Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 102 Part 1.djvu/1017

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PUBLIC LAW 100-000—MMMM. DD, 1988

PUBLIC LAW 100-395—AUG. 16, 1988 Public Law 100-395 100th Congress

102 STAT. 979

^ An Act

To amend the Aleiska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 to clarify the conveyance and ownership of submerged lands by Alaska Natives, Native Corporations and the State of Alaska.

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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, TITLE I—SUBMERGED LANDS SEC. 101. Section 901 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (94 Stat. 2430; Public Law 96-487) is amended by striking out text of such section and inserting in lieu thereof: "SEC. 901. (a)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), whenever the Secretary surveys land selected by a Native, a Native Corporation, or the State pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Alaska Statehood Act, or this Act, lakes, rivers, and streams shall be meandered in accordance with the principles in the Bureau of Land Management, 'Manual of Surveying Instructions' (1973). "(2) If title to lands beneath navigable waters of a lake less than fifty acres in size or a river or stream less than three chains in width did not vest in the State pursuant to the Submerged Lands Act, such lake, river, or stream shall not be meandered. "(3) The Secretary is not required to determine the navigability of a lake, river, or stream which because of its size or width is required to be meandered or to compute the acreage of the land beneath such lake, river, or stream or to describe such land in any conveyance document. "(4) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to require ground survey or monumentation of meanderlines. "(b)(1) Whenever, either before or after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary conveys land to a Native, a Native Corporation, or the State pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Alaska Statehood Act, or this Act which abuts or surrounds a meanderable lake, river, or stream, all right, title, and interest of the United States, if any, in the land under such lake, river, or stream lying between the uplands and the median line or midpoint, as the case may be, shall vest in and shall not be charged against the acreage entitlement of such Native or Native Corporation or the State. The right, title, and interest vested in a Native or Native Corporation shall be no greater an estate than the estate he or it is conveyed in the land which abuts or surrounds the lake, river, or stream. "(2) The specific terms, conditions, procedures, covenants, reservations, and other restrictions set forth in the document entitled, 'Memorandum of Agreement between the United States Department of the Interior and the State of Alaska' dated March 28, 1984, signed by the Secretary and the Governor of Alaska and submitted to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Energy and Natural Re-

43 USC 1631. Rivers and h^bors. "*'*