Chevron Phillips Chemical Company – Toxicity Reduction Evaluation
RPS assisted an industrial client whose brine discharge was exhibiting both acute and chronic toxicity due to elevated salts. For the acute toxicity, RPS assisted in developing the justification for meeting the TDS exemption under the state water quality standards, which ultimately resulted in the removal from the permit of all acute toxicity monitoring requirements. To resolve the chronic toxicity issues, RPS proposed and assisted in the negotiations for a new, flow-limited permit. Under this approach, the facility restricts its discharge rate based on upstream river flows, which allows it to pass its chronic bio-monitoring tests at the specified critical dilution.
Tenaska Gateway Partners – Power Plant Development and Permitting
RPS completed a multimedia permitting project involving a greenfield gas-fired power plant. The RPS project team evaluated water supply and disposal options, developed permitting strategies to meet aggressive construction schedule, evaluated disposal options, calculated potential permit limits, and directed wastewater permitting.
Trans-Global Solutions, Inc.
RPS was responsible for the preparation, submittal, and final authorization of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits to construct a deepwater port and petroleum coke storage and handling facility on the Houston Ship Channel. Additional construction and environmental activities included conducting a geotechnical analysis to determine limiting factors (subsidence and slope failure) for petroleum coke storage capacity; preparation of a Request for Proposal and specifications for hydro-axing vegetation around suspect jurisdictional wetlands at an industrial site along the Houston Ship Channel; draining a 30-acre pond and a 5-acre pond into the Houston Ship Channel and providing site drainage for standing water; preparation, submittal, and authorization of a Section 10/404 Corps of Engineers permit to dredge the Houston Ship Channel and construct the petroleum coke storage and handling facility; and obtaining a license from the Port of Houston Authority to dredge the Houston Ship Channel.