Cite as: 521 U. S. 1 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
provisions to lands beneath nontidal navigable waters). In light of these provisions, Alaska's premise—that there would have been no need to withdraw or set apart submerged lands to preserve ultimate federal control—is flawed.
Although the Master concluded that the application and regulation together "set apart" all lands within the Range, the Master accepted Alaska's argument that the lands had not been set apart "as [a] refug[e] . . . for the protection of wildlife" within the meaning of § 6(e) of the Alaska Statehood Act. (Emphasis added.) The Master found that the application "did not have the same effect as a reservation of lands, dedicating them to a specific public purpose." Report 464. The Master reasoned that under the proviso to § 6(e), the United States would retain ownership only of "wildlife refuges or reservations already established at statehood." Ibid. (emphasis added). Because the application had not yet been granted, the proviso to § 6(e) would not prevent the transfer of lands within the Range to Alaska.
We disagree. Under the Master's interpretation, § 6(e) applies only to completed reservations of land. But Congress did not limit § 6(e) to completed reservations. Rather, Congress provided that the United States would not transfer to Alaska lands "withdrawn or otherwise set apart as refuges" for the protection of wildlife. (Emphasis added.) The Master's reading of § 6(e) would render the broader terminology superfluous. The Court will avoid an interpretation of a statute that "renders some words altogether redundant." Gustafson v. Alloyd Co., 513 U. S. 561, 574 (1995). In light of Congress' clear intent, it was error for the Master to conclude that the lands within the Range were not "otherwise set apart as [a] refug[e]" unless the United States could point to a completed reservation. In the phrase "set apart as [a] refug[e]," the word "as" does not carry the requirement that the refuge be presently established; the phrase aptly describes the administrative segregation of lands designated to become a wildlife refuge. Accordingly, the application
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