Alyeska: New firefighting systems to reduce use of PFAS

Four Alyeska employees wearing hard hats and protective gear stand in front of a palette of equipment that is about to be installed at Berth 4.
Alyeska Fire Chief Sean Wisner, firefighters David Arnold and Oberon Gallion, and VMT Operations technician Mike Keith stand in front of the new fire foam system on Berth 4. Photo courtesy of Alyeska Corporate Communications.

Last fall, Alyeska and contractor crews completed upgrades to the fixed firefighting foam proportioning system on Berth 5 at the Valdez Marine Terminal after lengthy research, testing, and approval process. The new fluorine-free foam system was approved by the state fire marshal, who witnessed its functional check out along with third party technicians and representatives.

This marks the first of many firefighting foam systems that are being upgraded to accommodate a shift towards fire protection on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, or TAPS, that is free from perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS. While a recently passed state law banning the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foams carries a temporary exemption for use in the oil and gas industry, Alyeska personnel have been working toward the utilization of fluorine-free firefighting foams for several years, long before the state law passed. Plans are in place to continue the eventual transfer of the remaining fixed firefighting systems to safer and more environmentally friendly foams over the next several years. Berth 4 will undergo an identical upgrade starting in spring of 2025.

For the past three years, a multi-disciplined working group worked diligently to find a new system that would meet both fire safety and environmental standards. The group consisted of firefighting professionals, engineers, environmental coordinators, regulatory compliance specialists, procurement team members, and implementation leads from around TAPS. The new system has been designed with operations and maintenance in mind, leveraging state of the art technology that is both simpler to operate, and simpler to validate, with built-in testing features that do not rely on the discharge of foam.

“This new system demonstrates Alyeska’s dedication to environmental protection and personnel safety, especially in regards to the stewardship of Prince William Sound,” said Sean Wisner, Alyeska Fire Chief. “It puts us in a much better place from a firefighting perspective, and I am proud of the work that this team did over the past several years to get us to this point. The workgroup embodied the ‘speak and work as one team’ mindset throughout the research and implementation phases of this historic initiative.”

From Alyeska: John Kurz named President and CEO of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company

John Kurz, President of Alyeska

John Kurz became the next President and CEO of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company on April 10, 2023. Kurz follows Interim President Betsy Haines who led the company during the executive search conducted by the Trans Alaska Pipeline System Owners.

Kurz brings over three decades of experience in the oil and gas industry. This includes serving as Senior Operations Manager for Greater Prudhoe Bay in Alaska in addition to multiple executive positions around the world. In his most recent role, Kurz was Chief Operating Officer for Santos and Oil Search in Papua New Guinea. Career highlights include overseeing operations in oil and gas fields, terminals, and pipelines. Kurz has a track record of improving safety and environmental performance and cultivating the next generation of leaders.

“Alyeska is a great company with a rich and proud history and an exciting future,” Kurz said. “Its employees are critical to the State of Alaska, the communities, the upstream and downstream customers we serve, and employees and families who rely on the oil and gas industry for work. Leading an organization and team of this significance is a tremendous responsibility and honor, and I intend to help Alyeska achieve even higher levels of performance.”

Kurz met his spouse in Anchorage, all three of his children were born here, and he holds a Master of Science Degree in Engineering Management from the University of Alaska.

“We have strong connections here,” John said. “It is an incredible opportunity to return home and serve as Alyeska President and CEO.”
In addition to his Prudhoe Bay experience, Kurz served as the executive responsible for operations in Baku, Azerbaijan for the Sangachal Terminal and in Basra, Iraq for the giant Rumaila Field. Kurz previously held other roles in oil and gas in Egypt, Indonesia, and Texas.

“In all my leadership roles, I have worked to inspire the Team to deliver greater performance and results across the board in safety, production, cost, and other business measures, while also leaving an enduring legacy of improvement,” Kurz said.

Including Haines, Kurz is the 13th president to lead Alyeska since its formation in 1970.

Haines, who retired from Alyeska in 2021 after 30 years of service, plans to resume her retirement plans after assisting with the transition to Kurz.

“It has been a privilege to lead this organization as Interim President,” Haines said. “Certainly, when I retired, I didn’t imagine this opportunity, and it was a surprising and wonderful way to end my career. I look forward to bringing John on board as he takes on this new challenge. We’re all looking forward to this next chapter for Alyeska.”

 

From Alyeska: Prince William Sound – a place of unrivaled beauty

By Andrés Morales
Alyeska’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Director

Tanker in Prince William Sound
To commemorate its 45th Anniversary, Alyeska is featuring stories about the people, projects and history of TAPS on its website.
To read more, head to
alyeska-pipe.com’s Memories and Mileposts

I first came to the Valdez Marine Terminal on a tanker in 1984 as I was just starting my chosen career in the maritime industry. It was winter. It was the most stunning place I have ever sailed to and remains vivid in my memory. The VMT appeared to be carved from a mountain in the raw wilderness. We loaded our cargo into tanks larger than cathedrals. It was a place out of time; I had never seen anything like it. Once full, we sailed out into Prince William Sound: a place of unrivaled beauty.

