For over 90 years, Weeks Marine, Inc. has grown into one of the leading marine construction, dredging and tunneling organizations in the United States and Canada. Originally founded in 1919 as Weeks Stevedoring, the company has grown to serve markets throughout North America, South America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Rim. Weeks Marine was recently ranked 86th on the “Engineering News-Record” top 400 contractors list.

E2PM was contracted by Weeks Marine, Inc. to assist in the Global Terminal dredging and pier extension project for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. E2PM’s role on this contract is to act as an independent “Air Emissions Consultant” to certify the Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emission calculations. One of the components for this project is to ensure compliance with the Federal Clean Air Act and limit the emission of NOx produced by combustion of fossil fuels. NOx emissions were calculated for all marine based equipment, with a maximum horsepower output of greater than or equal to 25. For this project, fossil fuels burning equipment included hopper dredge, clamshell, excavator, blast barge, crew boats and ocean tow. The NOx emissions shall not adversely affect the attainment plans established by the State of New York and New Jersey. The governing bodies have allocated Air Quality Units for this project; therefore WMI cannot exceed set limits for NOx emissions for a calendar year.

E2PM conducted an emissions audit at Weeks Marine, Inc. Camden Shipyard and Greenville Shipyard facilities to evaluate potential emission sources that may be subject to permitting and reporting. The facility currently has welding activities with multiple portable generators and welders. In addition sand blasting is use for cleaning of equipment’s.

Based on the air emissions facility audit E2PM develop a permitting strategy to bring the Camden and Greenville Shipyard toward regulatory compliance in air emissions in accordance with NJAC Title 7, Chapter 27. The main goal is to work with WMI staff to develop an air permit that would allow the influx of different potential emission emitting equipment without the submittals of new permits and or submit modifications to existing permits. E2PM attended a pre-application meeting with NJDEP to present the permit strategy. Based on the outcome of the pre-application meeting E2PM is in the process of preparing all necessary permit documentation for permit submittal.

E2PM assisted Weeks Marine in complying with the Facility Specific Requirements listed in the compliance plan of the NJDEP Permit, E2PM reviewed the NJDEP Permit and developed a checklist for field personnel’s to capture all required data for compliance. The collected data was used to perform engineering calculations to determine emission from the fossil fuel equipment, process equipment and mixing of dredged materials with cement slurry. Based on the compliance section of the NJDEP Permit a compliance document was prepared for Weeks Marine for submittal to NJDEP.