Legislature(2013 - 2014)BUTROVICH 205
01/22/2014 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
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| Overview: Department of Environmental Conservation (dec) | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE RESOURCES STANDING COMMITTEE
January 22, 2014
3:31 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Cathy Giessel, Chair
Senator Peter Micciche
Senator Click Bishop
Senator Lesil McGuire
Senator Anna Fairclough
Senator Hollis French
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Fred Dyson, Vice Chair
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Representative Kreiss-Tomkins
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Overview: Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) by
Commissioner Larry Hartig
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to consider
WITNESS REGISTER
LARRY HARTIG, Commissioner
Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented overview of the DEC.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:31:37 PM
CHAIR CATHY GIESSEL called the Senate Resources Standing
Committee meeting to order at p.m. She welcomed everyone back to
Senate Resources. Present at the call to order were Senators
McGuire, Micciche, Fairclough, Bishop, and Chair Giessel.
^Overview: Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
OVERVIEW: Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
3:32:10 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL invited Larry Hartig, Commissioner, Department of
Environmental Conservation (DEC), to present his overview. She
also asked him to touch on the effects of the Fukushima
radiation on our fish and how it's being monitored.
3:32:29 PM
LARRY HARTIG, Commissioner, Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC), Anchorage, Alaska, said DEC's mission is to
protect human health and the environment. He said the DEC works
closely with the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS)
on environmental impacts on human health. For instance, fish
tissue monitoring from around the state is done at their
Environmental Health Lab, and information is turned over to HSS
to evaluate whether food consumption advisories or such things
need to be issued.
DEC works most closely with Department of Natural Resources
(DNR) and Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) for
protecting the environment side; for example, ADF&G has the wild
animals and DEC has domestic animals and their care, and their
concern is with diseases that can be transmitted to humans from
animals. Water quality might impact fish and they have ongoing
talks with ADF&G about that. He explained that DNR is the land
manager and DEC talks with them quite a bit on land reclamation
and bonding for water treatment for things like large mines.
3:36:11 PM
DEC has five divisions:
1. Administration: IT, human resources, budget and finance,
accounting, and the Environmental Crimes Unit (two people) that
provides service to the other four divisions. They look at air
quality, food safety or midnight dumper situations that might
involve Spill Prevention and Response (SPAR) and things like
that.
One of the department-wide challenges being addressed primarily
through the Division of Administration is trying to move towards
a GIS (graphic information systems) based way of maintaining
records that enhances talking with each other within and outside
the department; for instance if a spill is occurring at a
particular site, they can see which fisheries have openings or
if it's a spawning area that needs to be protected.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said one of the other challenges they face
with the other departments is trying to maintain continuity of
operations while replacing the aging workforce with a declining
pool of applicants. Sometimes he hears the way they are going to
solve the budget problem is to hire younger people; "well, those
people aren't there," he said. The average age of a new employee
at DEC is in the 40s and they are seeing a lot of retirements,
especially in SPAR and it's hard to replace those people.
3:39:16 PM
2. Division of Air Quality:
This is the smallest division and sets air quality standards,
issues air permits, monitor air quality issues (in Fairbanks,
for instance). One of the larger tasks is tracking the new
proposed EPA federal rules on air quality in Alaska.
3:40:30 PM
The Air Permitting Program has several types of permits, some
are state and some are federal (Clean Air Act), which tend to be
the larger emitters like power plants and industrial-type
facilities. These have more complicated requirements and
sometimes facilities will purposely try to stay below certain
levels to simplify the permitting by taking "owner requested
limits" that limit their hours of operation (emissions).
The larger facilities fall into two big areas: Construction
Permits and Title V Operating Permits. Construction permits are
the toughest they issue, for example - a North Slope
liquefaction plant. What will it look like? Where will it be?
What kind of emissions will it have and will the area's
meteorology affect the distribution of those contaminants in the
air; and how quickly will they be able to meet air quality
standards?
He explained that the big problems are in solving the
Construction Permit before going to an Operating Permit. One of
the federal requirements is one year of meteorological data and
six months or more of pollutant data before the application can
even be considered. So, these permits have a larger lead time.
For instance, they are having a lot of discussions with Alaska
Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) right now
about a liquefaction plant. Also, under federal law you can't
even begin construction (before you start emitting) until you
have the permit. It's a very key permit and often is one of the
big drivers on the timing of a large construction project that
has air emissions.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG described the Air Permitting Program as
being fairly mature, the state having had primacy for decades.
