Alaska.com: Alaska's Travel Website

Anyone can harvest ice from Alaska's 28,800 square miles of glaciers.

People or companies -- say, water bottlers -- wanting to harvest Alaska's glaciers must apply for a permit if they plan to take away more than 20 tons a year.

People without permits can take up to about 700 cubic feet a year, which is the same volume as a Dodge cargo van. Ice weighs a little over 57 pounds per cubic foot. How they get it home is up to them.

Glacier ice is now harvested from glaciers that calve into tidewater, according to the Division of Mining, Land and Water of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Many of the state's 100,000 glaciers are inaccessible, practically speaking.

The state permit grants a right to the water that makes up the ice. Not every glacier is fair game, and a permit isn't to be granted if the harvest would interfere with the rights of other users, such as wildlife, fish and humans.

An estimated 75 percent of Alaska's fresh water is stored in glaciers, the state says.

The application fee is $500, and there's an annual administrative charge of $50. Permit seekers must also announce the plans in a legal ad in a newspaper distributed close to the proposed harvest site.

Sources: Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mining, Land and Water; Edmunds.com.