SOUTHWEST REGION

* Ivanof Bay The community of Ivanof Bay on the Alaska Peninsula reported a problem with the day tank on the village power plant January 5th. The sensors on their day tank re-supply pump for the power plant failed and did not turn off the pump. An unknown amount of arctic diesel fuel has spilled. Two 10,000 gallon tanks manifolded together supply the power plant. Initial measurements indicate only a few feet of diesel remain in either tank. It is believed that the fuel overflowing from the day tank spilled out the door of the generator building and penetrated the gravely soil underneath. The building is about 30 feet from the beach. Two feet of snow cover the ground and additional snow is falling. The snow cover is making assessment of the surface impact difficult. A joint Department of Environmental Conservation and U.S. Coast Guard team is scheduled to depart from Kodiak via Coast Guard helicopter on January 6th to conduct an on-site assessment. Based on their observations, a cleanup plan will be devised. Further information is available from Harry Young, DEC at 269-7542.

* Port Heiden Due to unusually heavy snow this year and inoperable city-owned equipment, the community of Port Heiden has not been able to completely clear roads in town. The city was able to get a mechanic on-site January 5th to begin repair work on their equipment. Recently, the community received financial assistance from the Lake & Peninsula Borough to help with the snow removal problem. On January 5th, DES also assisted Port Heiden in their request for additional grant money from a Federal Housing and Urban Development program. To further complicate matters, this past weekend DOT airport maintenance equipment broke down. A DOT mechanic arrived on January 5th to repair it. Due to the extremely high loads placed on the community generator, it went off line for a brief period on January 5th. The community implemented energy conservation measures to reduce the load and the generator is currently functioning normally. The Division of Energy is working with the power plant operator to ensure it remains functional. DES is continuing to coordinate and monitor State assistance for the community. Further information is available from Stacy Christoffersen at 428-7045.

Link to site:

http://fc.ak-prepared.com/dailysitrep/%231823886

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 07, 2000

Answers

good going carl. you are resourceful.

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), January 07, 2000.

Doesn't sound right. Convention would dictate a return from the day tank back to the main tank as a fallback in event of shutoff failure.

-- Tom Beckner (becknert@xout.erols.com), January 07, 2000.

When/if sensors and automated processes fail, "convention" fails. troubleshooting entails exactly that: trying to find out WHAT happened, then WHY, then HOW to fix it.

You can't "logic out" these, because if they followed the intended logic of the circuits, they wouldn't have failed in the first place. You have to check out the "what actually happened" and the "what state was everything in" before analyzing.

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 07, 2000.

This sounds very much like a Y2K bug.

-- (robx@rehent.net), January 07, 2000.

I work in this part of the country ( Alaskan Peninsula).The big problem with local village power systems is the locals that are paid to maintain the generators only care about one thing, their paycheck. I have seen generators fry because nobody ever checked the oil. Nobody in their right mind would top off a day tank without standing right there with an eye on the entire process. I have haul in men and equipment into coastal villages to fill in a few chuckholes in a gravel landing strip. While the three men, paid by the state, stand there and watch the activity. With the front-end loader,dumptruck and grader, bought by the state to maintain this airfield. I could go on with similar stories for hours. Needless to say, dont blame the village happenings on y2k bugs. You can put the blame on the village welfare payments and big brother taking all responsibility of the villages to Juneau and Washington D.C. In closing, crews are brought to the villages each spring to pick up the garbage blowing around because these folks just throw their trash out the front door. Hardly a glitch....

-- Capt Dennis (capden@hotmail.com), January 07, 2000.