Hi all,
Another piece in the North Slope drilling debate. Read EPA’s new press release.
If folks want to file petitions for review of the revised permit
the deadline is in one month: July 21, 2008.
Here’s the news release:
“EPA Issues Revised “Minor”Air Permit to Shell for Drilling in
Arctic’s Beaufort Sea
(Seattle, WA – June 19, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency has issued a revised minor air quality permit to Shell
Offshore, Inc. (Shell), to regulate air emissions from the Kulluk
floating drilling rig and its support vessels to conduct
exploratory oil and gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf
(OCS) of the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska.
According to Rick Albright, Director of EPA’s Air, Waste & Toxics
office in Seattle, the Agency is satisfied that Shell’s permit
application met all EPA requirements.
“This project has undergone extraordinary scrutiny,” said EPA’s
Albright. “Because local communities in the North Slope Borough
have expressed a wide range of important social and public health
concerns, we’ve taken an extra hard look at the complete
application package. We believe that from an air quality
standpoint, this project, as permitted, will meet all health-based
ambient air quality standards.”
EPA conducted informational meetings and public hearings in three
North Slope communities (Nuiqsut, Kaktovik and Barrow) between
March 25 and 27, 2008.
Shell’s revised permit will limit emissions of any single air
pollutant to 245 tons per year at each exploratory operation,
which includes a single planned well and any of its associated
replacement or relief wells. Above those limits, the project
would require a “major” source permit, which requires a more
rigorous permitting process and limits based on the best available
control technology.
According to EPA’s Albright, another important step in the permit
process involves the recent listing of the polar bear as
“threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.”
This last part may be of particular interest to some:
“While we have issued this revised permit to Shell today, it does
not become effective until consultation with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service regarding Endangered Species Act protection for
the polar bear has been completed.”