The division has a lot of good, skilled people with experience;
although that makes them vulnerable to those retirements he
talked about. So, one of their big objectives is to capitalize
on that experience by putting systems in place to capture that
knowledge, so it can go to the next generation - things like
tracking permits on line where people make one application and
everybody in the division has access to that information and
people can track their permits and know where they are in the
permit process.
3:44:31 PM
A big air quality challenge is in Fairbanks and they are working
closely with the Interior delegation to meet their needs.
Fairbanks has high energy costs with people switching to wood
burning as a heating source; the winter cold air inversions trap
smoke close to ground where people breathe it.
He explained that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
rules for PM2.5 particulates that can cause health problems with
healthy individuals to say nothing of people with asthma. The
DEC is required by federal law to get that area into attainment
with the national standard and there are deadlines for putting a
plan out there with sanctions if a plan is not in on time.
Interest groups are standing behind EPA that have lawsuits filed
and threatened to pile on to these potential consequences. At
the same time they are working with the governor and the
legislature to promote bringing natural gas and propane into the
area, which ultimately is part of the solution. But the federal
deadlines arise before that can happen.
Mendenhall Valley in Juneau has PM2.5 challenges, too, the
commissioner said, but the city has a system in place to do burn
bans, so they don't go into the non-attainment that triggers
sanctions and plan requirements. The Butte area in the Matsu is
bumping up against it, as well as areas in Anchorage.
3:47:56 PM
SENATOR MCGUIRE said Fairbanks people are very upset and asked
if the state has sovereign immunity from litigation and what
Clean Air Act fines are being threatened. Is there any evidence
in Fairbanks of this particulate matter damaging lungs in
Alaska? Has a set of hypotheticals from the federal government
been overlaid on a place in Alaska?
3:49:13 PM
COMMISSIONER HARTIG answered PM2.5 is a world-wide problem that
has been studied a lot. Spots in Fairbanks are really bad; one
study done by the Department of Health and Social Services
(DHSS) and the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) found the
number of visits to the local hospital emergency for respiratory
issues went up with high PM2.5 particulates. How strong of a
correlation can be made? Data suggests there is a correlation
that is consistent with other areas with small populations.
3:51:34 PM
He said that federal immunity doesn't apply here. All states are
subject to the Clean Air Act and no one is immune. He often
reminds people that they are not just trying to make the EPA or
the federal government happy; these are real health concerns.
One of the federal sanctions is if you are thinking about
bringing more military people in, if the area is not meeting CAA
requirements, there can't be any federal monies that would
support a project that would make the problem worse in the non-
attainment area. Another one is if a new discharger comes in,
even a private one, their new emissions have to be "two for one"
or for every increase of one you have to find a decrease of two
somewhere else.
Fairbanks has a 2014 deadline to submit an approvable plan to
EPA for how the area will reach attainment by the end of 2015,
which isn't achievable, because natural gas is needed to get all
the way. That will put them into "serious non-attainment," which
kicks in other new sanctions (because of some federal litigation
where EPA was found to not have been applying all the
requirements of the CLA that they were supposed to for new PM2.5
rules). It will be hard to escape. The new EPA administrator
visited Fairbanks this summer and she wanted them to know the
EPA would work with them to try and find accommodations here;
but they will reach a roadblock, too, when they get sued by
private litigants if they don't find the state in serious non-
attainment.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said the issue can't be ignored, because of
the human health consequences, the legal requirements that they
have to meet and the fact a federal judge could force them into
it, too.
3:56:25 PM
SENATOR BISHOP stated that help is on the way for Fairbanks. LNG
trucking will help the hardest hit areas and the EPA is aware of
that.
3:57:19 PM
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said a lot is heard about greenhouse gas
emissions from existing power plants and new ones under
President Obama's climate change strategy. EPA is working on new
rules to lower emissions, because power plants can be big
emissions contributors in most of the United States. Alaska's
plants are a lot smaller and are responsible for a lot less
percentage-wise or the state's greenhouse gas emissions and the
DEC has determined that they are not one of the two top emitters
like it would be elsewhere and it's likely that existing plants
are below the limit that would trigger application of new
federal requirements that are being proposed. He didn't think
the new liquefaction plant would be impacted by the new rules
for a variety of reasons: North Slope plants are already using
natural gas being one.
