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Court rules against state on Redoubt DGC director says scope of reviews will be broadened to include activities covered by general permits Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
The Alaska Supreme Court has overturned a Division of Governmental Coordination consistency determination for exploration activities at Redoubt Shoal in Cook Inlet.
Because Redoubt operator Forest Oil Corp. had other permits, such as a general wastewater discharge permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, DGC did not include wastewater discharge in its review.
In its May decision, the court said the state needs to look at all proposed activities, including those covered by existing general permits and a wastewater permit from the EPA.
Cook Inlet Keeper had appealed DGC’s September 1999 consistency determination for Forest Oil’s exploration program at Redoubt. The superior court ruled DGC “properly excluded the Osprey’s exploration-related discharges from the project’s consistency review process because those activities had already been considered and found to be consistent with the Coastal Program in the state’s consistency review…”
Cook Inlet Keeper appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that “the state had a statutory duty to conduct a project-specific consistency review encompassing all activities for which the Osprey projected needed a permit, including a general permit that already existed…” Department of Law reviewing With exploration activities at Redoubt almost complete, DGC issued a consistency determination for development at Redoubt on May 1.
DGC Director Pat Galvin told PNA May 8 that the Department of Law is working with his agency to figure out the implications of the court’s May 3 decision on the development determination.
“It’s possible that it could affect the development phase,” but, Galvin said, discharges which were the subject of concern on appeal are not an issue in the development phase because they are not allowed.
The project is being converted from an exploration project to a development project, he said, “and so the production consistency determination is the one that we’re looking at to see if it still stands. … As of today, the consistency determination for the production activities is still in place and that permitting for production activities is also in place.” Galvin said “a determination is expected shortly in regard to whether that consistency determination has to be withdrawn.” Review timeframe will remain the same This uncertainty won’t be there for projects in review now or in the future, Galvin said.
“The problem for Forest Oil is that their timing is such that their activities may be directly affected by the court’s ruling. But the program can conform with the court’s decision without major changes in the process that projects go through,” he said.
The court decision means that DGC has to do consistency determinations differently.
“And we can do that, and I think we can do that without any major implications for the program,” Galvin said.
The state will have to broaden the scope of its review to include activities that are covered in general permits, “but the process that a project would go through would remain the same and the timeframe would remain the same,” he said. Forest defends DGC “We’re disappointed with the ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court,” Don Stevens, vice president and treasurer for Denver-based Forest Oil, told PNA May 7.
“And we believe that the state had complied with the Alaska coastal management program requirements” in issuing the consistency determination for exploration work at Redoubt.
Redoubt development phase The Redoubt Shoal oil and gas development project includes conversion of the Osprey exploration platform for development and building the onshore Kustatan production facility and pipelines.
The Kustatan production facility will be on an existing gravel pad on private land.
Pipeline placement will be through a boring through the West Foreland bluff, underneath the intertidal zone. The pipelines will be pulled from shore to the platform with a winch system installed on a barge moored near the Osprey platform.
Muds, cuttings and produced water will be reinjected in the Class II well at the platform; gray water will be discharged under an Environmental Protection Agency NPDES permit.
Pipelines for the project include: a six-inch natural gas pipeline; an eight-inch pipeline to carry wet oil onshore; an eight-inch pipeline to carry treated produced and fresh water from the onshore production facility back to the platform; one or two utility pipelines for power cables.
Platform changes from exploration to development include: electrical switches and controls, manifolding for projection, injection and disposal, and deck extensions.
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