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REGIONAL CITIZENS ADVISORY COUNCIL
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Created by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, our Mission is to represent Cook Inlet citizens in promoting environmentally safe marine transportation and oil facility operations in Cook Inlet.
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US Coast Guard 17th District welcomes new Commander
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Rear Admiral Michael McAllister took over Command of the U.S. Coast Guard 17th District during a ceremony in Juneau on June 15, overseen by Vice Admiral Charles Ray, Commander of the Pacific Area and Defense Force West. CIRCAC's Executive Director Mike Munger and Director of Public Outreach Lynda Giguere were among the guests.
As Commander of the 17th District, McAllister will be responsible for 44,000 miles of shoreline and 3.9 million square miles of ocean, with increasing emphasis on the Arctic. To learn more about the U.S. Coast Guard 17th District click on the image above.
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July 2016 Cook Inlet Navigator e-Newsletter
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The Cook Inlet Harbor Safety Committee is making substantive progress to address issues related to safe navigation in Alaska's Cook Inlet. Most recently, the Committee met in Homer on May 13, to seat additional committee mem
bers, hear reports and present its first draft harbor safety plan.
Key action items included seating new m
embers: Frank Smith (Dry Cargo Ship Operators - Primary), Captain Eric Velsko (Commerci
al Fishing Organizations - Alternate), Ken Gill - (Dry Cargo Ship Operators - Alternate), and Ma
tthew Melton (Response Organizations - Alternate).
Special presentations included a briefing by Safeguard Marine on their work on the Anchorage Port Modernization Project. U.S. Coast Guard Commander Mike Patterson of the Office of Navigational Systems addressed a more immediate concern--the proposed decommissioning of Nikiski's Differential Global Positioning System (DPGS) site. The Coast Guard is considering taking this action based on economic factors--including the loss of the site lease and the cost of relocating the transmitting tower--and technological advances. Two antennae cover Cook Inlet, one on Kodiak and the other in Nikiski. The Coast Guard contends that an augmented signal from Kodiak will adequately cover upper Cook Inlet if the Nikiski signal is decommissioned. Harbor Safety Committee members asked the Coast Guard to facilitate an exercise with mariners to test the Kodiak signal.
Committee Work Groups delivered their reports, including the Navigation Work Group which presented its Mission Statement, as well as recommended best practices for Under Keel Clearance for deep draft vessels which, once approved, will be considered for incorporation in the Harbor Safety Plan. The work group also developed standard vessel tracks descriptions in an effort to minimize conflicts with pot and longline fishing gear.
Similarly, the Harbor Safety Plan Work Group presented its Mission Statement and draft plan with a 30-day public comment period which closed June 13. Comments will be presented to the Committee at its next meeting to be held in Anchorage on Friday, October 28, 2016.
The Salvage Work Group also submitted its Mission Statement for approval and further proposed conducting salvage training for local stakeholders, and initiating a review of the National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program Guidelines of the Cook Inlet environment for Committee consideration.
Finally, the Marine Firefighting Work Group, in addition to presenting its Mission Statement, offered a number of recommendations pertaining to funding training, conducting drills, and coordinating activities with the U.S. Coast Guard, state agencies, local governments and salvage response organizations.
For more information, visit
www.cookinletharborsafetycommittee.org
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Meet Scott Smiley, representing the Kodiak Island Borough
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How do you go from being a Berkeley drop out in the '60s, to publishing
Zap
, a satirical comic book "For Adult Intellectuals Only," to becoming an expert on sea cucumbers?
For Scott Smiley, it probably started in 1964, immediately after high school graduation in a small suburb of Rochester, New York, when he moved with his family west to California, enrolled at UC Berkeley and became embroiled in
the free speech movement that fall
.
Either in an act of rebellion or
boredom, or both, he dropped out of college his first year. For the next ten years, Scott worked in an art reproduction and poster store in Berkeley that published
Zap
comics. For a free speech activist, so far, so good.
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