3:59:14 PM
3. Division of Environmental Health:
It's one of the larger divisions and the most diverse: it covers
everything from restaurant inspections, shellfish farming,
geoducks, the state vet, tattoo parlor inspections, public
drinking water systems, landfills, and right now includes marine
debris and radiation.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said the biggest program is drinking water
and food safety, and the biggest challenge, which people take
for granted, is having clean air, water and food, and good
sanitation. It doesn't take much to make food unsafe and DEC has
responsibility for food safety within the state; if things get
shipped out of state that becomes the FDA. The state sometimes
collaborates with the FDA by doing their inspections (getting
reimbursement).
4:00:10 PM
Food safety and sanitation is not just someone walking through a
restaurant with a check list; it's a very sophisticated program.
They are really looking at the whole process of what is going on
and whether it's creating a situation where the types of
contaminants you worry about might grow and get into the food.
It's more of an evaluation. DEC should be able to go into the
establishment and have a dialogue with the owners, particularly
in the smaller establishments where they may not understand what
and why the department is doing what it is. If you can explain
to them when the shipment of food arrives, how it gets into the
refrigerator, where it is stored in the refrigerator and how
often is the temperature checked, how long it gets left out, and
thawed: these dialogues are educational and lead to compliance
with food safety.
One of the big challenges in Alaska is that the state is spread
out so much. In the rest of the country you see county food
inspectors, but in Alaska and the municipalities' check
restaurants but everything else is DEC. All the schools have
lunch programs and there are workers camps.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said people want to do things like onboard
processing of salmon. People that want to see the whole crab
rather than pieces of it; when you have a whole crab you have
the viscera which have the paralytic shellfish toxin in it. So,
they try to coordinate the DEC's program with the producers'
needs, which is an ongoing challenge that takes consistent
dialogue.
4:02:18 PM
SENATOR FRENCH joined the committee.
4:04:16 PM
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said for example, geoducks are harvested in
Southeast and that is a growing industry. They are worried about
the paralytic shellfish toxin being in them, because it is
natural to the environment, the result of algae in the area, and
it comes and goes; it's just unpredictable. There is a federal
limit on how much can be in the geoducks and still be safe to
eat. So, they have to get a sample of geoduck and send it the
Environmental Health Lab where it gets chopped up and fed to
mice to see how long it takes them to die. While they are
looking at other methods, the point is that it has to happen
within a matter of days, and when they get the results from the
lab, they call ADF&G and they open the fishery for 3-5 days and
then it gets shut down again and the testing has to start over,
because PSP can come back in. If there is a closure the testing
has to happen again. The testing is heavily subsidized by the
state and it costs a lot, he said.
4:06:23 PM
DEC's Environmental Health Lab is in Anchorage and right next to
the Human Health Lab that DHSS runs and close to the new Crime
Lab that Public Safety has. Their lab doesn't compete with other
commercial labs that sample for mines and others who are trying
to comply with permit requirements all the time. It covers
things that aren't available commercially like PSP testing and
other testing that federal or state law says must be done by a
government for security or other reasons. They also oversee
other state labs by testing them. The lab is not a money maker
and the fees don't nearly cover the costs. They need complicated
equipment and need expensive certifications to have the lab
certified to be able to do the test they do. That's why other
labs don't do it.
4:08:26 PM
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said the State Veterinarian is also in the
Environmental Health Division; he works at the lab and mainly
looks for disease in animal populations, domestic and farm.
Animals come into the state all the time and he tests them. He
works with Canada and the farm community within the state. He is
also responsible for animal care under state emergency planning.
Working with ADF&G they also collect fish for tissue samples and
test for mercury and other contaminants that are present in the
environment. They look for trends of other contaminants coming
in from outside the state that could impact our fisheries. That
requires maintaining a good data base, which is also a budgetary
challenge.
4:10:40 PM
COMMISSIONER HARTIG stated that if the fishing industry is
questioned about how safe Alaska fish are the division can show
a record of sampling our fish.
4:11:01 PM
The Drinking Water Program is another big program. Under federal
law you have to meet Safe Drinking Water Act standards and new
rules come in all the time, because something that happened in
the Lower 48 starts getting applied to every drinking water
system in Alaska. So, they have to figure out how those rules
can be applied in rural Alaska and help them do it.
