MEMORANDUM

TO: Timothy Navarre, Assembly President

Members, Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly

THRU: Dale Bagley, Mayor

FROM: Jeff Sinz, Finance Director

Bob Bright, Planning Director

Bonnie Golden, Grants Manager

Colette Thompson, Borough Attorney

DATE: November 8, 2001

SUBJECT: Ordinance 2001-19-22 accepting $85,000 from ADEC for developing and implementing geographic response strategies for Cook Inlet and the outer Kenai coast

The accompanying ordinance would accept the sum of $85,000 from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation ("ADEC") and authorize the mayor to contract with Cook Inlet Regional Citizens' Advisory Council (CIRCAC) to complete geographic response strategies ("GRS") in the Cook Inlet and Kenai Coast areas. Geographic response strategies are site specific plans that identify sensitive areas needing protection, resources available for response, logistical information, and other information necessary to protect sensitive areas in the event of an oil spill. In Ordinance 99-33, the assembly similarly accepted and appropriated a grant of $20,000 from the ADEC to develop geographically based response strategies for lower and central Cook Inlet. The borough contracted with CIRCAC which successfully implemented and administered that program. This grant would fund the completion and an expansion of that program. The state preliminarily intends that the $85,000 be used as follows:

$20,000 to develop ten additional GRS's for upper Cook Inlet

$5,000 to update and finalize the GRS's for Kachemak Bay and central Cook Inlet

$60,000 to develop forty GRS's for the outer Kenai coast over a two-year time line

This program is important for establishing workable response plans for oil spills. As noted in the ordinance, the borough has areawide planning powers, and this is consistent with the exercise of those planning powers as identified in Goal 6.2 of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Comprehensive Plan. Additionally, the borough is statutorily authorized to contain, clean up, or prevent releases or threatened release of oil or hazardous substances on a nonareawide basis.

Shortened hearing is requested because only one assembly meeting is scheduled in December, with the next assembly meeting occurring almost one month after the December meeting, on January 8, 2002. That additional month is needed in order to begin the projects as soon as possible.