Managing the engineering/environmental planning interface process for pipeline projects
Kevin R. Prestage
Foster Wheeler Environmental Corporation
133 Federal Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02110
Introduction
As the energy industry moves into a demanding climate fueled by the high cost of electricity,
rolling blackouts, and battles for market retention and expansion, pipeline projects designed to
alleviate the pressure must be executed more efficiently then ever before. For better and faster
execution, companies are reaching for the newest technologies that will provide advantages in
data collection, data analysis, and subsequent environmental planning, design and construction.
A direct result is the energy industry’s oil and gas pipeline sector reaching for Geographic
Information Technologies (GIT) that will provide them with ways to accelerate project execution
and give them an edge over the competition.
A typical pipeline project (transmission) is “built” using a team of engineers and environmental
planners working together, sometimes using the same design drawings, for a common goal;
installation of a pipeline. But despite what would appear to be very similar processes, the
engineering and environmental planning of pipeline projects are very technical in their own
respects. The team’s interface between engineering and environmental planning requires careful
management to achieve the goals of each group. The disciplines constantly share geospatial
data, each building upon what the other produces. The application of GIT to pipeline projects
further links these two disciplines and creates new challenges that must be properly addressed to
gain GIT’s advantages.
This paper will discuss the interface between pipeline engineers and environmental planners from
the perspective of an environmental planner. This paper’s goal is to identify the key
environmental geospatial components of a pipeline project and review how they fit into the
design, permitting, and licensing processes. The intent of this paper is to provide the pipeline
engineer with an understanding of environmental planning’s geospatial issues; essentially this
paper is a tool for pipeline engineers to understand the environmental process.
Outline
Within pipeline projects, engineering and environmental data at times share the same space on
drawings and in certain circumstances are components of each another. This interdependency
requires the team to carefully craft a plan to exact information from each other’s discipline where
the data requested results in the data they receive, and where data generated by one discipline is
handled by the other in a manner that maintains it’s integrity. This leads us to the first topic;
Understanding Environmental Data.
Fundamentally, obtaining an environmental permit for construction of a pipeline project requires
the proponent to search for and identify environmental resources, and then quantify impacts, if
any, on those resources. Identifying environmental resources can come from existing data sets
(i.e. US Fish & Wildlife Service inventories) and/or from field surveys. The process of collecting
field data is labor intensive and when applied appropriately, can be greatly aided by GIT. The
second and third topics discussed will be: Data Collection with GIT; and Analyzing Environmental
Data.
As mentioned above, there is a significant interdependency for geospatial data between the
engineering and environmental planning disciplines. Beyond the need for both disciplines to
produce information that the other will build upon, there is the need for the project to be able to
seamlessly exchange information.
As with any type of project, “change” is nearly inevitable. Pipeline projects will typically reroute,
and/or change the ancillary facilities more than once during the course of the project’s
development. The impact of these changes almost always requires the project’s environmental
planning to adjust their applications for permits and/or licenses. The last topic covered will be:
Managing the Geospatial Interface & Planning for Change.
Understanding environmental data
Understanding data used by environmental planning consists of learning why the data are
needed, learning what the data represent, and finally learning what engineering data are required
to complete the environmental data. It is also very important to understand that the requirements
of environmental data vary from regulatory agency to regulatory agency and even federally
defined environmental resources vary regulatory district to regulatory district. As a result, what
may have applied to one project may not necessarily apply to the next.
The first step in understanding environmental data is to understand why it is needed. A typical
pipeline project requires a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for construction
in “Waters of the US”, more commonly known as wetlands and streams (as mandated by the
Clean Water Act). The project may also require clearance that there is no significant impact to
federally listed endangered species by the US Fish & Wildlife Service (as mandated by the
Endangered Species Act), and require a clearance that there is no significant impact to cultural
resources by the State Historic Preservation Officer (as mandated by the National Historic
Preservation Act).
If the project falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), it
will typically require the preparation of reports summarizing the impacts to many additional
environmental resources including: residential areas; drinking water supplies; land uses; and
geologic resources. All of this information is necessary for the federal lead agency to prepare its
required impact analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. Table 1 summarizes
representative environmental data requirements for a construction project.
Table 1 Typical Environmental Data Required for Environmental Planning
| Environmental Data
| Regulatory Agency
| Spatial Accuracy
| Comment
|
| Waters of the US
(streams, swamps,
ponds)
| US Army Corps of
Engineers
| sub-meter survey (but
sub-centimeter survey
can be required)
| most common
environmental data
|
| Endangered Species
| US Fish & Wildlife
Service
| varies, but typically
sub-meter survey
| data should not be
released to the public
|
| Cultural Resources
| State Historic
Preservation Officer
| sub-meter survey (but
can vary)
| data should not be
released to the public
|
| Drinking Water
Sources
| FERC
| typically sub-meter
survey is best for
analysis purposes
|
|
| Land Use
| FERC
| digitizing at a variety
of scales is
acceptable
|
|
| Geologic Resources
| FERC
| typically sub-meter
survey is best for
analysis purposes
|
|
| Residences
| FERC
| typically sub-meter
survey is best for
analysis purposes
|
|
