subject: The Complications To Contemplate In Pipeline Integrity Management [print this page] This is the era of green living gaining steady strength since its inception with the seminal publishing of The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962. Though there are still precious few answers in the arsenal of environmental activists, the movement has emerged form the fringes and become part of the national dialogue. When it comes to our vital natural resources, a significant way they participate in environmental protection is a well run pipeline integrity management plan.
It seems that every time we turn around there is some catastrophic environmental disaster with natural gas or oil at its root. Similar to aircraft accidents, the severity of their impact is what keeps in every ones mind so that it seems they happen all the time when they are in fact few and far between. Unfortunately, the deep and lasting negative affect they have on environments and wildlife mean that the tolerance for failure has to be zero.
It is an accepted notion that oil and gas move through long pipes overland, and the integrity of those pipes is crucial to the continuous supply of the resource, as well as the protection of areas over which the material is moved. Because people have pipes in their own homes, they are aware of and worried about corrosion and its impact on the longevity of these pipes. What they probably do not know is how meticulously the internal, and external corrosion is monitored. They may not even be aware of the possibility of stress corrosion, another carefully monitored potential problem with pipes.
In the development of a plan to monitor and maintain these leviathan pipe systems, it is important to carefully document the history of the system. Every detail, especially on problems or difficulties encountered as the pipe was initially laid, and what was done to overcome these difficulties must be documented. This allows current operators to judge and make educated predictions of where within the system there may be weaknesses which need extra attention.
The decisions to coat pipe in certain areas reflect the compilation and evaluation of chemical exposures, temperature ranges, earth movement frequency and severity either natural or man made. Once a determination to coat portions of a pipeline is made, there is a cost benefit assessment made for each feasible type of pipeline coating, always keeping safety at the forefront.
When determining against what the pipeline system should be protected, it is easy to get into the mission impossible mindset, working protections from all manner of imagined threat. While terrorism is one of the factors to consider in a comprehensive vulnerability assessment, a calming factor taking into account the likelihood of occurrence means the assessment will be grounded in sanity. Still it is a large task to evaluate natural and man made events which could negatively impact the pipe.
Continuous, credible follow up is an essential part of any serious program that will yield solid preventive results. We need to know what was identified that was wrong during the last evaluation, it is even more important to know what was done and when or if the problem was truly resolved. A real program will document that not every problem has been fixed, but for those still open, there should be a documented plan of action to get it taken care of.
The goal of an effective pipeline integrity management plan is not to keep public attention away from the operation, it is to ensure that everything reasonable is accomplished to keep the system operating and safe. It will be a long time before we can relegate natural gas and oil to the dustbin of the unnecessary, and until then we have to remain ever vigilant to keep preventable catastrophes from happening on our watch.
