DSHW-2024-007255

Deq submit <[e-mail]>
EEI request for waste pile permit extension.
1 message
Todd Bro <[e-mail]>Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 7:44 AM
To: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>, "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
Cc: Brian Speer <[e-mail]>, Wade Hess <[e-mail]>
Hello Director Hansen,

I write on behalf of Environmental Energy Innovations LLC (EEI) to request that you extend EEI’s Waste Pile Permit for Cell #7.
The extension will allow EEI to continue operating Cell #7 without a threat to human health or the environment. The extension will
be temporary because, once you approve EEI’s pending application and issue a landfill permit for Cell #7 (temporary and later
Class VII), you may then terminate the Cell #7 Waste Pile Permit.

On July 1, 2024, your Division informed me that you would not renew the Waste Pile Permit and asked me to agree to stop
operating Cell #7 on August 11, 2024, so that you would not have to order EEI to cease and desist. EEI cannot stop operating Cell
#7, and EEI respectfully requests that you extend the Cell #7 Waste Pile Permit for the reasons discussed below.

You have a solid basis to extend the Waste Pile Permit. UAC R315-314-2(3) states:
The Permit can be extended without Cell #7 becoming a threat to human health and the environment. The Waste Pile Permit
extension would be brief, until you approve EEI’s pending application and issue Cell #7 a new landfill permit (temporary and later
Class VII). Your staff is reviewing EEI’s complete landfill permit application for Cell #7. Once you approve that permit, you can
terminate the Waste Pile Permit.

A brief Waste Pile Permit extension poses no threat to health or the environment. Cell #7 has been operating since 2011 without
any violations or impact to health or the environment. Cell #7 is in a remote rural location with habitable buildings located miles
away. The climate conditions are extremely arid. The property has no future use except for oil and gas wells. Boring data confirm
that Cell #7 sits over a clay layer of at least 50 feet, and no groundwater was found. The Director properly approved the Cell #7
plan of operations. Surface water is safely managed with berms and in accordance with the plan of operations.

Cell #7 meets all the applicable requirements of UAC R315-302-2 and R315-314-2. Under UAC R315-314-2(2) no groundwater
monitoring, leachate detection, or liner are needed because Cell #7 does not produce leachate. R315-314-2(2) sets forth
“[r]requirements for solid waste likely to produce leachate.” The rule then lists liner, detection, and groundwater monitoring
requirements for those leachate producing facilities. There is no evidence that during its many years of operation, Cell #7 has
produced or is likely to produce leachate. This conclusion is supported by the attached letter from Robert Richards and Dr. Sheril
D. Burton Ph.D. of Blackrock Consulting Services. There is no other controverting evidence in your record. And so Cell #7 requires
no liner, detection, or monitoring.

Even if you were to disagree that Cell #7 does not produce leachate, your approval of the Cell #7 plan of operations waived
groundwater monitoring requirements. Evidence in your record supports waiving groundwater monitoring in accordance with R315-
308-1(3) that states:

7/11/24, 4:08 PM State of Utah Mail - EEI request for waste pile permit extension.
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The attached November 21, 2023 expert groundwater analysis report from CIVCO concludes:

CIVCO’s opinion is based on site-specific field collected measurements, sampling and analysis of the Cell #7 (including the other
eleven cells evaluated in the report) characteristics supporting the fate and transport predictions that there is no potential for
migration of hazardous constituents from Cell # 7 during its operation and closure. There is no other controverting evidence in your
record. Cell #7 therefore presents no impact to health or the environment.

In a letter dated June 12, 2024 to EEI, the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM) instructed EEI to apply to your Division for
a temporary permit in order to “avoid halting operations.” But your agency has not promulgated rules for issuing any temporary
permit before EEI’s Waste Pile Permit expires next month. DOGM also acknowledged that current permits may expire before the
transition to your Division and offered to “work with operators to grant an extension.” You should be offering this same courtesy to
EEI by extending its Waste Pile Permit. EEI respectfully requests that you extend its Waste Pile Permit for Cell #7 for a brief period
of time until you issue Cell #7 a landfill permit (temporary and later Class VII) after you finalize your rule changes.

