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NSPS Position on Direct Point Positioning Systems

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NSPS Position on Direct Point Positioning Systems NATTONAL SOCTEW OF PROFESSIONAI SURVEYORS (NSPS) POSITION ON THE UTTUZATTON By BUREAU OF |-AND MANAGEMENT (BLM) OF DTRECT pOtNT pOStTtONtNG SYSTEM (Dppsl IN ESTABTISHING LAND CORNER TOCATIONS IN IIEU OF PHYSICAI MONUMENTS The Executive Committee and Board of Directors of NSPS, which represent all fifty (50) states and the US Territories, have adopted the following position in objection to the BLM plan of using DppS derived coordinate values as the monument of record for establishing land corners. POStTtON "Using DPPS to establ¡sh a land corner by coordinate value is not in the best interest of protecting the public and private citizens most valuable asset, land ownership, by dismissing the requirement that exists in all state laws for the surveying profession to place physical monuments at those corners, thus identifying and preserving the readily available and visible landmarks that delineate that valuable asset." BACKGROUND The following attached documents: 1) November L4,2016 report titled " AK DNR/BLM DPPS Report" - an in-depth analysis and report by a committee of eminent practicing professionals stating the inadequacies of utilizing DppS in the manner being promoted by BLM 2l November L7,2Ot6letter from Juliana P. Blackwell, Director NGS to Gerald Jennings, PLS, CFedS, ChiefSurveySection,Divisionof Mining,Land&Water,AlaskaDNR-describingthe concerns of NGS in supporting and maintaining the control survey points on which the long-term viability of DPPS would rely on to accurately and adequately reproduce those corner locations 3) February 16,2017 White Paper by Gerald Jennings, PLS, CFedS, Chief Survey Section, Division of Mining, Land & Water, Alaska DNR - outlining the history and process to date by BLM in attempting to advance the DPPS process While this process is only being promoted, at this time, for use in Alaska and coined as a cost-saving measure in preparing final surveys, the above stated reference material truly discounts the efficacy of this being a survey methodology that should be adopted for the intended purpose, either in Alaska or any other state. National Society of Professional Surveyors 5119 Pegasus Court, Suite Q Frederick, MD 21704 www.nsps.us.com 240-439-4615 þhone) * 240-439-4952 (fax) AK DNR/BLM DPPS Report Novembe¡ 14,2016 lntroduction This report was prepared pursuant to a letter from Gerald Jennings, Chief of the Survey Section for the Division of Mining, Land & Water, Department of Natural Resources, State of Ataska (DNR) to the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) requesting an analysis and comment on a new survey procedure considered for implementation by the Bureau of Land Management, Alaska State Office, Branch of Cadastral Survey (BLM). The new survey procedure is the Direct Point Positioning Survey (DPPS) which is proposed for surveys of certain lands to be conveyed to the State of Alaska under the Statehood Act. DPPS is a method of survey and documentation that will use direct survey-derived geographic coordinates to report measurements on the official survey record. BLM proposes to use DPPS methods to fix corners by geographic coordinates referenced to the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) geodetic datum. Physical monuments will be set at angle points on the perimeter of large tracts of state selected lands. Unmonumented corners are fixed in the official record by reporting each corner's survey-derived geographic coordinates. BLM provided a draft plat for Group 948, Alaska as an example of how DPPS methods might be implemented. The sample Group 948 Plat covers 37 full and partial townships, 23 in the Fairbanks Meridian and 14 in the Kateel River Meridian, encompassing an area of approximately 1125 square miles. There are 49 physical monuments shown on the sample Group 948 Plat, with the remainder of the official comers identified by geographic coordinates listed in tables for each township. The NSPS analysis and comment committee was comprised of the following professionals: Dave Doyle, Geodesist- Maryland Timothy Kent, PLS - Washington John Ken, PLS, CFedS - Alaska John Matonich, PLS - Michigan Glen Thurow, PLS, CFedS - New Mexico Karen Tilton, PLS, CFedS - Alaska Also contributing were the following professionals: Curt Sumner, PLS, NSPS Executive Director Jon Warren, PLS, NSPS Past President NSPS requested participation and comment from the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) on the DPPS proposal. NGS determined that a formal but separate response was mórè appiopriate and will be forthcoming at a later date. 2 The thrust of this requested analysis and comment sunounds the methodology and expense to define the remaining lands to be selected by the State of Alaska. The Federal Government has patented or interim conveyed approximately two-thirds of the state selected lands. A portion of the remaining lands to be identified are