Chugach Alaska Land Exchange Oil Spill Recovery Act of 2025

(a) Purposes. The purposes of this Act are—

(1) to authorize, direct, and expedite the exchange of land and interests in land between Chugach Alaska and the United States; and

(2) to consolidate Federal ownership of the surface and subsurface estate of Federal land and interests acquired under the Program.

(b) Findings. Congress finds that—

(1) on March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11,000,000 gallons of crude oil, spreading in the months that followed and covering approximately 1,300 miles of coastline, with immense impact for fish and wildlife and their habitats, and for local industries and communities;

(2) civil settlement funds of $900,000,000 paid by Exxon to the United States and the State of Alaska were used to establish the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (referred to in this section as EVOSTC) and to develop the Program;

(3) through the Program, the EVOSTC dedicated nearly 60 percent of the funds to acquire fee title of, and conservation easements on, the surface estate of more than 600,000 acres in the area impacted by the oil spill, including 241,000 acres of surface estate land and conservation easements in the Chugach Region, giving the United States ownership of, and conservation easements on, 241,000 acres of formerly Native-owned land within the Chugach Region;

(4) the conflict described in the Chugach Region Land Study Report and in this Act occurred when surface estate was purchased by the EVOSTC for conservation purposes while development rights remained for the subsurface (dominant estate) owned by Chugach Alaska, which shall be resolved by Chugach Alaska trading approximately 231,000 acres of subsurface estate under surface fee and conservation easements on surface land owned by the Federal Government for 65,374 acres of fee simple land owned by the Federal Government;

(5) most of the surface land and conservation easements on surface land in the Chugach Region described in paragraph (3) that were acquired by the EVOSTC were purchased from 4 Alaska Native Village Corporations—

(A) Chenega Corporation;

(B) the English Bay Corporation;

(C) the Eyak Corporation; and

(D) the Tatitlek Corporation;

(6) in accordance with section 14 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1613), when a Village Corporation selects and receives title to the surface estate to fulfill its land entitlement, the Regional Corporation receives title to the subsurface, resulting in split ownership between Alaska Native entities from the same region;

(7) Chugach Alaska holds the dominant subsurface estate to approximately 241,000 acres of surface land acquired by the EVOSTC from the Village Corporations under paragraph (5) that is protected under the Program;

(8) none of the acquisitions described in paragraph (5) by the EVOSTC included the subsurface interests owned by Chugach Alaska, despite awareness by the EVOSTC of the provisions in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) creating split ownership and the existing right of the subsurface owner to use the surface if it constitutes reasonable use in the development of subsurface resources;

(9) due to the split estate ownership described in paragraph (8), which became a split between Chugach Alaska and the Federal Government, there is a clear conflict with the preservation goal of the Program and the responsibility of Chugach Alaska, on behalf of the Alaska Native shareholders of Chugach Alaska, to develop the subsurface estate under the land;

(10) recognizing the conflicts between the mandates in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) on Native Corporations and the goals of the Program, and the significant social and economic impact of the Program on the region and on Chugach Alaska and the land held by Chugach Alaska, Congress directed, in section 1113 of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (Public Law 116–9; 133 Stat. 614), that the Bureau of Land Management conduct a study and identify accessible and economically viable Federal land that could be exchanged with Chugach Alaska, and to recommend exchange options that would consolidate ownership of the surface and subsurface estates of land in the Program;

(11) the Bureau of Land Management submitted the Chugach Region Land Study Report to Congress in December 2022, over a year after the 18-month deadline;

(12) in the Chugach Region Land Study Report, the Bureau of Land Management explained that the Program acquisitions have greatly increased the complexity and the costs of any development by Chugach Alaska of its subsurface interests, significantly reduced Native-owned land and Native control over management of land in the region, and, along with the larger oil spill cleanup effort, highly disrupted the socio-cultural environment and economies in the Alaska Native communities in the region;

(13) the Chugach Region Land Study Report identifies land available for exchange from both the Federal Government and Chugach Alaska to inform a land exchange to address the impact of the Program on Chugach Alaska and the ability of Chugach Alaska to meet its responsibilities to its Native shareholders under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.);

(14) the land exchange between Chugach Alaska and the Federal Government in this Act—

(A) furthers objectives under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), including balancing land selections between areas that are significant in cultural history and traditions and areas that have potential economic value for development; and

(B) facilitates more efficient Federal land management of the Program by Federal acquisition of nearly 231,000 acres of subsurface estate that underlies federally owned surface fee and conservation easements to perfect conservation of the surface, which is the purpose of the Program; and

(15) the land exchange in this Act, based on the findings in this section, is in the public interest.