Very truly yours,

Environmental Energy Innovations LLC

Todd Bro, Manager

Todd Bro, Manager
Environmental Energy Innovations LLC (EEI)
7/11/24, 4:08 PM State of Utah Mail - EEI request for waste pile permit extension.
https://mail.google.com/mail/b/AEoRXRSWcsT2Bq47FqFeQeo9WzHoUDBwWvCILdPUVW8-hALzmkpn/u/0/?ik=adf9d5e615&view=pt&search=all&pe…2/4

Re: EEI Cell #7

Dear Todd,

This letter provides you with our expert opinion that the solid waste placed onto Cell #7 of EEI does not produce and is not likely to
produce leachate.

Blackrock Consulting Services has assisted EEI with its exploration and production (E&P) waste management operations since
2011. Over these many years, we have assisted EEI with its loading operations, soil moisture control, Utah Division of Air Quality
emissions reporting, and placement of E&P waste onto Cell #7.

UAC R315-301-2 defines the term “leachate" as “a liquid that has passed through or emerged from solid waste and that may
contain soluble, suspended, miscible, or immiscible materials removed from the waste.” (Emphasis added.)

To understand why Cell number 7 will not produce leachate, it is essential to comprehend how leachate is produced in a Municipal
Solid Waste (MSW) landfill and why those conditions don’t occur in a landfill accepting only E&P wastes.

Leachate creates problems with MSW landfills mainly because of the large amounts of biodegradable organic compounds present
in MSW. MSW landfill leachates are produced as secondary products of the solid organic decomposition processes.

The hazardous products of such leachate are four major types of constituents: soluble organic matters, inorganic components,
heavy metals, and xenobiotic organic compounds. Many factors interact in producing leachate. These factors are annual
precipitation, runoff, infiltration, evaporation, transpiration, ambient temperature, waste composition and density, initial
moisture content and depth of the landfill.

Stabilization of solid waste placed in a sanitary landfill and the quality of leachate are principally the results of physical, chemical,
and biological processes. MSW landfills generally contain a highly heterogeneous mixture of materials, which include both a very
high organic component as well as soluble mineral substances.

Four phases of decomposition undergo in a MSW landfill. Rettenberg, G.: Landfill proactive-DAAD seminar. Faculty of Sarajevo
University of Sarajevo (2006): (1) an aerobic phase is initialed, (2) followed by formation of an anaerobic acidic phase, (3)
formation of methanogenic phase, and (4) followed by stable methanogenic phase.

Once the refuse or the solid waste become very well decomposed, it is possible that the oxygen rate of diffusion to a landfill could
surpass the microbial oxygen depletion rate. Landfill manuals---Landfill site design, Environmental Protection Agency (2000).

Over time, the anaerobic ecosystem of a landfill could become an aerobic environment. As refuse and solid wastes are buried in
the landfills over and over for so many years in several layers, lifts, and cells, it is common that different parts or layers within
the MSW landfill become in variable decomposition stages.

The characteristics of landfill leachate depend mainly on the decomposition state of refuse and the associated
materials. Leachate characteristics and composition can be different and variable throughout each landfill. Abdel, Shafy, I,
Hussein, Mong S.M. Mansour. Solid waste as a resource: sources, composition, disposal, recycling, and valorization. Egypt J Pet,
27 (2018), pp, 1275-1290, 10.1016/ejpe, 2018,07.003

In Summary.

MSW contains highly degradable organic compounds that generate leachate during fermentation. These compounds and the
leachate generation process do not exist in E&P wastes.

Landfills that accept only E&P wastes do not have the essential ingredients to generate the typical leachate produced by MSW
landfills. If, however, an E&P landfill were in an area that received heavy rain and was also sitting on top of a porous substrate, it
would be possible for the more soluble portions of the E&P wastes (such as BETEXN or soluble salts) to create leachate and
contaminate groundwater.

EEI’s landfill accepts only E&P waste. The area’s annual rainfall is less than 7 inches, and the landfill sits on an impervious clay
layer. The E&P waste received by EEI is mixed with dry soil to bring the moisture content below 20%.

7/11/24, 4:08 PM State of Utah Mail - EEI request for waste pile permit extension.
https://mail.google.com/mail/b/AEoRXRSWcsT2Bq47FqFeQeo9WzHoUDBwWvCILdPUVW8-hALzmkpn/u/0/?ik=adf9d5e615&view=pt&search=all&pe…3/4
As determined by laboratory analysis, the average moisture content of the applied material is less than 10%, with a high of 12%.
Any liquids placed on Cell #7 are applied at a rate that prevents pooling and evaporates within a short time frame. The evaporation
rate at the landfill greatly exceeds the rate at which moisture (including rain) is applied to the landfill. Borehole wells surrounding
the landfill are dry.

