Organization

Congress drew up the guidelines for selecting voting members on the councils to ensure broad representation. CIRCAC’s thirteen Board of Directors each represent a specific interest or community, including the Municipality of Anchorage, the cities of Kenai, Homer, Seldovia, and Kodiak, and the Kodiak Island and the Kenai Peninsula Boroughs. Also represented are Alaska Native organizations, the State Chamber of Commerce (tourism), environmental, recreational, and commercial fishing groups, and aquaculture associations.

In addition, membership includes ten non-voting ex-officio members representing the Alaska Departments of Environmental Conservation; Fish and Game; and Natural Resources and Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management; the U.S. Coast Guard; United States Environmental Protection Agency; Forest Service; Bureau of Land Management; Department of Interior; Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

CIRCAC works on behalf of these interest groups with federal, state, industry and non-governmental partners to carry out our responsibilities under OPA 90 through specifically designed programs outlined in our Strategic Plan.

The Board of Directors oversees the Environmental Monitoring Committee (EMC); Prevention, Response, Operations and Safety Committee (PROPS); and the Protocol Control Committee which design and accomplish a range of task oriented projects.

Area of Concern

mapUnder OPA 90, CIRCAC is responsible for “environmental monitoring of terminal facilities and crude oil tankers operating in Cook Inlet located south of the latitude at Point Possession and North of the latitude at Amatuli Island including offshore facilities in Cook Inlet.”

Our area of concern extends to downstream coastlines where spilled oil or contaminants from within our area of responsibility could be transported by currents. We also pursue projects outside of our geographic areas of responsibility or concern, such as laboratory or field studies in the Arctic or other waterbodies, to help us meet our overall goals.