Alaska’s rivers, streams, lakes, wetlands, and salmon habitat belong to the public. They sustain fish and wildlife, support subsistence and cultural practices, provide recreation and transportation, and connect communities across the state. Now, proposed changes to Alaska’s water reservation regulations could make it harder for Alaskans to protect water for these public values.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is proposing revisions to 11 AAC 93, the regulations that govern reservations of water. Water reservations are one of the few legal tools available in Alaska to keep water in rivers, streams, and lakes for fish habitat, migration, wildlife, recreation, navigation, water quality, and other public uses.
DNR says the proposed revisions are intended to make the process more efficient, consistent, and cost-effective. But several of the proposed changes raise serious concerns. Instead of strengthening protections for salmon and healthy watersheds, the revisions could create new barriers for Tribes, communities, nonprofits, and public-interest applicants seeking to protect water before it is diverted or depleted.
Why Water Reservations Matter
Alaska’s Constitution recognizes water as a public resource to be managed for the maximum benefit of the people. In practice, however, water can be allocated for many competing uses, including industrial and consumptive uses. A reservation of water helps ensure that water remains in place to support fish, wildlife, recreation, navigation, and other public values.
For salmon, this matters deeply. Salmon do not just need access to rivers; they need enough water in those rivers at the right times of year to migrate, spawn, rear, and survive. Healthy flows also support riparian habitat, water quality, aquatic insects, wetlands, and the broader ecosystems salmon depend on.
Water reservations have been especially important in watersheds facing large-scale development pressure, including places like the Susitna River, where changes to natural flows could affect salmon habitat and downstream communities.
What DNR Is Proposing
The proposed changes would affect how water reservations are applied for, granted, monitored, reviewed, and held.
Among the most concerning changes, applicants would be required to provide more extensive information in their applications, including at least five years of monthly data to quantify the proposed reservation. For fish habitat reservations, applicants would also need to provide detailed information about fish populations, species, habitat quality, how different water levels or flows affect habitat, and upstream and downstream land use and property ownership.
The proposal would also change who holds certificates of reservation. State and federal resource management agencies would hold certificates for successful applications they submit. But if a Tribe, nonprofit, community group, private citizen, or other non-agency applicant successfully applies for a water reservation, DNR would hold the certificate instead.
DNR could also require measuring devices, monitoring, and reporting, and the proposed rules would allow the commissioner to assign costs for additional research, data collection, analysis, or different review methods among DNR, the applicant, or the certificate holder.
Taken together, these changes could make the process more difficult, expensive, and uncertain for the very people and communities working to protect Alaska’s waters in the public interest.
Key Concerns
A five-year data requirement could block public-interest applications
Requiring at least five years of monthly data may sound technical, but in much of Alaska it could become a serious barrier. Many watersheds are remote. Collecting hydrologic, biological, and habitat data over multiple years can be expensive, logistically difficult, and beyond the capacity of Tribes, local communities, and small nonprofits.
Water reservations should be based on sound science, but the process must also remain accessible. If the data requirements are too costly or rigid, communities may be prevented from protecting waters they know are essential for salmon, wildlife, and subsistence.
Certificate-holder changes raise accountability questions
Under the proposed changes, non-agency applicants could do the work to apply for a reservation, but DNR would hold the certificate if the reservation is granted. This raises important questions.
How would the original applicant remain involved? How would affected communities ensure the reservation is monitored, defended, and maintained over time? What happens if DNR’s priorities shift or if future development proposals put pressure on the reserved water?
If DNR holds certificates for successful public-interest applications, the regulations must clearly protect the role of the original applicant, affected Tribes, and the public.
Monitoring and reporting must not become barriers
Monitoring can provide important information about streamflows and whether reserved water is being protected. But measuring devices, reporting obligations, and long-term monitoring requirements must be reasonable, affordable, and appropriate for Alaska’s remote watersheds.
