We will continue to work diligently and collaboratively with our Federal, State, and Alaska Native partners, affected communities, and others to chart a coordinated and strategic path forward that is responsive to these concerns.

Thank you for making the job easier for those of our Federal partners.

I would hope that if there is any agreement up here, it is with a recognition that when our Native peoples, our indigenous peoples, are provided or given a promise by the Federal Government that the very basic promise will be kept and that…

the longer the FUDS are contaminated, the more we see the PCB pollution remain in the food chain

It seems to me that the Department of Interior, that BLM, is probably in the best position to act as coordinating agency.

It was here in the Aleutians where this Country was invaded by the Japanese.

We have an obligation to clean up the messes that we create.

I take your point on consultation very seriously.

I would hope the Department of Interior and you as the new BLM State director would be willing to make that commitment.

We cannot, we cannot continue to say it is somebody else's responsibility.

But it shouldn't be hard for the people who gave up 90 percent of their country for $60 billion or $30 billion.

I would just ask that through BLM, through Interior, that they play a role as the coordinating lead.

We recognize that travel here is a little bit different than anywhere else in the Country.

We have already identified the responsible parties. We have done that. That is what we began to do in 1998.

But it is not without its challenges.

It seems to me that the directive to the BLM was to prepare a cleanup plan for each of the contaminated sites. So just transferring it to the State, then, doesn't seem to be a very fair plan for cleanup.

Thank you, Dr. Waterhouse.

we are seeing increased instances of breast cancer amongst Alaska Native women attributed to the PCBs from FUDS

We have an obligation on the Federal side to clean up messes that have been created by our own government.

I guarantee you if they wanted to make it a priority, they would.

I think we recognize that when it comes to land conveyances in this State, none of this is easy.

The responsibility, full stop, is the Federal Government, and the indigenous people, the Alaska Native people have an expectation that the Federal Government will work out who the responsible party is amongst themselves.

we sincerely thank the Committee for this opportunity to discuss the Corps' environmental cleanup activities on ANCSA contained lands

I want to know actually what we have been doing to get these specific sites cleaned up.

And Mayor, that was one of the things that you had mentioned in your comments as well, is that the Ounalashka Corporation would like to be more included in cleanup aspects of it, and recognizing that this builds capacity and provides for…