(a) If the governor finds that two or more adjoining political subdivisions would be better served by an interjurisdictional arrangement than by maintaining separate disaster agencies and services, the governor may designate by order an interjurisdictional area adequate to plan for, prevent, or respond to a disaster in that area, and direct steps to be taken as necessary, including the creation of an interjurisdictional relationship, a joint disaster emergency plan, mutual aid, or an area organization for emergency planning and services. A finding by the governor under this subsection must be based on one or more factors related to the difficulty of maintaining an efficient and effective disaster prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery system without an interjurisdictional relationship, such as

(1) small or sparse population;

(2) limitations on public financial resources severe enough to make maintenance of a separate disaster agency and services unreasonably burdensome;

(3) unusual vulnerability to disaster as evidenced by a past history of disasters, topographical features, drainage characteristics, disaster potential, and presence of disaster-prone facilities or operations;

(4) the interrelated character of the political subdivisions in an area; or

(5) other relevant conditions or circumstances.

(b) If the governor finds that a vulnerable area lies only partly within the state and includes territory in a foreign jurisdiction, and that it would be desirable to establish an international relationship, mutual aid, or an area organization for disaster, the governor shall take steps to that end as desirable. If this action is taken with jurisdictions that have enacted the Emergency Management Assistance Compact substantially as contained in AS 26.23.136, any resulting agreement may be considered a supplementary agreement under Article VII of that compact.

(c) If a jurisdiction with which the governor proposes to cooperate under (b) of this section has not enacted the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, the governor may negotiate a special agreement with that jurisdiction.

(d) To the extent that a plan prepared under this section relates to action required to avert human injury or other damage from a release of a hazardous substance, the plan must be substantially equivalent in relevant respect to the local emergency plans prepared under AS 26.23.073 and 26.23.075 and the state and regional master plans prepared by the Department of Environmental Conservation under AS 46.04.200 - 46.04.210. The plan must use an incident command system comparable to the system used in those plans and must be reviewed by the Alaska State Emergency Response Commission under AS 26.23.077.