Central Arkansas Water will hire an outside engineer to interpret the results of Exxon Mobil Corp.’s study of the Pegasus pipeline rupture in Mayflower.
The utility’s board of commissioners on Thursday approved hiring Jacobs Engineering, an international company with a pipeline engineering division. Graham Rich, the utility’s chief executive officer, said the firm would help the utility’s staff understand Exxon Mobil’s findings for the cause of the rupture and ask the right questions.
“We feel we have a wonderful technical staff, but we need expertise in terms of these types of lines and particularly in terms of the findings related to the failure of the pipeline,” Rich said. “They will provide reviews of any reports that are released and made public, and assist us in asking the right questions, whether that be of Exxon Mobil or of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, making sure we are covering everything that would pertain to our concerns.”
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Rich said the details of the contract will be negotiated and if the cost is more than $50,000, the board will be asked to approve the specific contract. He said the firm’s experts would be used on an as-needed basis when the technical documents are released.
The engineer is Central Arkansas Water’s second temporary hire related to the pipeline break and the utility’s efforts to have Exxon Mobil move about 13.5 miles of pipeline that run under the Lake Maumelle watershed, the largest source of drinking water in central Arkansas. The utility’s board approved hiring outside legal counsel to help with the effort last month, partly because of a conflict of interest with the utility’s regularly contracted legal counsel at Wright, Lindsey & Jennings law firm.
Last week, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola gathered U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., and other governmental representatives from Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County to join together in asking Exxon Mobil for stricter precautions, better monitoring and eventually to move the portion of the pipeline from beneath the watershed.
The call to move the pipeline came after a March 29 break in the pipeline resulted in a 22-foot rupture and spilled an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil into a Mayflower subdivision and into a cove across the highway from the main body of Lake Conway.
The officials at last week’s meeting agreed to send a joint letter to Exxon Mobil to ask for consideration of their concerns and to get answers to a number of questions about the 850-mile pipeline that carries heavy oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Several officials involved in the effort said the letter had not been finalized or sent as of Thursday.
Stodola said at the meeting that Exxon Mobil representatives would not be available to meet until the week of March 13 to discuss the break or any precautionary measures. That meeting had not been scheduled as of Thursday.
Arkansas, Pages 22 on 05/10/2013