The U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion today in favor of the federal government in the Dinkum Sands case, determining that the lands beneath the coastal lagoons and river deltas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are a part of the Refuge, and ownership did not pass to the State of Alaska at the time of statehood. The Court's decision means the State of Alaska cannot lease these lands for oil and gas development, as it intended to do.

UNITED STATES V. ALASKA, Case No. 84 Original (popularly termed the Dinkum Sands case after a small land formation in the Arctic Ocean), was a dispute between the United States and Alaska over who owns submerged lands along the Arctic Coast of Alaska. The federal government initiated the suit in 1979 by requesting that the U.S. Supreme Court resolve land ownership issues between it and the State of Alaska stemming from the granting of statehood to Alaska in 1959. Among other claims, the State of Alaska contended that, pursuant to the Statehood Act, it was granted ownership of all submerged lands that lie beneath the coastal lagoons of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The federal government disagreed, contending that these lands were set aside as part of the Arctic Wildlife Range proposed in 1957, two years before Alaska became a state.

The federal government's position in the case was supported by a coalition of environmental groups (including The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Alaska Wilderness League, National Audubon Society, Alaska Center for the Environment, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, and Trustees for Alaska) and the Porcupine Caribou Management Board. The amicus curaie brief the groups filed with the Court was prepared by Trustees for Alaska, a nonprofit environmental law firm, with assistance from Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and Sierra Club. Trustees' litigation director, Peter Van Tuyn, was the lead attorney on the brief.

The federal government's arguments in the case focused on two key points: 1) that the application for withdrawal of lands to create the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 1957 effectively withheld from the State of Alaska any offshore submerged lands included in the application which the State would otherwise have been entitled to when it was admitted to the Union two year later; and 2) that the application to withdraw lands to create the Refuge actually included the submerged lands between the mainland at the barrier islands in the area between the Canadian border and Brownlow Point.

The environmental groups gave strong support to the federal government on these points, presenting the Court with evidence regarding the underlying purpose of the Refuge and the importance to fulfilling this purpose that the submerged lands serve.

"Given the importance of the submerged lands to the wildlife resources the Refuge was established to protect, most notably the Porcupine Caribou Herd, designation of the Refuge would have been meaningless without including these submerged lands within its boundaries," said Peter Van Tuyn. "Today's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court firmly places ownership of these lands into the hands of every citizen of the United States, a great cause for celebration indeed!"

Joe Tetlichi, Chair of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board in Whitehorse Canada says, "This is a tremendous victory for the future of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. The PCMB is thankful that it was able to lend its support and it will continue to fight for the continued protection of the calving grounds."

"This is a great victory in the fight to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," said Sylvia Ward, executive director of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, "Now it's time for Congress and the President to provide permanent protection for America's only Arctic Refuge for wilderness, wildlife and future generations of Americans."

[A press release from Arctic Action and the Northern Alaska Environmental Center]