Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 94 Part 2.djvu/1158

 94 STAT. 2436

Conflicting allotment applications.

Amended land descriptions.

PUBLIC LAW 96-487—DEC. 2, 1980

State of Alaska, or a political subdivision of the State of Alaska, to resources located thereon, or to a public body of water regularly employed for transportation purposes, and the protest states with specificity the facts upon which the conclusions concerning access are based and that no reasonable alternatives for access exist; or (C) A person or entity files a protest with the Secretary stating that the applicant is not entitled to the land described in the allotment application and that said land is the situs of improvements claimed by the person or entity. (6) Paragraph (1) of this subsection and subsection (d) shall not apply to any application pending before the Department of the Interior on or before December 18, 1971, which was knowingly and voluntarily relinquished by the applicant thereafter. GJ) Where a conflict between two or more allotment applications exists due to overlapping land descriptions, the Secretary shall adjust the descriptions to eliminate conflicts, and in so doing, consistent with other existing rights, if any, may expand or alter the applied-for allotment boundaries or increase or decrease acreage in one or more of the allotment applications to achieve an adjustment which, to the extent practicable, is consistent with prior use of the allotted land and is beneficial to the affected parties: Provided, That the Secretary shall, to the extent feasible, implement an adjustment proposed by the affected parties: Provided further, That the Secretary's decision concerning adjustment of conflicting land descriptions shall be final and unreviewable in all cases in which the reduction, if any, of the affected allottee's claim is less than 30 percent of the acreage contained in the parcel originally described and the adjustment does not exclude from the allotment improvements claimed by the allottee: Provided further. That where an allotment application describes more than one hundred and sixty acres, the Secretary shall at any time prior to or during survey reduce the acreage to one hundred and sixty acres and shall attempt to accomplish said reduction in the manner least detrimental to the applicant. (c) An allotment applicant may amend the land description contained in his or her application if said description designates land other than that which the applicant intended to claim at the time of application and if the description as amended describes the land originally intended to be claimed. If the allotment application is amended, this section shall operate to approve the application or to require its adjudication, as the case may be, with reference to the amended land description only: Provided, That the Secretary shall notify the State of Alaska and all interested parties, as shown by the records of the Department of the Interior, of the intended correction of the allotment's location, and any such party shall have until the one hundred and eightieth day following the effective date of this Act or sixty days following mailing of the notice, whichever is later, to file with the Department of the Interior a protest as provided in subsection (a)(5) of this section, which protest, if timely, shall be deemed filed within one hundred and eighty days of the effective date of this Act notwithstanding the actual date of filing: Provided further. That the Secretary may require that all allotment applications designating land in a specified area be amended, if at all, prior to a date certain, which date shall be calculated to allow for orderly adoption of a plan of survey for the specified area, and the Secretary shall mail notification of the final date for amendment to each affected allotment applicant, and shall provide such other notice as the Secretary deems appropriate, at least sixty days prior to said date: Provided further.

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