00SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 38                                                                                          
01 Opposing the proposed expansion of the United States Environmental Protection                                           
02 Agency's toxics release inventory program.                                                                              
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04  WHEREAS the United States Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new                                             
05 rules to expand the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program; and                                                         
06  WHEREAS this expansion could add electric utilities, waste management facilities,                                      
07 mining, oil and gas exploration and production, materials recovery and recycling, and some                              
08 warehousing activities to the list of facilities required to report toxic chemical releases under                       
09 the TRI program; and                                                                                                    
10  WHEREAS only manufacturing facilities must currently report under the TRI program                                      
11 and there are significant fundamental differences between manufacturing facilities and the                              
12 facilities threatened with addition to the list; and                                                                    
13  WHEREAS nearly all of the produced water, natural gas, and other miscellaneous                                         
14 materials from oil and gas exploration and production facilities are discharged to deep disposal                        

01 wells far below the groundwater aquifer; and                                                                            
02  WHEREAS the Environmental Protection Agency's profiles of various industries not                                       
03 currently required to report under the TRI program assume that typical releases remain                                  
04 constant; this is not the case for at least some operations where the concentrations of                                 
05 chemicals in wastestreams change constantly; and                                                                        
06  WHEREAS the only way to monitor these varying discharges would be for operators                                        
07 to perform regular, expensive wastestream tests; and                                                                    
08  WHEREAS the information gained from these tests would not benefit communities                                          
09 significantly because much of the information regarding onsite hazardous substances is already                          
10 required to be reported to local emergency planning committees, the Alaska State Emergency                              
11 Planning Commission, the State Fire Marshall's office, and local fire departments; and                                  
12  WHEREAS the Alaska State Legislature considers this proposed rule-making would                                         
13 result in an unnecessary, duplicative reporting burden; and                                                             
14  WHEREAS this expanded reporting requirement will force companies operating in                                          
15 Alaska to redirect financial resources to a reporting effort with far less benefit than current                         
16 reporting requirements; and                                                                                             
17  WHEREAS the State of Alaska has been implementing changes to minimize the cost                                         
18 burden on marginal oil and gas projects and those nearing their economic end;                                           
19  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests that the                                        
20 United States Environmental Protection Agency cease from imposing additional, duplicative                               
21 reporting mandates on industry; and be it                                                                               
22  FURTHER RESOLVED that, if the Environmental Protection Agency continues with                                           
23 the implementation of the proposed rule, the Alaska State Legislature requests that oil and gas                         
24 exploration and production be exempted from the TRI program reporting requirements.                                     
25  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                                
26 United States; the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and President                            
27 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Robert Dole, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the                                  
28 Honorable Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Ted                                
29 Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young,                                  
30 U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress; and to Carol Browner,                                
31 Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.