When I heard about the Exxon Valdez oil spill, I was sailing in the mid-Pacific. I had been at sea continuously for more than a year. I remember the feelings of rage, sadness, and horror at the thought of a cargo of crude in those pristine waters. I returned home in April and shared a house with two other seamen; none of us could believe what had happened. It was unthinkable at the time. The images and stories from that time linger in my memory, and I know that many in our Alaska community feel the impacts still to this day.

From that catastrophe came global change. Tankers worldwide are now double-hulled and there are comprehensive training and verification standards for crews. Despite an increase in crude cargos, the rate and severity of tanker spills has dropped more than 10-fold. And 33 years later, at the epicenter of that terrible event, is one of the largest comprehensive prevention and response operations in the world, the Ship Escort Response Vessel System: SERVS.

The equipment and training here are purpose-built and world-class and our people are capable and passionate protectors of Prince William Sound. I am proud to lead a team with this mission and ownership. And that ownership fosters a culture of continuous improvement; we must work every day to be better and learn from where we have been. It’s not enough to prepare for the incidents of the past; we must anticipate and prepare for new – unthinkable – risks.

And even as we march forward with progress, we must never forget the lessons and tragedies of 1989. Those images that still linger are a powerful motivation to do everything in our power to prevent oil spills, and be ready to respond aggressively if the unthinkable happens.

From Alyeska: “A journey, never a job.”

Submitted by Alyeska. This profile is from their Memories & Mileposts story collection which commemorates 45 years of TAPS operations. 

After helping build the Trans Alaska Pipeline, or TAPS, from 1974-1977, operating rock trucks, fuel trucks, boom trucks, and forklifts, including working on a Hercules aircraft team offloading critical supplies while Wein F-27s were hauling workers in and out nearby, from Galbraith Lake to Coldfoot, Jeff Streit transitioned to removing remnants of that historic construction effort. He demobilized Prospect, Oldman, and 5-Mile camps, loading piece by piece onto numerous high deck trailers to be shipped out of state. Jeff even saw one of those Hercules blow up at the Galbraith airport. After crossing the Yukon River for years on a powerful hovercraft barge, he helped load up its dismantled pieces when the bridge was complete.

Jeff taking a break at Coldfoot Camp in 1976 with two of his favorite TAPS construction coworkers: “Jimmy” and “Full Bore.” Photo courtesy of Alyeska.

Seeing the signs that this phase was finite, Jeff sought a long-term gig on the now-operating pipeline. He followed a lead from a construction buddy about technician openings at Pump Station 8.

“I put in my application, took an aptitude test, and to my surprise got an interview with the station manager,” he said. “They offered me a job. I was excited and accepted, reported to PS8, and took the tour with a senior technician. He used to be a manager at a chemical plant and I thought to myself, ‘I will be lucky to last a week. I don’t know a darn thing about a pump station.’”

Jeff has lasted — more than 48 years on TAPS, in fact. And he knows a whole darn lot about its pump stations, history, people, and culture.

When asked what has kept him on TAPS so long, Jeff replied, “Curiosity, passion, being a student of the pipeline. It has always been a journey and never a job. And never wavering from the mission of doing my best each day to meet the core values of protecting people, the environment, and the TAPS system has kept me focused and energized. TAPS faces new challenges every day; the job is never done to continue learning and understanding the system. The system will always tell you what it needs if you are listening and watchful.”

Jeff is someone who still listens and learns, noting his “knowledge base, which I continue to build on.” His TAPS resume is filled with countless pipeline perspectives and illustrates endless opportunities to train, teach, and learn from others. Jeff has worked as a technician at three pump stations; a task force supervisor; a project supervisor; a pump station operations supervisor; a pipeline technician trainer; supervisor of the North and South Districts and the OCC; a process safety advisor; and as pipeline and civil maintenance supervisor at the Glennallen Response Base/RBS, where he’s been the past 14 years.

“My best memories are many, but the most powerful and influential are from the people who I have worked with since the construction days, that took a special effort to offer a helping hand to teach, coach, and mentor you through new jobs and experiences, and believed in you,” he said. “Being your ‘wingman’ when things are tough – you don’t forget those people.”

Naturally, Jeff feels an obligation to pass on what he’s learned, which is vast. He’s a mentor and instructor to countless TAPS workers in a variety of specialties: pipeline operations and hydraulics, topping units, ROW orientation, hazards of crude oil, OCC, civil supervising, cold restart system, process safety awareness. It’s his way of continuing the legacy of handing down nearly 50 years of TAPS history and complexities, while also paying respect to those who did the same for him.

“We are all basically the product of thousands of others who have taught and shared knowledge, each generation building on the previous,” he said. “I feel strongly that we all have a responsibility to not just pass the knowledge on, but to continue to build on it.”

Jeff’s TAPS experiences, and his memories of them, are rich and vivid, partly because of his impressive retention, partly because he is so thoughtful with his words, and also because he’s conveniently been in the middle of some of the most significant moments in the pipeline’s history, including many before the pipeline was even operating.

Read more from his time working at TAPS on the Alyeska website, beginning in 1978: “A journey, never a job.” – Jeff Streit  

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