4:12:59 PM
The Solid Waste Program includes the landfills even in rural
Alaska, but the funding they get for water and waste water
treatment is the same money that is available for solid waste,
and human health is foremost. Drinking water is first -
sanitation and waste water treatment - then comes solid waste.
There is never enough money and they are trying to be smarter
with their approach. They are trying to use best management
practices for Class 3 landfills in rural areas by making things
simple and easy to follow.
4:14:46 PM
The larger municipalities are Class 1 and 2 landfills, and are
100 percent permitted and fully regulated.
The big challenge for the Pesticide Program is invasive species,
the commissioner said. Mechanical removal can be tried, but that
can break up species and actually propagate them. He worries
that people want to turn to pesticides, but getting guidelines
in place for its use is a looming challenge.
4:16:25 PM
COMMISSIONER HARTIG switched to commenting on the Tsunami Marine
Debris issue saying that marine debris was with us before the
March 2011 earthquake in Japan. Debris from it is being seen on
the island shores around Prince William Sound and in Southeast.
It came from a number of sources; part of the mariculture
industry in Japan for one. Volunteers were out trying to pick up
the debris and then the tsunami hit. He said there was no state
program or budget for picking up marine debris, so the governor
signed an Executive Order that put DEC in the lead among the
state agencies to deal with it. The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a national marine debris
program, but it is relatively small and had to ramp up.
Alaska got more than its share of Japanese debris: mostly solid
waste like Styrofoam and polystyrene type construction materials
and large floats from the mariculture industry - nothing deemed
as hazardous waste. While people are concerned about radiation,
the debris washed out five days before the radiation leaked out
of the plant. So, you wouldn't expect to see radiation
contamination and you don't. NOAA and EPA also advise that there
is no risk there.
4:19:43 PM
He said there is a lot of public confusion about radiation risk,
and he could understand the concerns because you can't see it
and exposure to it can have big consequences. We get everyday
exposure to radiation through the natural environment and
medical procedures. People are not familiar with radiation and
how it's measured and how doses are measured, so it's hard to
put in context what their exposure might be to the Fukushima
incident, but you get more radiation from eating a banana than
from eating a big tuna caught in that area.
Alaska doesn't have a radiation program, he said, because we
don't have nuclear power plants here. The other states of
California, Washington, Hawaii and Oregon do have radiation
programs, since they have nuclear power plants and they track
it. He displayed a map of currents that come to the U.S. from
Japan and said that data from those Pacific states and Canada
show no cause for human concern. So, Alaska doesn't see a
driving need to try to institute a program, particularly since
it would be started from scratch. DEC is working closely with
the DHSS that has people who are experts in radiation.
CHAIR GIESSEL said the question she gets from constituents is
that fish don't necessarily swim just based on the direction of
the current and they could be swimming near Japan and then
coming back to us and asked how she could respond with assurance
to a constituent with this concern.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG answered those other states are sampling
fish in their areas and haven't seen a reason for concern and
Alaska fish don't have the same exposure. Some people might want
to discredit Alaskan fish, but that is ridiculous.
4:25:39 PM
SENATOR MICCICHE asked if he is partnering with other agencies,
so we can send periodic information to markets outside of Alaska
that our fish are good.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG answered that Stephanie Moreland in the
governor's office is watching these kinds of issues, as well as
people in Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), and regular
meetings are set up through NOAA and FDA to talk about what each
is hearing and what data is available. The next concern is
unpredictable, so these conversations are response oriented.
4:27:13 PM
4. Division of Spill Prevention and Response (SPAR):
This division has several programs:
Industry Preparedness and Response tries to prevent spills from
happening; Prevention, Emergency and Response (PERP) is the
emergency SWAT team that goes in when there is spill.
Containment Sites take over from the PERP people if the
remediation is going to be a long term or if it's a historic
site rather than an emergency response. The Response Fund
Administration is the group that oversees the expenditures out
of the Response Fund that has the declining balance, their main
challenge. It has contingency plans (C-plans) for certain
operations and facilities in the state, how they are going to
prevent spills and if they have a spill how they are going to
respond to it and meeting certain planning scenarios from the
state. They are required to actually be able to perform those
plans. Financial assurances are required and spill drills are
practiced, the department does inspections
They license oil spill primary response contractors, people in
the state that industry relies upon to help them with response.
They are required to evaluate changes in technology and apply
the best available technology when C-plans come up for renewal.
For instance, they have had best available technology
conferences recently on detecting corrosion in pipelines. That
is especially important with OCS development and buried lines
coming onshore.
