Site Assessment Methodology

Coast to Coast NDE Services is excited to announce that it will be publishing the "Coast Pipeline Integrity Manual" in first quarter 2007. The integrity manual has been used extensively to train all Coast NDE staff and customers on the procedures, methodologies and protocols utilized in a pipeline integrity inspection. A brief excerpt from the Coast Pipeline Integrity Manual is as follows:

" INTRODUCTION
When SCC investigations began, researchers did not know what caused SCC so they did not know what to look for. They therefore gathered every kind of data that they thought might possibly be relevant, based on corrosion principles and on various hypotheses regarding the causes of SCC. Our advantage, as researchers investigating corrosion and SCC susceptibility almost 30 years later, is that we now know the primary soils-related causal factors are the following nine measurable items"

"And we believe that we can, based on our knowledge of corrosion and soils principles, as well as results of the SCC investigations, say that,these measurable items form as close to a sufficient, consistent and correlatable system of dig-site parameters as is currently possible."

"This system is sufficient because - aside, perhaps, from CO2 - the listed parameters will measure the various variables, with redundancy. Importantly, all the parameters are readily measurable by site assessment technicians."

"The system is correlatable because the parameter values are either measured, using special tools, or – as in the case of drainage – the relevant information can be clearly and simply described. Therefore the value of any parameter within the system – whether measured, strictly-speaking, or not - can be unambiguously described and therefore “correlated” with the value of any other parameter in the system."

"Finally, the system is consistent because the parameters and the causal factors inter-relate in a meaningful way – that is, by considering the sufficient inputs we can recognize whether or not the data for this particular site, or pie inspection area , makes sense."

Questions regarding the Coast Pipeline Integrity Manual and availability can be addressed to Duncan Dubé at (503) 551-6480 or duncan@coastnde.com