By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Mar. 2�Olympic Pipe Line Co. has restarted its refined products pipeline in Washington state after successfully completing comprehensive safety and integrity inspections of the entire 400-mile system.
That pipeline was automatically shut down Wednesday within 10 minutes of the severe earthquake that shook western Washington. The control center in Renton, Wash., used a backup reserve power system to continue monitoring the pipeline for a few hours after the earthquake disrupted its normal electricity supply. Power and communications were soon restored to the control facility, and it has continuously monitored the pipeline, said officials of BP affiliate BP Pipelines North America, the largest partner and operator of Olympic Pipe Line.
Employees immediately began inspections of the pipeline, with special emphasis on the area within 200 miles of the earthquake�s epicenter, said company officials. Aircraft made two flights along the entire pipeline corridor on Wednesday, followed by two more flights with geologists Thursday.
Workers armed with strain gauges to measure the amount of stress inflicted on the pipeline by the shift of subsurface soil inspected all pump stations and mainline valves, said officials. More than 50 BP-Olympic employees did integrity inspections along the entire system, including pipeline water crossings and areas prone to land movement.
Those inspections found no leaks, spills, or damage to the pipeline, officials said. The only abnormality reported on the day of the earthquake was a small crack in a weld at Olympic�s delivery facility on Seattle�s Harbor Island.
The safe restart of the pipeline system will ensure that the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport receives the necessary fuel to bring its operations back to full capacity, officials said.
BP-Olympic officials said they have worked closely with the federal Office of Pipeline Safety and with state and local officials to keep them updated on pipeline activity during the emergency.
In early February, workers began a phased restart of the northern 37-mile section of the 16-in. petroleum products pipeline in Washington.
That segment was shut down after the pipeline ruptured June 10, 1999, spilling 229,000 gal of gasoline into a creek in Bellingham, Wash., 90 miles north of Seattle. The spill ignited into a fireball that killed two 10-year-old boys and an 18-year-old man.