4:29:47 PM
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said Cook Inlet has a lot more exploration
activity and more players are coming in. So, there are more C-
plans and the division tries to make them aware of Alaska and
Arctic conditions, high tides, and a big fishery.
Shell was hoping to get back in 2014 to the Chukchi and least by
2015. Even though that is outside state waters, a spill out
there could move onshore. They also have a large fleet of
vessels they bring with them that have C-plan requirements.
One of the ongoing challenges for industrial preparedness is the
aging infrastructure on the North Slope; for example, the two BP
corrosion spills in 2006.
4:31:09 PM
They are also involved in the Arctic Council discussions on how
to collaborate with other nations; Director Kristin Ryan, is
part of the U.S. delegation just came back from Norway on a new
spill prevention work group that will come up with best
practices and voluntary standards for prevention of spills for
the Arctic.
4:31:57 PM
For context, he said there are about 2,000 reported spills in
the state each year and not all of them warrant an agency
response. Most of them are onto land, but 344 are reported into
water a year. They are largely diesel fuel from ships going
belly up and trucks rolling over, aviation fuel, hydraulic oil,
engine lube oil, gasoline, and others like produced water used
in mining. Not much is from crude oil spills, but industry
complains that the surcharge on crude oil is what is taxed and
pays for it all.
4:33:42 PM
Historically, about half of the contaminated sites are largely
federal legacy sites, a third of them are private, and the state
also has a number of them.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said they are working with local communities
to try to build capacity, because not every spill is big. Most
of the 2,000 spills a year can be handled at a local level. They
try to train people and preposition response equipment like
absorbent pads and boom. Then they come back to the legislature
every few years for a half million dollar request response
agreements and equipment. It provides some education about what
is involved in a response, which gives people more ownership in
their communities.
4:34:48 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL noted that there wasn't much equipment or training
between Kotzebue, Barrow, and the Canadian border doesn't have
much there, and that is one of the things the Artic Policy
Commission is recommending.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said they are out in those areas and trying
to recruit and maintain interest.
SENATOR FRENCH asked why nothing is at Prudhoe Bay.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG replied it has no community and so there is
no local group to coordinate with. Historically, large state
resource development projects have purposely not created a new
community, because they don't want to compete for the local
resources with the local communities. So, there are camps like
Red Dog and Dead Horse. To him it's a trade-off, because it
means that you don't have all the public infrastructure that you
would normally have.
He explained that the North Slope's response organization is a
skilled coop called the Oil Spill Response Organization (OSRO),
that is funded by the major companies; on top of that they have
great participation by the employees that get trained as the
backup responders.
4:37:49 PM
One of the big questions the state faces moving towards work in
the Chukchi Sea area is that it is getting pretty far from
Prudhoe Bay and relying on Alaska Clean Seas, an OSRO, and
providing the opportunities to involve communities like
Wainwright is how much industry presence do they want; that will
determine the level of their involvement. Maybe there will be a
policy change.
SENATOR FRENCH said it seems that with mountains of gear at
Prudhoe Bay, there would some for the Chukchi.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG answered that specialized equipment and
training will be needed that can get in and out of the ice and
the person who owns the facility has the primary responsibility
to respond to a spill. If they fail, then he can tap the
Response Fund and hire contractors to do that and then do cost
recovery.
CHAIR GIESSEL commented that the Conexes are intended to respond
to the smaller spills around a fuel tank in a village, for
example, not to go out to sea and put booms out.
4:40:21 PM
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said they have a lot of natural events like
the Galena annual flood cycle where they try to stabilize fuel
tanks to prevent losing them; Environmental Health is involved
in the drinking water wells and grounding of fishing vessels.
4:41:32 PM
A hot topic in Alaska is the use of oil dispersants. The state's
policy is to maximize mechanical recovery when you have a spill;
the two backup options are to burn it and to use dispersants,
which goes into water column providing more opportunity for the
oil eating bacteria to do its thing. These decisions have to be
made quickly; maybe it is better to let it go ashore in the
Arctic rather than stay in the water column. If dispersants
become the option it has to be deployed pretty quickly. They may
not be in the area or the planes might not be there nor the
trained people to deliver it. Or it might have to be flown from
Kodiak and it could take a while if the spill is on the North
Slope. It has to be part of the upfront planning and communities
have to be involved.
