The public comment periods for air quality permits for two area producers are coming to a close this week.
Furie Operating Alaska LLC and Hilcorp Alaska, LLC are both seeking the OK to their permit applications from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Air Quality.
The Air Permit Program is broken into two sections — Title I, and Title V. Title I deals with construction and modification of a source and a Title V permit is required when 100 tons per year of a single air pollutant is produced. Aaron Simpson, a permit writer with the division, said Title I permits don’t expire, but Title V permits do.
“If (companies) exceed the Title V threshold … then at that point that’s when they have the period monitoring and they have source testing and things that are based around the length of the permit,” Simpson said.
Furie is waiting for approval of its Title I or Alaska quality control minor permit for its proposed natural gas production platform, Kitchen Lights Unit Platform A in the Upper Cook Inlet. Furie applied for the permit in mid-April. The comment period for Furie’s application ends at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
According to the Technical Analysis Report for the permit, the Spartan Jack-up Rig is located with the platform. Both the rig and the platform belong to the same stationary source, according to Alaska statute. However, after drilling is complete at platform A, the rig will be moved, so the department plans to issue a standalone minor permit for platform A.
The application requests to install and operate emission units including three generators — two gas and one diesel — two gas heaters, one crane, a purge vent and a storage tank for ultra low sulfur diesel.
Along with the production platform, Furie plans to construct and operate two subsea natural gas pipelines and an onshore production facility near Nikiski.
Hilcorp applied for an air quality control operating permit for its Dolly Varden Platform in the Upper Cook Inlet in mid-April. The comment period closes at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
The application is for a renewal of its Title V or operating permit, which is required every five years by DEC. This is the third operating renewal for the permit.
Monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting are required by Title V permits.
“We make sure that once every five years they do a performance test to make sure the engines and the turbines and things are operating as they said they were going to,” Simpson said.
He said a third party tests the pollutant levels.
Hilcorp is requiring the permit include Dolly Varden emission units, which include 11 turbines, two boilers, five engines and one flare.
According to the Statement of Basis for the Permit Conditions, which provides legal and factual basis for terms for permit, the total potential to emit is slightly more than 1,300 tons per year in total emissions. The turbines and boilers on the platform use gas. The engines use diesel and one turbine uses SoLoNOx — a low emissions combustion system.
Comments about either permit application can be emailed to DEC engineering associate Kwame Agyei at Kwame.Agyei@alaska.gov.
Kaylee Osowski can be reached at kaylee.osowski@peninsulaclarion.com.
