Company & Industry News

TraceTek and Tracer Team-up to Install Pipeline Leak Detection

Members of the TraceTek staff in Redwood City, with the help of Houston based Tracer employees, are installing 42,000 feet of TraceTek 5000 fuel leak detection cable along the Longhorn pipeline in Austin, Texas. Longhorn Pipeline Partners is renovating a 745 mile liquid fuel pipeline that runs from Houston to El Paso. As part of the re-licensing process, Longhorn agreed to replace 8 miles of the pipeline that run through a suburban neighbourhood in south-western Austin. Since that portion of the pipeline passes directly over the Edwards Aquifer, a state of the art TraceTek leak detection system was required to protect the city's water supply.

TraceTek 5000 sensor cable is being installed into slotted PVC conduit that had been buried along side the new pipe. When all sections of the pipeline are completed later this summer, a telemetry system will tie the TraceTek leak detection instrumentation to the pipeline company's control room in Tulsa Oklahoma. When used in conjunction with standard pressure and flow monitoring, the Longhorn pipeline operators will be able to detect both major blow-outs and minor "weeps and seeps" with a minimal risk of environmental damage.