NEXT's Air Permit Measured The Plant, Not The Full Port Westward Footprint

DEQ says it received 6,993 written comments and 41 oral comments on the 2022 air permit.

DEQ's project page says the air permit regulates facility air emissions and that the project still needed other approvals, including a 401 certification and two stormwater permits.

In its response to comments, DEQ says trains and marine vessels are mobile sources and that emissions from trains and marine vessels coming to or from the facility are treated as "secondary emissions not considered in this stationary source permitting action."

The Army Corps Draft EIS says the project could require up to 208 trains a year, 720 trucks a year, and 171 ocean-going vessel movements a year.

DEQ answered commenters directly on natural gas as well. The agency said the stationary-source permit regulates combustion of natural gas at the facility, but that production and transport of natural gas are outside the scope of the permitting action.

DEQ's response separated on-site combustion from the upstream gas supply chain.

The hearing-officer report says commenters objected to confidential-business-information treatment around parts of the flare calculations. DEQ responded that staff reviewed the full calculations and that public versions still included hourly and annual emission rates.

DEQ also acknowledged that the air permit applications were not available on its website at the start of the public comment period and were posted after the agency was notified.

DEQ's Cleaner Air Oregon fact sheet says the modeled residential added cancer risk was 0.2 per million, below Oregon's risk action level.

The review report says DEQ's issued plant-site limits were structured as a synthetic minor permit for criteria pollutants, including a 99-ton carbon-monoxide limit and a 70-ton VOC limit.