Prudhoe Bay: Public has 30 days to comment on Hilcorp discharge permit

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is taking public comment through July 10 on a permit that authorizes Hilcorp North Slope to discharge strainer backwash from its Prudhoe Bay Seawater Treatment Plant into Stefansson Sound.

The plant treats seawater for injection into oil reservoirs in the Prudhoe Bay Unit. That injection maintains pressure in North Slope reservoirs and boosts crude production. The permit covers discharge from Outfall 001, which consists of strainer backwash.

The permit sets effluent limits and monitoring requirements under the Alaska Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, the state's Clean Water Act discharge program for point sources to Alaska waters. Prudhoe Bay operations are governed by multiple overlapping state and federal permits.

Hilcorp took over operations at Prudhoe Bay from BP in 2020. Luke Saugier, speaking for Hilcorp in separate testimony, said the company thinks "we have decades of additional development in front of us across the North Slope."

The permit action is a reissuance for an existing facility. The discharge is already authorized and operating under established conditions. In prior North Slope permitting debates, environmental advocates have argued that cumulative impacts to Stefansson Sound and the Beaufort Sea from long-term industrial discharges deserve closer scrutiny, particularly for effects on subsistence resources used by nearby communities.

The draft permit and fact sheet are posted on the Department of Environmental Conservation's wastewater permitting page. Written comments are due July 10.