Aethon permit renewed

On October 2, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality issued the final Wyoming Pollution Discharge Elimination System (WYPDES) permit to Aethon Energy Operating, LLC.

The facility is a gas production treatment unit that separates gas from formation waters at the surface using a gun barrel technology, and skim ponds and tanks. The permit authorizes the discharge of produced water from conventional oil and/or gas facilities to waters of the state if the effluent quality complies with effluent limits established by this permit. Development of permit limits involves considering all federal and state regulations and standards and incorporates the most stringent requirements into the permit. The permit does not allow discharges of drilling fluids, acids, stimulation waters or other fluids derived from the drilling or completion of the wells.

The permit has been renewed in accordance with current WYPDES permitting requirements. All permit effluent limits and monitoring requirements have been updated in accordance with current WDEQ regulations and policy.

The permit states “The renewal application had originally proposed expansion of the discharge facility and up to 400% more flow. However, the reverse osmosis treatment unit at this facility, which was to be used for reduction of chloride and salt, has been inoperable since March of 2019, due to technical issues at the plant. The permittee has no specific plans to re-open the treatment plant at this time. An increase in discharge volume and pollutant load, upstream of the Class 1 water in the Wind River, is therefore not practical or necessary to permit at this time. This permit renewal caps the salt load output at historic levels (908 tons per month). That limit remains unchanged from the previous permit. In addition, flows from the facility will remain essentially unchanged from the previous permit term, at around 2 million gallons per day (2 MGD).”