A requirement that may be simple on the road system can be extremely difficult in a remote river system. Regulations should not create one-size-fits-all obligations that make water protection impossible for communities with limited resources.
Cost-shifting could discourage communities from protecting water
One of the most troubling parts of the proposal is the potential for costs to be assigned to applicants or certificate holders for additional research, data collection, analysis, or review methods.
This could discourage Tribes, nonprofits, and public-interest applicants from even trying to protect water for salmon and wildlife. Alaska’s water belongs to the public. The process for protecting public water should not depend on whether a community can afford years of technical studies or unexpected agency-directed costs.
Tribes must be meaningfully consulted
Healthy rivers and salmon are inseparable from Alaska Native cultures, food security, economies, and ways of life. Changes to water reservation regulations could directly affect the ability of Tribes and Tribal citizens to protect waters that sustain subsistence, cultural practices, and future generations.
DNR should engage in meaningful government-to-government consultation with Alaska Native Tribes before adopting changes that could affect water protection, salmon habitat, and traditional ways of life.
Alaska’s Water Protections Should Be Strengthened, Not Weakened
The goal of revising water reservation regulations should be to strengthen Alaska’s ability to protect instream flows, salmon habitat, wildlife, recreation, navigation, water quality, and public use.
The process should not become easier for industrial appropriation while becoming harder for public-interest water protection. Alaska needs regulations that recognize the public value of water left in rivers, not only water removed from them.
DNR should revise the proposal to ensure that water reservation applications remain accessible to Tribes, communities, nonprofits, local governments, and individuals. Data requirements should be flexible and reasonable. Monitoring and reporting should be practical and scaled to the watershed. Cost-shifting should not prevent public-interest applicants from protecting salmon habitat. And any change to certificate ownership must include clear accountability to the original applicant, affected communities, and the public.
Take Action by June 30
Alaskans have an opportunity to speak up now. Tell DNR that Alaska’s water reservation regulations must protect salmon, healthy rivers, and public use — not create new barriers for communities working to keep water in streams.
Comments are due June 30, 2026, at 5:00 PM.
Submit comments online:
https://dnr.alaska.gov/mlw/comment/submit/?topic=water_inflow
Submit comments by email:
dnr.water.regulation@alaska.gov
Submit comments by mail:
Alaska Department of Natural Resources
Division of Mining, Land & Water
Program Support Section
Attn: Brandon McCutcheon
550 W. 7th Avenue, Suite 1070
Anchorage, AK 99501-3579
Questions on the proposed regulations must be submitted by June 20, 2026, at 5:00 PM to dnr.water.regulation@alaska.gov.
For accommodations, contact Brandon McCutcheon by June 20, 2026, at dnr.water.regulation@alaska.gov or 907-269-8511.
Need Help Writing a Comment?
The Susitna River Coalition can help. Contact SRC at info@susitnarivercoalition.org.
You can also watch SRC’s October 15, 2024 webinar with Michael Lilly of Geo-Watersheds Scientific to learn more about how water reservations work in Alaska and why they are important for protecting instream flows for salmon, wildlife, and public use:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7CRm8ao5u8
Sample Comment
Dear Department of Natural Resources,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed changes to Alaska’s water reservation regulations.
I am concerned that the proposed changes could make it harder for Alaskans to protect water for salmon, wildlife, recreation, subsistence, navigation, and public use. Water reservations are one of the only legal tools available to keep water in rivers, streams, and lakes for fish habitat, migration, and propagation.
Please ensure that any changes to 11 AAC 93 strengthen, rather than weaken, Alaska’s ability to protect instream flows. Requirements such as five years of monthly data, monitoring devices, reporting obligations, and possible cost-shifting should not create barriers for Tribes, communities, nonprofits, or public-interest applicants working to protect water for fish and wildlife.
Alaska’s water is a public resource. The reservation process should remain accessible, transparent, and protective of salmon, healthy watersheds, and the people who depend on them.
Thank you for your consideration.