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Permitting field work to begin for Kenai Kachemak pipeline
Kristen Nelson
Permitting is under way for route work for the Kenai Kachemak gas pipeline.
Michael Baker Jr. has applied to the state to do advance geotechnical borings for the proposed Kenai Kachemak gas pipeline on the Kenai Peninsula to determine the subsurface geology adjacent to 12 Kenai Peninsula streams.
The company presented options for proposed boring locations for: Coal Creek, Crooked Creek, Deep Creek, Stariski Creek, Anchor River, Two Moose Creek, Kasilof River, Ninilchik River, Silver Salmon Creek, North Fork Anchor Creek and two unnamed creeks.
The geotechnical boring program will be done with a CME-75 soil boring rig mounted onto a 10-foot wide track rig.
Michael Baker Jr. said that two to four borings will be drilled at various distances from the river or creek banks; depths will vary from 60 to 150 feet below ground surface.
Borings will be between 20 feet and 500 feet from the ordinary high water mark. Soil will be backfilled into the hole upon completion of each boring.
The proposed timeline for the borings is December-March 2002.
Drilling is estimated to take approximately three weeks; additional drilling will be required during the winter when there is sufficient frost depth to allow mobilization of the 10-foot wide track rig across wetlands.
Ninilchik to Homer The Kenai Kachemak Pipeline group formed in December 2000 to study the feasibility of constructing a 75-mile natural gas pipeline from potential Kenai and Ninilchik gas fields to reach consumers in Ninilchik, Anchor Point, Clam Gulch, Kasilof and Homer. In addition to serving retail customers along its route, the pipeline would also transport gas north to Enstar and other gas consumers.
The group said it would prefer to build the project all at one time, but it may be a phased development, beginning with construction from Kenai to Ninilchik. A second phase would extend the line to Anchor Point and Homer.
Original members were Unocal Alaska, Alaska Electric Generation & Transmission (of which Homer Electric is the primary owner) and Alaska Pipeline Co. (an Enstar subsidiary). Marathon Oil Co. joined the consortium in August.
The group completed the conceptual phase of the project in July — evaluating possible routes, operation and permitting issues and conducting preliminary cost feasibility research — and said in August that soliciting bids from engineering firms to provide a design basis for the pipeline could be the next step.
Norm Story, general manager of Homer Electric Association, said in August that the group is “hopeful that the permitting process will proceed smoothly so that construction can begin once sufficient gas resources are confirmed.”
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