's view that Southeast Alaska islands should be considered an extension of the mainland — a legal distinction that would mold Southeast Alaska into two large bays with numerous islands.

Federal ownership of inland waters "is a serious insult to the people in Southeast Alaska," Assistant Alaska Attorney General Laura Bottger said.

Bottger said a precedent for the state's argument was set when the Supreme Court ruled that Long Island is an extension of the mainland of New York.
 
Some environmentalists fear if Alaska gains control over Glacier Bay, it could ultimately harm its unique ecosystem and endangered species.

Gov. Frank Murkowski has lobbied the National Park Service to increase cruise-ship traffic in the bay.

The United Fishermen of Alaska supports the state's claim.

"We think the state should have jurisdiction over every piece of land and water for fishing, hunting or mining ... though we aren't such poor sports that we don't think there should be some wilderness areas, parks and national forests," said the organization's president, Bob Thorstenson.