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[Senate Report 115-98]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                       Calendar No. 128
                                                       
115th Congress     }                                          {   Report
                                  SENATE
 1st Session       }                                          {   115-98

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TO PROVIDE FOR THE CORRECTION OF A SURVEY OF CERTAIN LAND IN THE STATE 
                               OF ALASKA

                                _______
                                

                  June 8, 2017.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

  Ms. Murkowski, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 267]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was 
referred the bill (S. 267) to provide for the correction of a 
survey of certain land in the State of Alaska, having 
considered the same, reports favorably thereon without 
amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

                                PURPOSE

    The purpose of S. 267 is to provide for the correction of a 
survey of certain Federal land within the boundaries of the 
Swan Lake Hydroelectric Project in the State of Alaska.

                          BACKGROUND AND NEED

    The Swan Lake Hydroelectric project (Project No. 2911) 
originally consisted of a 174-foot high, 430-foot long dam on 
Swan Lake, located 22 air miles northeast of Ketchikan, Alaska. 
The project included a 2,200-foot power tunnel and was able to 
produce 22 megawatts of electricity for the City of Ketchikan 
and surrounding areas. It was funded by the State of Alaska in 
1980 and completed and placed in service in June 1984.
    In the 1980s, the State of Alaska sought to select for 
transfer to the State pursuant to the Alaska Statehood Act 
(Public Law 85-508) all of the land underneath the existing 
reservoir and the lands that would be flooded by a future 
expansion of the reservoir, in the event that the height of the 
dam was ever raised. A 15-foot increase in height was 
anticipated in the second phase of the project, which guided 
the October 20, 1994, state land selection (tentative approval 
AA-71620). In 1997, 1,500-acres of land inside the Tongass 
National Forest were conveyed to the State of Alaska to cover 
the project's existing and anticipated future reservoir size, 
enough land to cover a reservoir to 350 feet elevation (345-
feet required, plus a 5-foot margin for excess rain and wind 
driven wave action on the mountain lake). The conveyance was 
the result of a National Forest Community Grant selection 
(application AA-71620) pursuant to section 6(a) of the Alaska 
Statehood Act of July 7, 1958, (Public Law 85-508). The lands 
were conveyed (Patent No. 50-97-0286) based on U.S. Survey 
11630, filed on May 9, 1997. That survey found that the dam 
with a raised height would cause the reservoir to rise to an 
elevation of about 345-feet above sea level, instead of the 
original 330-feet.
    Since the original conveyance, the State sold the project 
to the Alaska Four Dam Pool agency in 2002. That agency 
subsequently sold the dam to the Southeast Alaska Power 
Authority (SEAPA) in 2009. In anticipation of beginning work to 
raise the height of the dam by 15 feet to store 25 percent more 
water and thus increase electrical output from the project, the 
agency sought a confirmatory land survey in 2012. It found that 
the original survey was in error in one location. The dam 
receives runoff from four separate tributaries. In three of the 
four a small increase in surface elevation did not affect land 
inundation. However, in the fourth tributary, the Lost Creek 
area, on the northeast end of the reservoir, the 350-foot 
elevation contour was improperly drawn. As a result, a higher 
dam is likely to inundate up to an additional 25.8 acres of 
lands, flooding the 0.8 mile of the creek with additional water 
at different hydrological conditions.
    S. 267 is being sought by SEAPA and the State of Alaska to 
guarantee the transfer of all lands from federal to state 
ownership that will make up the project's exterior boundary. 
The State has asked that the acreage be subtracted from the 
nearly 5.2 million acres that the State is still seeking to 
select under terms of the Alaska Statehood Act.
    Construction began in 2016 on the dam height increase and 
is nearing completion. The additional dam height should allow 
enough hydroelectric power to offset up to 12,000 megawatts of 
diesel generation annually.

                          LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    Senators Sullivan and Murkowski introduced S. 267 on 
February 1, 2017.
    Companion legislation, H.R. 219, was introduced in the 
House of Representatives by Representative Young on February 
10, 2017.
    In the 114th Congress, the measure was included in 
Amendment No. 3310, which the Senate agreed to on April 19, 
2016, as an amendment to S. 2012 the Energy Policy 
Modernization Act of 2016, which the Senate passed, as amended, 
on April 20, 2016.
    In the House of Representatives, Representative Young 
introduced a similar measure, H.R. 5402, on June 7, 2016.
    The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources met in open 
business session on March 30, 2017, and ordered S. 267 
favorably reported.

                        COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION

    The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in 
open business session on March 30, 2017, by a majority voice 
vote of a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S. 
267.

                      SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

    Section 1 provides that within 18 months of enactment, the 
Secretary of the Interior, after consultation with the 
Secretary of Agriculture, shall survey the exterior boundaries 
of the tract underlying the Swan Lake project's northeast 
expansion area--labeled as the ``Lost Creek'' area--and issue a 
patent to the State of Alaska for the tract identified as 
needed to cover the reservoir of the Swan Lake project 
boundary. It requires that the land count against the State's 
final conveyance under section 6(a) of the Alaska Statehood Act 
of July 7, 1958 (Public Law 85-508) and that the conveyance 
meet the terms of section 24 of the Federal Power Act (16 
U.S.C. 818).

                   COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS

    The following estimate of the costs of this measure has 
been provided by the Congressional Budget Office:

S. 267--To provide for the correction of a survey of certain land in 
        the State of Alaska

    S. 267 would direct the Department of the Interior to 
conduct a survey of a 26-acre parcel of land within the 
boundary of the Swan Lake Hydroelectric Project in Alaska. The 
bill also would require the federal government to convey the 
parcel, which is currently under the jurisdiction of the U.S. 
Forest Service, to the state of Alaska. Based on an analysis of 
information provided by the affected agencies, CBO estimates 
that implementing the bill would have no significant effect on 
the federal budget. The parcel is not currently generating any 
receipts for the Forest Service and it is not expected to do so 
in the future.
    Enacting S. 267 would not affect direct spending or 
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO 
estimates that enacting the legislation would not increase net 
direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four 
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
    S. 267 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and 
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jeff LaFave. The 
estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.

                      REGULATORY IMPACT EVALUATION

    In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following 
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in 
carrying out S. 267.
    The bill is not a regulatory measure in the sense of 
imposing Government-established standards or significant 
economic responsibilities on private individuals and 
businesses.
    No personal information would be collected in administering 
the provision. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal 
privacy.
    Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the 
enactment of S. 267, as ordered reported.

                   CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING

    S. 267, as ordered reported, does not contain any 
congressionally directed spending items, limited tax benefits, 
or limited tariff benefits as defined in rule XLIV of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate.

                        EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

    Executive Communications were not requested by the 
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in the 115th 
Congress.

                        CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

    In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that no 
changes in existing law are made by the bill as ordered 
reported.
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