American Gas - May 2011 - (Page 13)

safety first safet y | securit y | reliabilit y Digging Deep Before starting any project, utilities must conduct some level of environmental assessment—and deal with sometimes unexpected results. since you cAn’t always know what lurks beneath the surface of a site slated for excavation, the first step in protecting the health and safety of natural gas field workers is to do your homework before any soil is disturbed. And even then, be prepared for surprises. “Some level of environmental assessment is a ‘must’ for all planned projects that have the potential to expose workers to contaminated soil or materials,” says Bill Schrand, Southwest Gas Corp. manager of environmental programs. “If we suspect an area might be contaminated,” says Schrand, “we bring in a consultant to do an assessment that involves, among other things, collecting and testing soil samples, examining the electronic federal archive of old aerial photos and checking other sources of historical information to determine, for instance, if there’s been any change over time in the land use at the site.” Historical Research Pays Off Thanks to a thorough search of historical materials, Southwest Gas learned that an industrial burn pit once existed in the path of an upcoming excavation to relocate a major high-pres- sure pipeline to accommodate reconfiguration of an interstate highway. “We knew there’d been industrial facilities in the area, but we didn’t know about the burn pit,” explains Schrand. “In examining aerial photos from the 1940s and 1950s, our consultant found one from 1943 showing smoke arising from a burn pit near the site of a manufacturing plant that produced magnesium during World War II. A quick assessment of the area also showed that hazmat activities were taking place on an adjacent property. In resurrecting the original environmental report on that adjacent property, it became clear that the contamination problem extended to other nearby properties, including the highway rightof-way. Consequently, when it was time to dig through the burn pit, we brought in a hazmat team to do that piece of the excavation.” The pipeline relocation pre-construction activities illustrate two of the three practices Schrand considers key to protecting the health and safety of natural gas field workers: the ability to recognize potentially contaminated sites and the use of properly trained people to resolve a contamination situation. The third key practice is management’s full support of necessary job interruptions “because you don’t always know what you might find even when you’ve done your homework,” says Schrand. He cites an example: “A preliminary investigation of an excavation site indicated there’d been a trash disposal pit in the area, but the documentation we had available showed the pit didn’t extend into our excavation zone.” Digging began and soon the excavators came across buried washing machines and other debris. We shut down the project and did an environmental assessment, which confirmed that while the site once contained a trash pit, neither the soil nor the items in the pit posed KAREN RYAN is a contributing editor to American Gas. AmericAn GAs may 2011 13

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Gas - May 2011

American Gas - May 2011
Contents
President’s Message
Industry News
Safety First
To Be the Best
Fueling America
On the Money
Noteworthies
Marketplace
Advertisers’ Index
Places to Be
Jobline
Facts on Gas

American Gas - May 2011

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