The 2013 Marine Firefighting Symposium was held October 8-10 in Seward. Through partnerships with the Seward Fire Department and AVTEC – Alaska’s Institute of Technology, this year the symposium included live fire training for the first time.
Participants came from all parts of Alaska. The 39 participants and eight facilitators represented a mix of communities and industry. Attendance numbers were lower than previous symposiums due to several factors, including the federal government shutdown.
By TOM KUCKERTZ
Project Manager for Terminal Operations
Some of the council’s concerns regarding the unknown condition of the crude oil piping at the Valdez Marine Terminal have been answered by inspections performed this summer by Alyeska.
In 2012, a routine inspection by Alyeska personnel of the 20-inch vertical riser pipes that feed crude oil to the loading arms on Berth 4 at the terminal revealed the existence of serious corrosion in some of the girth welds. Girth welds are welds that extend around the diameter of a pipe, typically used to join two sections of pipe.
Following this discovery in 2012, the remaining riser pipes on Berths 4 and 5 were subjected to additional inspections. More occurrences of vertical pipe girth weld corrosion were found and repaired. The cause of the corrosion in that particular region was attributed to water collecting under the pipe’s insulation in combination with a missing anti-corrosion paint coating in the vicinity of the girth weld.
Remote controlled unmanned aircraft, commonly known as “drones,” have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration for use in Alaska. Conoco Phillips received the approval to use the drones to monitor for oil spills and observe wildlife off the Beaufort Sea coast in the Arctic Circle.
The council’s home on the web has recently undergone a major redesign. The new site is designed to help us keep you better informed about our work.
The last major upgrade of the website was done in 2006.