Introduction

[Delice Calcote <delice@chickaloon.org>]

My name is Delice Calcote.  I work for Chickaloon Village in Alaska and a member of Cook Inlet Marine Mammal Council and Cook Inlet Treaty Tribes.  My first involvement with environmental issues began with the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. I worked for Indigenous Conservators of the Environment, rescuing sea otters; cleaning; necropsy and rotating Alaska Native fishermen onto the USFWS boats rescuing sea otters and evaluating their known habitat areas. Chickaloon Village has an IGAP grant with EPA and I worked on the first years grant. I now work with the other Villages of Cook Inlet, environmental issues of tons of pollutants being allowed to be dumped into Cook Inlet by the oil/gas industry as well as many mining activities; sewer facilities being allowed to dump with only a tertiary treatment prior to dumping into the inlet; two military bases clean-up issues; air quality issues include but are not limited to several large airports in Cook Inlet as well as oil/gas burn-offs from 23 oil rigs/230 plus operating wells in Cook Inlet ALL in critical habitat areas of known birthing and feeding areas of Beluga as well as numerous rivers that are known salmon spawning areas.  With salmon returns being lower than state fish and game biologists/personnel have expected for the last three years the Tribal Governments are concerned.  Thanks for the opportunity to be involved.