Alyeska moves forward with new pipeline spill plan

Alyeska is revising its Pipeline Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan to enhance overall response capabilities and gain efficiencies.

Strategically placing its resources in six regional maintenance and spill response centers along the pipeline route will allow Alyeska to cover more critical containment areas. This is a significantly revised plan reflecting both changes in formatting and organization, as well as restructuring to reflect Strategic Reconfiguration (SR) operational changes.

The changes to the spill plans are part of the company’s ongoing SR project that will upgrade Pump Stations (PS) 1, 3, 4 and 9 with electric-powered pump modules and/or automated control systems.

Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) approved the submitted plan for PS 9 and PS 7, which will allow Alyeska to move into the post-SR staffing requirements as soon as Alyeska deems this configuration appropriate.

Under the new TAPS SR operating model, fewer pump stations will be needed and the automation of those facilities will require less personnel. While there will be less people required to staff the pump stations, the number of initial field responders available for spill response will remain the same. Field responders will now be deployed from the six regional response centers rather than the stations.

“The current oil spill contingency plan calls for spill response from the individual pump stations,” said Jim F. Johnson, Pipeline Vice President. “The new plan has evolved from a pump station based response to a regional response base approach and places pre-staged equipment in strategic locations to achieve equal or better performance in response capabilities.”

Alyeska has identified 222 containment sites located near streams or drainage structures. These containment sites are significant because they are designed to contain oil spills that have the potential to move quickly over land or on water to highly critical areas (water leading to environmentally sensitive resources). Of the 222 containment sites identified, the response time at 63 of those locations will be increased through the changes, 65 will decrease and the remaining sites will remain the same.

Additional resources and deployment equipment will be positioned at the containment sites where response time is increased. For instance, anchoring devices were installed at high-priority stream locations, which will help expedite the process of deploying boom equipment. Another example is pre-staging equipment at strategically-placed storage and auxiliary units, such as underflow dam kits and additional sand bags at prioritized sites in order to improve the response and deployment of resources.

This equipment is designed to intercept the flow of oil in the event of a pipeline spill. The auxiliary units are equipped with site-specific spill response equipment at selected containment sites.

Another added feature of the new spill plan is enhancements to the helicopter support dedicated to spill response activities. The company will place Bell 407 helicopters or equivalent helicopters at three response bases along the pipeline route upon completion of the SR project. The Bell 407 is one of the more popular and reliable aircraft in the commercial helicopter market.

“Our ultimate goal is to not have any spills to respond to,” said Johnson. “What these enhancements should do is help improve our ability to respond more quickly and more efficiently if an incident was to occur.”

Alyeska’s Pipeline Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan was approved with conditions by the ADEC on November 30, 2006.