Barr helped GRE obtain regulatory approvals for proposed gas-fired, simple-cycle, combustion-turbine peaking facilities in Cambridge and Elk River, Minnesota. In addition to site permits from the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, a federal environmental review process was mandated for the Cambridge project because it would be partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service.
Barr assisted GRE with the submittals and public meetings required by the Environmental Quality Board and Rural Utilities Service and helped prepare the Environmental Assessment Worksheet for the scoping process, which resulted in a finding of no significant impact. In addition, we prepared applications for state air-quality and NPDES wastewater-discharge permits. For these, we gathered information on both projects’ anticipated air impacts; water use; wastewater generation; noise levels; land-use impacts; social, cultural, and economic impacts; and effects on the natural environment to enable GRE to address those topics and propose methods of minimizing impacts.