Hilcorp asks regulators not to require wetland compensation for 95-acre Put 29 gravel project

Hilcorp Alaska is asking state and federal regulators to approve roughly 95 acres of tundra wetland impacts near the Putuligayuk River without compensatory mitigation, the payment or restoration work normally owed for wetlands lost to a project.

Hilcorp's application states that North Slope wetlands form through permafrost action over hundreds of years and that the growing season lasts only 60 days.

"Wetland creation/restoration on the North Slope is impracticable because wetlands are primarily developed through permafrost action (taking hundreds of years to develop) and the growing season is only 60 days," the company wrote in the filing signed Aug. 13 by Kirsten Hoppe, an environmental specialist at Hilcorp Alaska. The application concludes that no compensatory mitigation is appropriate or should be required.

That argument is not in the state application now open for comment, which Hoppe signed Aug. 14; wetland compensation is the Army Corps' and DEC's call.

The project is a 64-acre gravel extraction area and a 1,000-foot access road off the road to Drillsite 15, seven miles northwest of Deadhorse. Road construction is scheduled for October, mining no sooner than 2027. About 30 acres of the impact are described as temporary. A separate Section 401 filing tied to the project describes discharging 45,000 cubic yards of gravel affecting about 3.5 acres of wetlands, far narrower than the 95-acre total.

Instead of compensation, Hilcorp offers thermal berms around the pit margin and phased excavation. The berms stay in place to prevent permafrost degradation. Hilcorp's drawing shows the pit filling with meltwater, leaving 63.5 acres of open water.

No agency has ruled on whether those measures satisfy requirements. DEC's Section 401 review examines Clean Water Act water-quality compliance. State guidance calls for avoiding, minimizing, then compensating for wetland losses where practicable, and the Army Corps of Engineers applies a similar practicability limit, binding only where regulators find the work feasible.

Hilcorp made the same no-mitigation argument in its Ugnu Mine Site E filing last October.

The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas takes written comment until 4:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at [email protected]. The DEC water quality comment period closed Sept. 4.