Alyeska tears down Pump Station 8 near Salcha

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company is tearing down Pump Station 8 near Salcha, removing most of a complex that's stood idle for 30 years. The four-month project clears the site 30 miles south of Fairbanks, leaving only equipment needed for current Trans-Alaska Pipeline System operations.

Mark Nelson, project manager with Alyeska's Campaign Maintenance group, is leading a crew of 7 to 10 workers through the demolition. Work started with the tank farm.

The station opened June 20, 1977, received its first oil July 7, and exploded the next day around 2:38 p.m., killing one person and injuring five others. The blast shut down the entire pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. The National Transportation Safety Board found that station personnel didn't follow written procedures for maintenance and pump startup, and that no single manager controlled activities during the critical startup period.

Alyeska rebuilt the station and brought it back online March 7, 1978. It ran until June 30, 1996, when changes in pipeline operations cut the need for that pump station. Pump Station 8 was the first TAPS station to shut down, going offline hours before Pump Station 10 closed July 1, 1996.

Crews are removing the main pump building, control room, warehouse, and several large tanks. Staying on-site: crude heaters installed in November 2016, a pig launcher added in July 2009, an earthquake monitoring module, a communications building and tower, a guard shack, and cathodic protection units.