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Checklists, random inspection key to JPO Northstar oversight Pipeline construction, right of way, each have detailed lists ensuring compliance with lease Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
The Joint Pipeline Office is coordinating state oversight of Northstar pipeline construction based on extensive checklists of requirements for the project. Greg Swank, deputy state pipeline coordinator, and Tony Braden, the JPO natural resource manager supervising right-of-way issues, briefed PNA March 6 on the role the JPO plays during construction — and will continue to play during operation.
The Department of Natural Resources northern region office has had people on the North Slope for quite some time, Braden said, but starting with the Badami pipeline, the JPO established specific standards and checklists for construction and operation through the application process.
“They file their application,” Braden said. “The review is done. It goes out to the public.” Input from the public is rolled into the process.
“And the standards that must be met are established at that time. Then we go through and establish our checklist: what does the standard mean and how do we ensure that they are complying with it step by step? And then when people go out, that is what we absolutely do our review to.”
The result, Swank said, is “an unambiguous checklist or standard” based on requirements in agreements between the agencies and the right of way lessee — and both checklists and results are shared with the lessee.
“Our whole point is, if the applicant will do their job, our job is real easy,” Braden said.
Engineering requirements Checklists for pipeline construction, Swank said, cover pipeline welding, corrosion control, coating, sandblasting, cathodic protection anodes. For the offshore portion of construction, they include such items such as backfill thickness and ditch bottom condition. For above-ground construction, he said, checklists include verifying that the right vibration dampeners are installed in the right locations.
“We have quality control/quality assurance oversight checklists,” Swank said. “And that’s to double check and make sure that the owner of the pipeline right of way, British Petroleum Transportation, is performing their quality checks in accordance with their submitted QA manual.”
The checklists include verifying that the company has a systematic approach to make sure that drawings are controlled, “that the latest drawings are in place, that pipe materials meet the requirements… that they’re placing the right dampener on the right location. That they have the right depth of the VSM in the tundra for the materials that are encountered when they’re drilling. Did they go through ice? Did they go through water?”
“We perform random oversight inspections,” Swank said. “It’s not 100 percent watching one specific part of the project.
“We’re seeing that other people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”
Right of way requirements As far as the right of way goes, Braden said, the state wants to make sure that when it gets that right of way back, it’s in the condition it’s supposed to be in so that the state can manage it.
Also, because the JPO has a reimbursable service agreement contract with the Alaska Department of Labor, it checks for employer and public safety items.
Checklist items for the right of way include the width, areas where overburden can be stored, “so that when we go back, everything’s as it was intended to be when they close out.”
Safeguards against fuel spills are also on the checklist, Braden said.
“They’ve made certain commitments to us about what they would do for refueling of vehicles,” he said. Two people are required, a lookout in addition to the person fueling the vehicle, “to make sure that there aren’t any surprises with animals or whatever. Also to make sure the person’s following procedures,” which include liners under all of the various connection points.
On safety issues, Braden said, both employee and public safety are covered, since the public does cross the ice where the work will be done.
“We’re going to have a 10-foot wide open trench and 20 feet of water. What are you going to do to protect the people, what are you going to do so there’s both employee safety and public safety?”
Briefings were required in the villages, he said, barricades on the trench when it’s open and there’s no one working and rovers going up and down the right of way to protect the public.
Schedule updates, exchanges of information Rhea DoBosh, JPO’s public information officer, noted that the agency has a meeting every other Monday attended in person or by phone by agencies with a vested interest in Northstar.
The JPO receives weekly updates to the Northstar schedule, Swank said, and shares that information within the office and with the reimbursable service agreement agencies, the state departments of Labor and Fish and Wildlife.
Determinations are then made as to the optimum time to go up and perform oversights. Labor has done an oversight on the safety plan and will go up again, he said, when they start trenching in open water to make sure that safety requirements are met. Fish and Wildlife, he said, will probably go up after ice breakup to evaluate the shore approach for restoration and fish habitat concerns. The North Slope Borough, Braden said, has been out for some time verifying environmental issues — checking for tundra damage and any fuel spills — and shares that information with the JPO.
JPO wanted to be there when construction began for the offshore portion of the pipeline, Swank said, so he and the agency’s third-party contractor went up when that began about the middle of February.
“We were there prior to any pipe being laid offshore, any trenching operations for the pipeline ditch.”
And, Swank and Braden said, JPO will be there when construction is completed, also with checklist in hand, verifying operation and maintenance on the Northstar pipeline and right of way.
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