Several opponents of the proposed Hyperion Refinery seem to be mentioning frequently the fact that the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources allowed Hyperion to use air quality data for Sioux Falls when figuring the composite amount of pollution the refinery’s emissions would mean for the air in Southeastern South Dakota.

They argue that Sioux City is twice as close to the site just north of Elk Point, S.D., as is Sioux Falls. And, and since the atomoshpere doesn’t respect state lines, it is Sioux City’s (much dirtier) air quality that should be included in the formula. The total projected pollution would likely prohibit construction of the refinery here, they say, due to federal limits.

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 So here it is, the paragraph correcting my error in Sunday’s preview of what is anticipated to happen this week at the contested case hearing on Hyperion Refining’s preconstruction air quality air permit application. The hearing is set to re-convene Tuesday in Pierre before the DENR’s Board of Minerals and Environment. That’s the board that will grant, or not grant, the required permit for the proposed oil refinery/energy center:The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources has not made changes to the air-quality permit being sought by Hyperion Refining since the start of a contested case hearing in May and did not meet with a Hyperion consultant earlier this month. The meeting took place June 14-15, 2008. A story headlned “Battle Over Hyperion Air Permit to Resume” on Page A1 of the Journal’s June 21 edition contained incorrect information. (more…)

The beginning of either a potential end of Hyperion’s refinery project — or its acceleration — is finally at hand. We’re less than a month from the business meeting and public hearing set for April 15 and 16 in Elk Point, S.D. by the South Dakota Department of Natural Resources’ Board of Minerals and Environment.

The board will meet both days at the Elk Point-Jefferson High School, 402 Douglas St., in Elk Point. The public hearing will precede the more technical contested case hearing on the project’s required pre-construction air quality permit, without which the company won’t put so much as a shovel in the ground.

For now, here’s the proposed agenda for the local, public hearing, which includes board business besides Hyperion Refining – it could change:

* 10 a.m. Start time on Wednesday, April 15

* Roll call

* Minutes

* Mining issues

*Oil & Gas contested case

* Hyperion motions hearing and prehearing conference

* Lunch break

* 1:15 p.m. — site tour, BME, staff, representatives of the parties. Public can trail along but not participate

* 3 p.m. – Begin the public comment portion of the meeting

* 5 p.m. — Adjourn for dinner

* 7 p.m. — Reconvene for public comment

* 9 p.m. — Adjourn

Thursday, April 16

* Reconvene for public comment

* Continue as needed but no later than 5 p.m.

The more definitive contested case hearing on the air quality permit is set for May 19-22 and June 23-26, in Pierre.

It will examine the specifics of the pre-construction air quality permit, which Hyperion must have in order to begin construction of the 400,000 barrel per day oil refinery it is proposing for southern Union County. The contested hearing is a legal proceeding; all parties must be represented by an attorney.The dates may only be changed for only by the hearing chairman and only for “good cause,” according to the DENR. The Journal will keep you posted.

It will examine the specifics of the pre-construction air quality permit, which Hyperion must have in order to begin construction of the 400,000 barrels per day oil refinery it is proposing for southern Union County. The contested hearing is a legal proceeding; all parties must be represented by an attorney.The dates may only be changed for only by the hearing chairman and only for “good cause,” according to the DENR. The Journal will keep you posted. 

James Heisinger, chairman of both the Living River Group and South Dakota chapters of the Sierra Club, sent out a press release this morning commenting on a couple letters from federal agencies that found a number of shortcomings in Hyperion Refining’s draft air quality permit and the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ handling of it. Its content is no surprise. A story detailing the lengthy (more…)

The $10 billion Hyperion Energy Center has competition in its bid to become the first all-new U.S. oil refinery in more than 30 years.

A 150,000-barrel-per-day refinery planned for near Yuma (Ariz.) gained a key victory this week, as the Yuma Sun reports, ”Refinery moves closer to reality.”

As we have reported previously, the Arizona Clean Fuels project has been beset by a series of problems since it was first proposed in the late 1980s. Plans now call for construction on the $3 billion refinery to begin in 2009, with the refinery up and running by 2012.

That schedule would be about a year or so ahead of the proposed 400,000-barrel-per-day Hyperion refinery, which would be built on a rural Union County site just north of Elk Point. C

Texas-based Hyperion is currently in the process of applying for its air quality permit from the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

I wasn’t expecting to consider Langston Hughes or his famous poem, “Dream Deferred,”  when I went to the courthouse in Elk Point, S.D., this morning to cover a public hearing on the proposed make-over of the county’s zoning ordinance.

But that’s what happened.

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Today’s story about Hyperion Refining’s over estimating the emissions from its proposed IGCC – a gasification plant that would burn petroleum coke, a byproduct of oil refining, to produce electricity to power the refinery –  points to one reason the permitting process takes so long.  It’s complicated.

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 If Hyperion Refining is nervous about Thursday’s Union County Circuit Court ruling on zoning for its proposed oil refinery, it’s not showing. Judge Steven Jensen’s ruling left Ed Cable the last plaintiff standing, but kept the lawsuit alive. Jensen disqualified four other individual plaintiffs and Save Union County LLC, all opponents of the project. (more…)

There hasn’t been much public activity on the Hyperion Energy Center project since the June 3 referendum in which voters gave the OK to zoning for the proposed oil refinery. Until today.

I learned from Gov. Mike Rounds’ office that state geologist Derric Iles and a crew will start drilling Monday – for water — in the area of the proposed oil refinery. Iles, speaking from his office on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion, told me the state will install water monitors and use the data to establish the benchmark “before” picture of water quality in the area. Later, if the refinery is built, the monitors will provide the “after” profile of the same watershed.

“We’re being proactive, making sure we’re out ahead of anything that happens out there,” he said.

Iles said late Friday afternoon he is still waiting for underground utility clearances, but hoped to be able to start drilling on Monday. First, the crew will install monitors deep into the Lower Vermillion Missouri Aquifer near the identified footprint, but not in the footprint where they would be disrupted by construction. The installation will take about three weeks. They’ll be back in September with a different drilling rig to install some permanent testing wells in the more shallow alluvium – the fine, sandy soil left by glaciers — upstream and downstream from the refinery site along Brule Creek. Iles said his team will start by doing some test drilling to further document conditions in the area, then install the permanent monitors. The monitors will track the water quality in both the deep and shallow aquifers. They will join 145 other state monitoring wells in 80 locations on 25 different aquifers, all part of the state groundwater quality network. They’ll be checked about four times in the first six to 12 months, he said. How often they’ll be checked after that has not been determined.

Gov. Mike Rounds, speaking to reporters this morning at Dakota Dunes Country Club, reiterated his pledge that South Dakota’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources would not take any shortcuts in reviewing the air quality and other permits Hyperion will need to build its proposed refinery.

 But, he warned, opponents who have vowed to disrupt and delay the permitting process through lawsuits and other tactics will be disappointed, at least in court. (more…)