EPA issues OCS waste discharge permits

New general permits for the Beaufort and Chukchi seas specify discharge limits for waste water from oil and gas exploration

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, has issued final versions of new wastewater general permits for oil and gas exploration activities in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. At the beginning of January the agency had published draft versions of the permits for public review. The new permits go into effect on Nov. 28 and expire on Nov. 27, 2017. Any appeal against the new permits must be filed within 120 days of the permits being issued.

The permits come under the National Pollutant Discharge System, or NPDES, and are designed to place limits on the types of waste that companies discharge into the sea during offshore operations. By operating within the limits specified in a general permit, a company does not have to seek approval of an individual permit specific to its operations. However, a company planning to discharge waste under the terms of one of the general permits must notify regulators of its intent at least 120 days before the discharges begin.

Although EPA manages the NPDES program for the federal government, the state government has been taking over administration of the program in Alaska, with the state taking on the wastewater permitting of oil and gas activities at the end of October this year. Consequently, the state will administer the new permits for operations in state waters around the coast, while EPA will retain administration of the permits for operations on the federal outer continental shelf.

The two new permits replace a single Arctic offshore NPDES general permit that expired in June 2011 — EPA had extended the operation of the old permit to cover recent offshore exploration activities by Shell, ConocoPhillips, Statoil and Eni until the new permits come into effect. The companies will now need to operate under the terms of the new permits.

Unlike the old permit, the new permits only cover the Beaufort and Chukchi seas: They do not extend to Hope and Norton basins offshore northwest and western Alaska.

The new permits authorize 13 types of discharge from exploration and drilling activities, setting effluent limitations and requirements “to ensure the discharges will not cause unreasonable degradation of the marine environment,” EPA said in an Oct. 29 notice.

The new permits prohibit the discharge of non-aqueous drilling fluids and associated drill cuttings. They also prohibit the discharge of fluids from well testing and set new limitations in the amount of drilling activity allowed.

Other new stipulations include a prohibition of the discharge of water-based drilling fluids and cuttings in the Beaufort Sea when bowhead whaling is in progress. Discharges to stable sea ice are prohibited in the Chukchi Sea and require agency authorization in the Beaufort Sea.