Comments closed September 21
EPA reissues Cook Inlet oil and gas discharge permit
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY · Cook Inlet
- What
- EPA would allow oil and gas operators to discharge pollutants into Cook Inlet's federal waters under updated permit terms.
- Where
- Cook Inlet
- How much
- Water quality in Cook Inlet, a productive Alaska marine ecosystem, is at stake.
- Decided
- Comments closed September 21, 2026. No decision document is on file yet.Date from Federal Register ↗, read August 9, 2026.
Where these four lines come from
- WhatOur plain-English read of the Federal Register 2026-16089 ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words under Case.
- WhereThe places and states the notice names, as PLAN read them.
- How muchThe first sentence of our What’s at risk read of the notice; the whole read is under Case.
- DecidedSeptember 21, 2026, from Federal Register, the document’s comment close date (federalregister.gov) ↗. Read August 9, 2026. The decision document is the one on file in PLAN’s record.
- Read from PLAN’s record November 10, 2026.
Krishnaswamy Viswanathan
Director, Water Division
A person signed this, not an agency. The window has closed and the signature stands, which is exactly when accountability matters.
Short is better. You are asking Director Viswanathan to answer for a decision their office made.
My name is [your name] and I'm calling from [your city and state]. Krishnaswamy Viswanathan, Director, Water Division, signed the decision on EPA reissues Cook Inlet oil and gas discharge permit. I'm asking that office to answer for it publicly. Please record that I called and tell me what the office intends to do.
Official channels only, about this decision. No personal phone numbers, no home addresses, no personal social accounts, and nothing abusive. The point is to make the office answer, and an abusive call is the one thing that lets it off the hook.
What the proposal said, and what the decision did
No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.
No decision document is on PLAN’s record for this fight yet. When the agency’s decision lands, what it answered goes here.
Affects public lands
EPA would allow oil and gas operators to discharge pollutants into Cook Inlet's federal waters under updated permit terms.
What’s at risk
If this goes through
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
The agency’s own analysis
What the notice says, and what it leaves out
The window has closed; the record of what was missing stays.
The agency says
“Compliance with Endangered Species Act, Essential Fish Habitat, Paperwork Reduction Act, and other requirements are discussed in the fact sheet to the proposed permit.”
The notice says all substantive legal compliance analysis -- including Endangered Species Act, Essential Fish Habitat, and other requirements -- is deferred entirely to the Fact Sheet, which is not reproduced in the Federal Register notice.
The agency says
“This action is not a significant regulatory action and was therefore not submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.”
The notice states this action 'is not a significant regulatory action' and was therefore not submitted to OMB for review, but it provides no reasoning or factual basis for that determination.
The agency says
“Comments must be received by September 21, 2026.”
The notice provides only a 45-day comment period (August 7 to September 21, 2026) for a permit governing discharges of pollutants into federal waters of Cook Inlet.
The agency says
“The draft GP proposes to authorize certain discharges of pollutants into the federal waters of Cook Inlet from oil and gas exploration facilities subject to limits and requirements designed to minimize pollution and protect water quality.”
The notice's summary states the permit will authorize 'certain discharges of pollutants' subject to 'limits and requirements designed to minimize pollution,' but it does not identify which pollutants are covered, what the discharge limits are, or which types of exploration facilities qualify.
The agency says
“Comments and requests regarding the draft GP must be submitted to [email protected] with the subject line: Public Comments on AKG51000.”
The notice provides a single email address for submitting comments and makes no mention of any public hearing, in-person meeting, or virtual meeting in the Cook Inlet region.
The agency says
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 10, proposes to reissue the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit for Oil and Gas Exploration Facilities in Federal Waters of Cook Inlet.”
The notice identifies this as a 'reissuance' of an existing general permit but provides no information about how conditions in Cook Inlet have changed since the prior permit was issued, whether prior permit limits proved protective, or what monitoring data from the existing permit informed the new limits.
In the agency’s own words
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 10, proposes to reissue the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit for Oil and Gas Exploration Facilities in Federal Waters of Cook Inlet (draft GP). The draft GP proposes to authorize certain discharges of pollutants into the federal waters of Cook Inlet from oil and gas exploration facilities subject to limits and requirements designed to minimize pollution and protect water quality.
Who signs it
Krishnaswamy Viswanathan
Director, Water Division
Where the notice says so
The ground
The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.
In court on this ground
This fight isn’t bound to a land unit in PLAN’s record yet, so there are no court cases to show for its ground.
Who holds the vote
PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.
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