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EPA Creates More No-Discharge Zones

Release Date: 3/2/1999
Contact Information: Laurie Mann
mann.laurie@epamail.epa.gov
(206) 553-1583

March 2, 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 99-8

NEW CLEAN WATER PERMIT TIGHTENS LIMITS ON WASTE FROM COOK INLET OIL PLATFORMS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Four more environmentally-sensitive areas around Alaska’s Cook Inlet have been declared no-discharge zones by a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency permit that places tighter controls on wastewater discharges from Cook Inlet oil and gas platforms.

The new permit was announced today by Chuck Clarke, EPA’s Northwest regional administrator in Seattle. The permit covers the wastewater generated by the 16 exploration, development and production platforms currently operating in Cook Inlet. Taken together, the platforms generate an estimated two billion gallons of wastewater per year.

Clarke said the new permit, which replaces a permit that had been in effect since 1986, introduces new requirements on the platforms and the on-shore treatment facilities that discharge wastewater into Cook Inlet. The principal changes:

• Wastewater can no longer be discharged into the waters in or around 1) the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge; 2) a critical habitat area at Redoubt Bay; 3) Lake Clark National Park; nor at 4) the Port Graham/Nanwalek zone designated by the Kenai Borough as “an area meriting special attention.” These four zones are being added to the 12 no-discharge zones specified in the 1986 permit.
• The new permit allows discharges only in Cook Inlet north of Shelikof Strait. The 1986 permit regulated wastewater discharges from oil and gas platforms operating south of Cook Inlet in Shelikof Strait and in portions of the Gulf of Alaska.
• There are deep cuts in the allowable concentrations of oil and grease that can be discharged. Under the old permit, the daily limit was 72 milligrams of oil and grease in each liter of wastewater discharged. The new permit requires no more than 42 milligrams per liter.
• There is no longer a “one-size-fits-all” monitoring requirement. The new permit recognizes that the wastewater releases vary from platform to platform, and creates a tiered monitoring program that is tailored to the waste volumes at each location.
• EPA will rely upon the platform operators to choose how each will achieve a toxicity limit for drilling muds set by the permit. The toxicity limit is prescribed, but the permit leaves it up to the platform operator how the limit is to be met and maintained. The permit calls for the operators to prepare a management plan that best fits their individual operations.
• Tighter limits on chlorine discharges.
• Less paperwork. The new permit requires fewer reports to be submitted to EPA.

In addition to the oil and gas platforms in Cook Inlet, the new permit -- as before -- also applies to discharges from three on-shore facilities around the inlet where waste from the platforms is taken for treatment. The on-shore treatment is provided at Trading Bay on the west side of the inlet; at Granite Point, also on the west side; and at the East Forelands facility near Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula. At the largest of these facilities, Trading Bay, approximately five million gallons of wastewater are discharged per day.

The new permit takes effect April 1.