00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 59 01 Respectfully requesting the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a final 02 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for Cook Inlet oil and gas 03 operations that omits the incremental permittee monitoring and reporting 04 obligations identified in the Agency's draft permit and, consistent with the 05 philosophy of the Agency's 1996 National Water Program Agenda, allows the 06 permittees to operate under pollutant discharge monitoring and reporting 07 requirements that are not more rigorous than those requirements of the National 08 Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits in place. 09 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 10 WHEREAS, under the federal Clean Water Act, the principal mechanism for 11 regulating and limiting pollutant discharge into water of the United States is the National 12 Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program; and 13 WHEREAS, under the monitoring and reporting requirements imposed as part of an 14 NPDES permit, the unit having responsibility for the Clean Water Act, the Environmental 01 Protection Agency, may require one or more parties who are responsible for pollutant 02 discharge to install and use equipment to monitor the discharge, develop and maintain records 03 and reports, and provide information to it as may be required under the Agency permit; and 04 WHEREAS the Environmental Protection Agency has determined in its 1996 National 05 Water Program Agenda to reduce permittee monitoring and reporting requirements, with the 06 objective of diminishing monitoring and reporting obligations imposed on permittees by about 07 25 percent; and 08 WHEREAS, the oil and gas industry has operated successfully in Cook Inlet for 30 09 years, coexisting throughout these decades with one of the state's most productive salmon 10 fisheries; the industry operates in maturing fields that are at, or very close to becoming, 11 uneconomic to produce; and 12 WHEREAS the Environmental Protection Agency, in conjunction with the Alaska 13 Department of Environmental Conservation, has issued a draft general NPDES permit for 14 Cook Inlet oil and gas production operations; and 15 WHEREAS, despite the reduced monitoring and reporting initiative announced in its 16 1996 National Water Program Agenda, the draft permit for Cook Inlet production operations 17 proposes a substantial increase in the monitoring and reporting requirements to be imposed 18 by the two agencies on the permittees; and 19 WHEREAS public comment on the proposed NPDES permit overwhelmingly endorses 20 the Cook Inlet oil and gas industry permittees' ability to continue to operate under 21 requirements of the permits in place, and supports eliminating provisions in the draft permit 22 imposing an obligation on the permittees to increase monitoring and reporting requirements; 23 and 24 WHEREAS recent scientific studies evaluating the quality of the water and other 25 resources of Cook Inlet determined that there has been no adverse environmental impact in 26 the inlet from the three decades of oil and gas operations; and 27 WHEREAS the Cook Inlet oil and gas production industry's history of successful 28 coexistence with a productive fishery combined with the results of these recent studies 29 together demonstrate that the Agency's draft NPDES permit requiring the permittees to incur 30 substantial additional expense associated with the increased monitoring and reporting 31 requirements identified in the draft NPDES permit is unwarranted, nor is the increased effort 01 supported by public testimony; 02 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the 03 Environmental Protection Agency to issue a final National Pollutant Discharge Elimination 04 System permit for Cook Inlet oil and gas operations that 05 (1) omits the incremental permittee monitoring and reporting obligations 06 identified in the draft permit; and 07 (2) consistent with the philosophy of the Agency's 1996 National Water 08 Program Agenda, allows the permittees either to operate under pollutant discharge monitoring 09 and reporting requirements that are consistent with the Agency's national objective of 10 diminishing monitoring and reporting obligations generally to be imposed on permittees, or 11 to operate under pollutant discharge monitoring and reporting requirements that are not more 12 rigorous than those requirements of the NPDES permits in place. 13 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Carol M. Browner, 14 Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency; to Michele Brown, commissioner of 15 environmental conservation; to the Honorable Don Gilman, Mayor of the Kenai Peninsula 16 Borough; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. 17 Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska 18 delegation in Congress.