Posted on 05/12/2005 5:25:57 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. officially incorporated a new, lighter hydraulic clamp into its trans-Alaska oil pipeline repair toolbox last week.
The clamp is the invention of Alyeska and local engineering firms that found a better way to plug oil-spewing holes after a man shot the pipeline with a high-powered rifle in 2001, causing a $20 million clean-up bill.
Alyeska employees practiced with the clamp for the first time last week as part of the company's regular training exercises.
"I'm very pleased with what they have done," said Becky Lewis, the Department of Environmental Conservation pipeline section manager with the Joint Pipeline Office.
The JPO is an Alaska pipeline oversight group consisting of officials from DEC, the Bureau of Land Management and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The exercise was conducted with a portable pipeline set up on the oil pipeline right of way near Fairbanks, Lewis said. The clamp contains the spill and diverts the lost crude into bladders.
The clamp was manufactured in Fairbanks, Alyeska's spokesman Curtis Thomas said. The company has more than one but Thomas wouldn't say how many, due to security reasons.
"The clamp is newly designed, smaller than our previous one," he said. "More portable, easier to maneuver and better designed for a bullet hole."
Daniel Lewis of Livengood shot the pipeline in 2001 with a .338 rifle, puncturing the steel insulating jacket and the pipe and causing 286,000 gallons of crude oil to spill. About 176,000 gallons were recovered and re-injected back into the pipeline.
Lewis was later convicted and fined for his actions. But it took Alyeska's spill responders 36 hours to stop the leak and plug the bullet hole. The response efforts led to a "lessons learned" document that listed things Alyeska wanted to improve as a result of the spill.
Designing a new clamp was one of those items on the list, Thomas said. The company also needed better fire suppression and leak detection.
The exercise included fire retardant foam devices loaded onto skids for deployment and fire protection for spill responders.
"We knew what improvements needed to be done and we made them," he said. "We've done extensive work, from training to deployment."
Last summer the company demonstrated the new clamp to regulators and employees. Now spill responders will train with the clamp once a year during one of its 72 training exercises, Thomas said.
The clamp took about 2 1/2 years to design and build, Thomas said. He would not elaborate on what methods were in place to stop spills during that time, though the old clamp could have been used.
"We were never without a way to repair a breach of the integrity of the line," he said.
JPO's Lewis praised Alyeska's actions, which came as a result of the pipeline shooting.
"They've put a lot of very good work training their personnel to operate safely in those types of situations," she said.
Diana Campbell can be reached at 459-7523 or dcampbell@newsminer.com
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