Background
Alaska's Statement of Cooperation, or SOC, is a partnership agreement between several state and federal agencies to work together to protect human health and the environment in Alaska. The partnership's objectives are to work cooperatively to identify and respond to environmental issues and concerns in Alaska and to seek innovation, efficiency and flexibility, and to achieve uncompromised environmental protection. These are accomplished by maintaining open communication, undertaking a coordinated leadership role to promote compliance with environmental laws and pollution prevention, cooperating and creating partnerships to cleanup contamination and pollution, promoting training, and coordinating consultation with federally recognized tribes, as appropriate, when multiple parties are working on an issue that may affect tribes.

Parties to the agreement include:

The SOC partnership is co-chaired by the Commander, Alaskan Command, and Regional Administrator for US EPA Region 10, and the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. In addition, the Executive Director of the Alaska Intertribal Council, a statewide non-profit organization of federally recognized tribes, now participates in the group.

This group has conducted research and aired issues surrounding cleanup of petroleum contamination. This group has produced eight technical papers related to the cleanup of petroleum contaminated sites. The papers and their abstracts are available for review here. These papers are provided for informational purposes only. The papers do not constitute, nor can they be interpreted as, ADEC guidance, policy, regulations, or rule-making.

Note: An Excel workbook (calculator) has been developed under this Statement of Cooperation working group to evaluate the phase partitioning of petroleum hydrocarbons at sites and whether the contaminants pose, or may pose, an unacceptable risk. The calculator, referenced throughout the eight technical papers, is undergoing final review and will be made available upon completion, after department approval and development of appropriate guidance for its use.