DEC approves drilling disposal site
The state is allowing a Texas company to operate a drilling waste monofill in Nikiski.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation permit allows AIMM Technologies Inc. to operate up to three lined cells for disposing drilling byproducts.
The permit is valid until August 2018.
The permit requires the facility to be zero discharge with double liners and a leak detection system. AIMM Technologies is only allowed to use the facility to dispose “drilling waste” and certain “petroleum-polluted soil,” as outlined by federal law.
The permit also requires AIMM Technologies to monitor groundwater at least four times over the first two years of operation — once in each season — and annually thereafter.
For some two years, AIMM Technologies has been processing drilling waste at its facility in Kenai and disposing of the waste at the Kenai Peninsula Borough landfill. The company applied for a permit to build and operate the facility back in April 2012.
The Division of Environmental Health within the Department of Environmental Conservation received 229 public comments — including 182 copies of a form letter —but determined that the commenting period made a public hearing unnecessary. AIMM Technologies subsequently held a public meeting in July 2012 attended by 150 locals.
The proximity of the proposed 1.5-acre monofill to homes in Nikiski caused some consternation in the community, but the department said the facility complies with the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s zoning distinctions for the proposed location. State law requires any such facility to be at least 500 feet from any drinking water source.
The proposed facility would be more than 1,000 feet from the nearest water well.
—Eric Lidji
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