As long as EEI’s landfill continues to operate within its permit limits, the essential parameters necessary for the formation of
leachate will not exist, and Cell 7 will not produce leachate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leachate

Best regards,

Robert Richards

Dr. Sheril D. Burton, Ph.D.

BLACKROCK Consulting Services Inc.

Ground Water Report 11-21-23.pdf
228K
7/11/24, 4:08 PM State of Utah Mail - EEI request for waste pile permit extension.
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CIVCO Engineering, Inc.
Civil Engineering Consultants
PO Box 1758 * 1256 W 400 S, Suite 1
Vernal, Utah 84078

Phone [phone] * Fax [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

ENVIRONMENT ENERGY INNOVATIONS
PLEASANT VALLEY, UTAH

Ground Water Analysis
A subsurface investigation was performed on the project site. Below is the resulting analysis of
the well bore samples.

The attached map shows the locations of the drill holes. Each hole was bored to a depth of 50
feet.

Borehole # 1:
0’-10’: light buff colored sandy silt, colluvium.
10’-15’: tan clay.
15’-20’: sandy gravel.
25’-35’: light reddish brown clayey silt, Uinta Formation.
35’-52’: purplish brown silty clay, Uinta Formation.
*No water encountered in BH-1.

Borehole # 2:
0’-10’: light buff silty sand, colluvium.
10’-25’: pale greenish sandy gravel.
25’-35’: grayish sandstone.
35’-50’: greenish gray shale.
*No water encountered in BH-2. Bedrock at 25 feet.

Borehole # 3:
0’-10’: buff colored sandy silt, colluvium.
10’-15’: greenish brown sandy gravel w/ 1mm-3cm sized clasts.
15’-30’: light brown clayey/silty shale.
30’-50’: blue green clayey/silty shale.
*No water encountered in BH-3. Bedrock at 15 feet.

Borehole # 4:
0’-10’: light buff sandy silt, colluvium.
10’-25’: tan sandy gravel w/ 1mm-3cm clasts.
25’-30’: tan siltstone.
30’-40’: blue green silty shale.
40’-50’: blue green clay.
*No water encountered in BH-4. Bedrock at 25 feet.

Page | 2

Borehole # 5:
0’-10’: light buff silty gravel, colluvium.
10’-20’: tan sandy gravel.
20’-30’: grayish brown siltstone.
30’-40’: pale green silty shale.
40’-50’: blue green shale.
*No water encountered in BH-5. Bedrock at 25 feet.

Borehole # 6:
0’-10’: light buff colored silt, colluvium.
10’-20’: whitish tan sandy gravel.
20’-30’: blue green sandy silt.
30’-50’: purplish green shale.
*No water encountered in BH-6. Bedrock at 30 feet.

Borehole # 7:
0” – 8” Lt brn-buff silt and sand with some minor components of clay.
0’ – 10’ Clay with minor amounts of silt and sand.
10’ – 20’ Clay brn-gry.
20’ – 30’ Clay with minor amounts of sand.
30’ – 40’ Clay dk brn-drk gry.
40’ – 50’ Clay drk gry-drk brn with minor amounts of ls pebbles and rock shards.
*No water encountered in BH-7. .

Borehole # 8:
0” – 8” Lt brn-buff silt and sand with some minor components of clay.
0’ – 10’ Clay with minor amounts of buff silt and sand.
10’ – 20’ Clay brn-gry-drk brn.
20 ‘ – 30’ Clay with minor amounts of sand.
30’ – 40’ Clay dk brn-drk gry.
40’ – 50’ Clay drk gry-drk brn with a minor amount of blue shale, very limey.
*No water encountered in BH-8.

Borehole # 9:
0” – 8” Lt brn-buff silt and sand with some minor components of clay.
0’ – 10’ Clay lt brn-brn.
10’ – 20’ Clay brn-gry-drk brn with minor pebbles of drk gry shale.
20’ – 30’ Clay with minor amounts of sand, very fine.
30’ – 40’ Clay drk brn-drk gry.
40’ – 50’ Clay drk gry-drk brn.
*No water encountered in BH-9.