Icicle Seafoods Processing Vessels

Steigers Corporation provided air quality permitting and support services for the owner/operator of various floating seafood processing vessels in Alaska. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) had improperly asserted that one vessel, the Arctic Star, was required to obtain a Title V Operating Permit because its nitrogen oxide (NO_X) emissions exceeded 100 tons per year (tpy). Steigers Corporation explained to ADEC that (1) under 40 CFR 89, every diesel-fired engine aboard the Arctic Star is a non-road engine due to the Arctic Star’s annual operation pattern and (2) after excluding all non-road engine emissions, the annual emission rate of every pollutant falls below the Title V threshold.

To save the time and expense of obtaining an unnecessary and unwarranted Title V Operating Permit, Steigers Corporation approached various EPA offices and succeeded in obtaining a formal determination. As a result, ADEC withdrew its demand for a Title V Operating Permit.

Steigers Corporation also prepared the air quality application for an Owner Requested Limit (ORL) for the Arctic Star to resolve a potential regional air quality problem in an SO₂ Special Protection Area in Alaska. To support the permitting effort, Steigers Corporation worked closely with ADEC to develop a regional emission inventory and conduct air quality dispersion modeling for the Arctic Star and other regional emission sources. The project successfully coordinated permit approvals for several competing industrial facilities in the region.