Owner/Client
Pallas Nitrogen, LLC
Location
Wellsville, OH
CEC Services
- Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments
- Threatened and Endangered Species Survey
- Benthic Aquatic Survey
- Wetland/Stream Assessment
- NPDES Permitting
- Geotechnical Investigation
- Air Permitting
- Water Permitting
Owner Objective
The Pallas Nitrogen (Pallas) plant will utilize natural gas as feed stock and manufacture ammonia and ammonia-derived fertilizers on a 500-acre site in Wellsville, Ohio. The project was originally permitted as a coal-to-liquid fuel plant with permitting and civil design services provided by CEC. Services previously provided by CEC for this project when coal was proposed for the feedstock included:
- The preparation of an air Permit-to-Install (PTI) application;
- An operational NPDES permit application;
- An Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) Section 401 permit application;
- A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Section 404 permit application;
- A preliminary geotechnical investigation; and
- Civil/site design services.
The project was issued a PTI, an NPDES permit, a 401 permit, and a 404 permit (2007-28) in 2007/2008. A revised PTI application was prepared and additional civil/site design was performed in 2014 in response to the change to a natural gas feedstock and production of ammonia-derived fertilizers. From start to finish, the original permitting process was completed in two years. Three key factors that contributed to the rapid completion of the original permitting effort were:
- Assembling a consulting team capable of obtaining all of the necessary permit approvals;
- Developing and submitting the application in separate modules; and
- Maintaining regular and routine communications with the OEPA.
The current plan for the facility includes the production of anhydrous ammonia, urea, urea ammonium nitrate (UAN), nitric acid, and diesel exhaust fluids (DEF) using natural gas as the feedstock. The facility is to be constructed on approximately 60 acres at the 500-acre Wellsville property. Pallas hired CEC for CEC’s expertise in air quality, water quality, and streams/wetland permitting, as well as the breadth of service and depth of expertise needed to prepare all the necessary permit applications.
CEC Approach
CEC is currently providing ecological, environmental, and civil services to revise existing permits or to re-apply for new permits. CEC is also providing civil/ site design support for the new site layout. As demonstrated in the original effort, CEC’s integrated approach to the revised project will result in time and labor savings associated with understanding the complex and novel technology of the project, developing process descriptions and drawings that could be shared among different applications, and simplifying the project management of this multidisciplinary undertaking.
