Linking Alaska’s Resources to Alaska’s People 28 2024 Meet Alaska Conference & Trade Show Implementation follows decision in Sackett vs. EPA Alaska’s development agency has new guidance for Alaska industries trying to navigate new Federal water rules. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, has developed a method for determining whether wetlands are subject to federal or state regulatory jurisdiction. The new AIDEA Jurisdictional Evaluation Method, or JEM, was released in November and follows United States Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (Sackett). That decision clarified the definition of “Waters of the United States,” the stream and wetlands subject to the U.S. Clean Water Act and significantly narrowed the reach of federal wetlands regulatory jurisdiction. For decades, federal agencies have used the wetlands regulatory process to slow or halt the development of resources on state lands, and often impose permit conditions such as costly compensatory mitigation requirements that challenge the economics of a project. In some cases, Alaskans conducting activities on their own property that accidentally disturb wetlands have received large fines for not obtaining prior federal authorization. Such federal control over wetlands emphasizes the importance of identifying the jurisdictional boundaries that determine whether a project is subject to state or federal permit standards. This is particularly true in Alaska given that the state contains 175 million acres of wetlands, which equates to 63 percent of all wetlands AIDEA develops method for wetlands decisions
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