Some of Our Accomplishments

It really boils down to two things, service and success.

We give your project personal service, and we get results! Our clients' comments show that our experience, our capabilities, and our attention to detail make a world of difference.

Many firms provide environmental and permitting services as part of their overall client services. Steigers Corporation is distinguished by having proven to our clients that we stand out through our knowledge and experience, our commitment to individual attention, and our proven ability to make our clients' projects succeed! We make a commitment to you; we become, not only your advocate, but also an essential and trusted member of your staff.

Alyeska Seafoods, in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, Alaska, had worked with another consultant for 4 years to produce an air permit for submittal to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Steigers was hired and, within just 7 months, produced a technically complete permit application accepted by the state of Alaska.

We develop long-term relationships with clients by providing the highest quality of service; we develop your trust and confidence through our performance. We strive to be your best employee by understanding the needs of your business and your project and getting the job done efficiently.

The successfully permitted Healy Clean Coal Project is located in an environmentally sensitive area only a few miles from pristine Denali National Park and Preserve.

When Steigers Corporation is retained for small projects, we often go on to manage the entire environmental program when the client discovers our capabilities. American Soda's sodium mining project is an excellent example. Although we were initially hired only to assist in obtaining approval of a small exploratory drilling operation, we went on to manage the entire environmental and permitting program for the construction of a $260-million commercial mining operation.

We successfully and rapidly accomplished the permitting program for American Soda's new mining, pipeline, and processing operation in northwestern Colorado. Despite appeals and intense opposition to the project from competitive interests, the Environmental Impact Statement process was completed, all necessary permit approvals were obtained, and construction was allowed to begin all within less than 18 months.

We assisted Nushagak Electric Cooperative in negotiating an agreement with the state air permitting authority that allows existing power generation equipment to continue to operate without implementing Best Available Control Technology until the useful life of each unit is depleted. Thus, our client avoided the need to install expensive NOx emission controls on aging equipment and was allowed to put its limited resources to better use on more efficient and less-polluting new units.

As part of a combustion-turbine installation project, Barrow Utilities and Electric Cooperative, Inc. (BUECI) was able to avoid Prevention of Significant Deterioration major source classification. We conducted a dispersion modeling analysis that provided BUECI with the flexibility to operate a wide range of electric power generating units to meet their customers' demands and to consume fuel in the operator's choice of generating units. We also overcame the onerous fuel testing and monitoring requirements that had been imposed by the regulatory agencies and were able to obtain approval of less-costly and time-consuming methods for compliance with the applicable New Source Performance Standards (NSPS).

In the NPDES permitting for the redevelopment of a power plant in Alaska, we successfully negotiated an existing source determination even though the plant that had not been in operation for nearly 15 years. This determination from the EPA precluded the need for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review, thereby eliminating a potentially lengthy delay. As an existing source, the project also avoided the more onerous structural requirements and operating conditions that can be applied to new sources. Our efforts provided substantial savings of both time and money and reduced the potential for additional mitigation requirements.

Steigers Corporation staff successfully negotiated the unusual use of a nationwide permit to address impacts to wetlands from the construction of new surface facilities at an underground coal mine. This approach saved the mine the time and associated expense of having to go through a lengthy permitting process and public comment period.

We assisted one client in formulating a diversion pond dredging plan that precluded its regulation under both Section 404 and Section 10 (Rivers and Harbor Act) and thus avoided any associated mitigation requirements. Our efforts saved the client the time and expense of a lengthy permitting process and $200,000 to $300,000 in mitigation costs.

Steigers Corporation developed a comprehensive Commercial Mine Plan for the Yankee Gulch Project that became the basis for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Environmental Impact Statement for the project.

The Mine Plan integrated a detailed description of the proposed mine development and a description of the affected environment, assessed impacts of the proposed project, and offered appropriate mitigation that satisfied the BLM's concerns.Because the Mine Plan had proactively assessed the agency's concerns, the EIS was completed in record time, and the project gained a full year's production.

Since the state of Colorado also has jurisdiction over mining activities, the Yankee Gulch Project was also required to obtain a state mining and reclamation permit. Because we integrated development of this permit with development of the Mine Plan, the agencies were able to simplify the reclamation bonding requirement by allowing essentially a single bond for both permits.

Steigers Corporation obtained several Special Use Permits for the Yankee Gulch Project from both Garfield County and Rio Blanco County for construction of a mine site, two processing plants, a railroad spur, and a pair of pipelines. In Rio Blanco County, we successfully argued the monetary benefits of the project to avoid onerous socioeconomic mitigation measures. Based on our negotiated agreement with Garfield County for minor obligations mitigating socioeconomic impacts, the county waived further "fiscal mitigation" that would have required major financial commitments by our client.

Steigers Corporation prepared the Borrower's Environmental Report, used as the Environmental Assessment, for the Coast Guard Cogeneration Project in Kodiak, Alaska. The project included a utility combustion turbine power generation project and associated 69-kV transmission line to be sited on a U.S. Coast Guard base. Key issues addressed in the EA included land use, air quality, noise, fish and wildlife, and hazardous materials. We successfully completed the EA and managed the resolution of several contentious issues, which allowed the project to be constructed in time to provide replacement power for a scheduled outage of Kodiak's primary hydroelectric power supply.

As part of our total environmental services for the Healy Clean Coal Project in Alaska, we designed field studies, including soils and vegetation mapping, evaluated wetlands, and developed plans for restoring native grasses and shrubs. Our investigation of potential sulfur dioxide injury to vegetation helped convince the U.S. National Park Service that this environmentally and politically sensitive project would not adversely affect natural systems in nearby Denali National Park and Preserve.

At five hydropower projects in Michigan, we supervised the design and implementation of a diverse array of studies to evaluate project impacts on fisheries, wildlife, water quality, recreation, and cultural resources. Fisheries and wildlife studies included habitat evaluations, population surveys, threatened and endangered species surveys, and fish entrainment and turbine mortality studies. We investigated potential impacts to reservoir-margin wetlands from fluctuating water levels and reservoir drawdowns. Comprehensive water quality studies were conducted at each project to support Section 401 certification. We also conducted recreation resource use analyses, scenic resource evaluations, and cultural resource assessments using local historians and archaeologists to determine the potential eligibility of project facilities for listing on the National Register. Our fisheries investigations, in particular, were instrumental in allowing the projects to be licensed without requiring the construction of fish protection facilities and without the imposition of costly constraints on project operations.