Recommended Practices For Flood Impact Zone Reconstruction ...

Recommended Practices For Flood Impact Zone Reconstruction October 21, 2013 The disastrous floods in eastern Colorado in early September, 2013 caused significant damage to many of the oil and gas facilities that lay in the path of flood waters. Inspections and observations by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission show that certain construction and location techniques within the flood impact zone fared better under the influence of flood waters, with significantly less damage, than other methods of construction and location. Operators in the flood impact zone are reengineering, reconstructing and relocating facilities and equipment damaged in the floods. The purpose of this Recommended Practice is to encourage operators to adopt the following practices both during reconstruction and relocation as they undertake repair work in the flood impact zone, and for constructing new wells and production facilities located in any flood plain. COGCC staff notes that armored secondary containment, structural tank restraints, upstream structural fencing, remote shut-in controls, and equipment alignment that locates tanks along streamlines, are best practices that can reduce damage in future floods. COGCC recommends: 1. Secondary containment should be constructed with steel berms and lined with synthetic liner material bolted to the top of the steel berm 2. Tanks should be constructed on compacted structure fill to reduce sub-grade failure. 3. Tanks should be ground-anchored, with engineered anchors and cabling routed through welded eyelets. 4. Buried and partially buried vessels should be ground anchored. 5. Structural fencing and barriers should be located at the upstream end of facilities and wellheads to deflect flood debris and heavy flood waters to reduce site damage. 6. Remote automated controls should be installed and used to monitor and shut-in wells to reduce the potential for fluid releases and prevent overflow situations where tanks are not accessible for extended periods. 7. Production facilities should be aligned parallel to the general drainage or flow path and construction perpendicular to the drainage or flow path should be avoided. COGCC is advised that operators repairing and relocating equipment are discussing these and other best practices in various industry organizations. COGCC welcomes and strongly encourages this practice and welcomes input on these or other recommended practices for construction in flood plains. COGCC requests that operators now reconstructing and relocating sites, as well as those constructing new wells or production facilities in flood plains adopt these and other recommended practices in order to reduce and mitigate damage and impacts during future floods.