Bullets and falling trees won’t have a chance to penetrate the pipeline over Whatcom Creek after crews construct an 85-foot-long steel truss over the aboveground line.
Beginning May 3, two trails will be closed for about three weeks on both sides of the creek so that crews can construct the truss and move in a crane, which will eventually lower the protective structure over the pipeline.
“Anything they can do to protect the pipeline is beneficial to both the people and the park,” Birch Falls Drive resident Richard Etter said.
The project will take about three weeks to complete by subcontractors for the Olympic Pipe Line Company, City of Bellingham Environmental Planner Kim Weil said.
The pipeline, which moves 290,000 barrels of gasoline per day, has a long and checkered history with Whatcom Creek. In 1999, the pipeline leaked thousand of gallons of gasoline into the creek. The fuel was inadvertently ignited, sending a fireball 1.5 miles downstream that killed a young man and two boys.
Cam Couch, 55, said he has lived on Raymond Street for most of his life.
“It’s pretty exposed there, so it’s a good idea to cover it up,” Couch said. “A tree has never fallen on it in my lifetime, but it could happen.”
Crews face environmental restrictions
Because the construction crews will be working directly above the creek and along the shore, Olympic Pipe Line Company had to obtain a shoreline permit. The permit allows construction crews to work alongside water habitats that are susceptible to chemicals associated with construction sites, Weil said.
Jeff Kamps, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Habitat Biologist, said crews will install a system of eight small piles to support the truss, and any gaps in the holes they drill will be filled with grout. The grout may leak through the sandstone bedrock and into the watershed, he said.
“With the steep banks [of the creek], the potential for spills is a main concern,” he said.
Weil said the department will closely monitor the project with periodic water sampling, and if a spill occurs, the project will be halted.
Before the city approved the truss, a 30-day comment period opened for community discussion about the project. In that period, the city sent 100 letters to residents living within 500 feet of Whatcom Falls Park. Three people responded to the letters with requests to be updated about the project, and no other concerns were raised, Weil said.
Olympic continues pipeline improvements
Since the pipeline explosion in 1999, Olympic Pipe Line Company has worked with the City of Bellingham to mitigate a rupture from happening again, said Pamela Brady, a Right of Way Specialist from Olympic Pipe Line Company, who works with landowners about land-use concerns.
Brady said the initial plan for the exposed pipeline in Whatcom Creek was to bore under the creek, but the company found that the bedrock would be at risk of fracturing and leaking chemicals from the drilling process.
The steal truss supported by piles is the least invasive option, Brady said, and the drilling will be done with an air-powered drill instead of one powered with hydraulic fluid, which has the potential to leak.
“Since the [pipeline] incident in 1999, we took a comprehensive look at the pipeline system,” Brady said. “We’ve made a number of improvements over the years and this installment runs right along that same idea.”
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