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August 2010

Vol. 15, No. 32 Week of August 08, 2010

State, feds, pay for gas line route data

Information from $1.75 million aerial lidar survey to be available to public; study will identify potential geological hazards

Petroleum News

The State of Alaska and the federal government are funding a project to gather detailed aerial laser-imaging data for proposed gas pipeline routes, with results to be made available to the public.

Tom Irwin, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, said the AGIA coordinator’s office would provide most of the funding for the project, $1.5 million of an estimated $1.75 million. The federal coordinator’s office for the Alaska natural gas pipeline is contributing $250,000.

Irwin said “data obtained from the survey will be released to the public.”

“The state needs the data, federal agencies and the public need the detailed information, so it just makes sense to chip in and help the state pay for the work so that everyone can share and save money,” said Larry Persily, federal coordinator for Alaska natural gas transportation projects.

Rod Combellick, deputy director of DNR’s Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, said the survey will use lidar — light detection and ranging — along with global positioning system and inertial navigation technology to obtain precise locations and elevations of the ground, vegetation and above-ground features. The division issued a request for proposals July 26 and will oversee the study.

Alaska Gasline Inducement Act Coordinator Mark Myers said the “survey will significantly improve our geotechnical understanding of the route for an Alaska gas pipeline or other existing or proposed pipelines from the North Slope to either the Canadian border or Valdez.” He said that making the survey results public will enable Alaskans to be better informed during the regulatory and permitting phases of an Alaska gas pipeline project.

Combellick said lidar is useful in identifying “potentially active faults and other land structures and potential hazards, especially in areas of dense vegetation.” He said the bare-earth view “of undetected or potential geological hazards” helps minimize the chance that those hazards could jeopardize a future gas pipeline or other facilities. In addition to identifying active faults and landslides, the data will be useful for “locating potential future of construction materials and planning other future development that may occur along these corridors,” Combellick said.

The state request for data collection covers 2,440 square miles, including the proposed natural gas pipeline route to the Canadian border along with the proposed pipeline route from Delta Junction to Valdez. Aerial work will cover a corridor approximately one mile wide, with wider zones of laser imaging at active faults and other areas of potential hazards. Existing primary oil pipeline support roads and adjacent highways will also be included, the office of the federal coordinator said.

DNR said data from the survey will also be useful for planning and future developments in the corridors, including mapping land cover, vegetation, wetlands drainage patterns, environmental assessments and for locating potential construction material sources.






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