those that are proposed to be surveyed by the DPPS method. The committee was provided numerous documents over the past year pertaining to all aspects of surveying the federal interest lands prior to patenting the same to the State of Alaska. These included historic documents along with other technical papers and also comments from some private surveyors in Alaska. The committee examined the impacts of BLM's DPPS proposal with regard to: o pâst agreements between BLM and the State of Alaska regarding the survey of state selected lands; o widely accepted principles of boundary law and the hierarchy of evidence for monuments; o suffêy procedures of state lands after patent using DPPS methods; o the technical and training requirements needed to properly use DPPS now and in the future. The DPPS method is a substantialdeparture from established federal survey practice in Alaska, which may be unfamiliar to surveyors in other states. Therefore, some background discussion is necessary to understand the context of the DPPS discussion. Alaska Statehood and the MOU. Historv and Backoround While it is important to understand how the lands of other states were patented and surveyed, it is essential to look at the process in place when Alaska was granted statehood. The Manual of lnstructions for the Suruey of Public Lands of the United Sfafes 1947 was in effect when Alaska was granted statehood. This Manual directed that survey monumentation would be placed at intervals of every half mile around the exterior boundaries of townships. Given the size of the total acreage to be conveyed (102 million acres), this obviously created a tremendous federal obligation. Congress considered this obligation when crafting the Alaska Statehood Act. Sec. 6 (g) of the Act outlined the minimum size requirements for state selections and mandated that the Secretary of the lnterior survey the exterior boundaries of the selection without interior subdivision.l The historic documents provided to the committee indicate that immediately after statehood in 1959, the survey requirements for state selected land were a subject of vigorous dispute between the BLM and the State of Alaska. ln 1960, the BLM surveyed and platted the boundaries of seven state selections comprising all or portions of Townships 23 and 24 North, Ranges 4, 5 and 6 West, Seward Meridian as part of Group 100, Alaska.2 The U.S. 1 Alaska Statehood Act, Public Law 85-508, July 7, 1958 (72 Stat. 339). 2 BLM Plat and field notes for Townships 23 North, Ranges 4, 5 and 6 West, Townships 24 North, Ranges 5 and 6 West, Seward Meridian, Alaska, approved October 16, 1961, retrieved from http://sdms.ak.blm.oov/sdms/ on September 18, 2016. 3 subsequently issued Patent No. 1226350 in April of 1962.3 Only the perimeter of the "blocK of selected lands was surveyed. The State of Alaska protested the survey and patent as a violation of Section 6(9) of the Alaska Statehood Act. The State's position was that each selection that met the minimum size requirements of Section 6(9) (i.e., 5,760 acres or approximately one-quarter township) was eligible for a survey of the exterior boundary. BLM concluded that such smallselections were not'reasonably compact tracts" and combined state selections for purposes of survey and patent. Alaska's congressional delegation brought the maüer to Congress in 1962 and 1963 during hearings on appropriations for Department of the lnterior and Related Agencies. ln 1963, Senator E.L. "Bob" Bartlett of Alaska presented Alaska's case in the dispute over the survey requirements of state selected lands as intended by the 1958 Alaska Statehood Act.a The Senate's Committee on Appropriations agreed with Alaska's position that eacå state selection warranted boundary survey and directed the Secretary of the lnterior to proceed with surveying the selections according to this directive. The Senate provided an additional $300,000 in funding for cadastral surveys in Alaska.s The House and Senate appropriation committees met in conference to resolve their differences and finalize the budget for the Department of the lnterior and Related Agencies for 1964 (H.R. 5279, passed as P.L. 88-79, July 26, 1963). House Report No. 551, dated July 11, 1969, memorializes this conference and the decisions made at the time, including the issue of the survey of Alaska State selections: The conferees are agreed that the directive included in the report of the Senate committee with regard to surveys of Alaska land selections made under the terms of the Alaska Statehood Act (Public Law 85-508) will be satisfied by surveys of the exterior boundaries of full townships (even if composed of as many as four land selections) with monumentation at an average of 2 miles around the perimeter.6 The resulting decision by the conference committee was a compromise between the wide range of survey effort that lies between surveying the boundary of every state selection and surveying only the exterior boundaries of as many selections deemed appropriate by the Secretary of the lnterior.
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