4:44:04 PM
He said in 2004/5 they had closed more contaminated sites than
they had active sites; they are trying to keep the new number of
sites down and deal with all the legacy sites, including the
federal sites. Their federal receipts include $900 thousand to
deal with contaminated federal sites.
A big challenge is the Response Fund with declining oil
production, because it is funded with the nickel a barrel
surcharge that is split with four cents going to the Prevention
account, which pays for the operations of SPAR. That account had
a surplus that has offset the declining production historically,
but by the end of FY15 they anticipate going into the red; and
that is when a general fund $5-7 million per year increment
(assuming no inflation or labor increases) would be needed to
maintain its level of services, although that could change
depending on some ongoing cost recoveries.
4:45:26 PM
5. Division of Water: He explained that last year HB 80 directed
the DNR and DEC to work together to examine the cost and
benefits of the state assuming the dredge and fill program, the
Clean Water Act 404 Program. If you put fill material into
waters of the United States, you need a 404 permit, and since
Alaska has a lot of wetlands, 404 is a big program here. So they
looked to see if it could be made more user-friendly by assuming
primacy of the program.
One of the ideas on mitigation is that there is a no net loss
policy in the country, so if you fill in some wetlands you have
to replace it with additional wetlands. Here that opportunity
may not be readily available or you may be on the North Slope
that has millions of acres of wetlands and the question arises
do you want to add to the millions of acres of wetlands just
like it or could you do something about those legacy wells as
part of the mitigation. So, they are looking at more all-around
water quality benefits in the state as a whole and coming up
with ways of doing mitigation banking and in lieu programs so
that people don't have to scrounge around for mitigation
projects to do something that may not make a whole lot of sense
in the grand scheme of things.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG said they are getting a lot of collaboration
from the federal agency, both EPA and the Corps and have hired
two people from DEC that are now housed at the Corps of
Engineers that are participating in the review and issuance of
permits. They have ongoing meetings with the State of Oregon and
have met with the two states that have primacy, Michigan and New
Jersey. Next year their initial report will come before the
legislature, but ultimately they will bring a final report and
recommendation to the legislature, and then it would decide
whether to fund the program or not. But until they have the
resources to run the program, they can't even apply for primacy.
4:48:25 PM
Their other challenge in the Water Division Facility Program,
the Village Safe Water Program (VSW), is the water and sewer
projects in Rural Alaska. It relies mainly on federal funds
(75/25 state) and federal funding has gone down by 60 percent in
the last 10 years. So, they are looking at ways of doing things
in a smarter way in the villages. One current project has put
out an RFP to form teams of engineers and others that then are
proposing ideas on projects, some of which will be selected to
look for ways of combining existing technologies with new
technologies to deal with some of the unmet needs in the
villages at lower costs for both construction and operation.
They are teamed up with Alaska Native Tribal Health Corporation
(ANTHC), EPA, Department of Agriculture (a big funder), and a
host of other agencies. Everybody is interested in this project,
which is called the Alaska Challenge Project.
4:49:59 PM
SENATOR MICCICHE asked if changing the cruise ship regulations
to not allow mixing zones had been drafted yet.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG answered that the current status is that HB
80 did two things; it took the general permit that was already
out for cruise ships that was due to expire in 2013 and extended
the termination date until 2015. Otherwise that permit would
have expired and DEC would have had to require ships to meet a
water quality criterion at the end pipe, which they couldn't do.
It also allowed DEC to issue permits in the future following the
existing mixing zones regulations. So, they had been working on
a draft permit based on mixing zone and other water quality
standards for the next cycle that is in draft form, and that
should go out for public review in time for the start of the
2014 cruise season. If it can't make it through that process,
the existing permit stays in place until 2015. He didn't recall
having to go back to do a regulation change to deal specifically
with the critical habitat areas around the state; those are
designated by ADF&G and one of them is in Kachemak Bay, which
didn't have a discharge this summer. He offered to get more
information on that.
4:53:31 PM
SENATOR BISHOP asked for a map of the Superfund sites.
COMMISSIONER HARTIG replied those are designated by the EPA and
when EPA proposes a site, they will ask for the state's opinion,
but there is just a handful.
4:54:29 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL thanked him for the overview and adjourned the
Senate Resources Standing Committee at 4:54 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| SRES DEC Overview Hartig 20140122.pdf |
SRES 1/22/2014 3:30:00 PM |