Story by Emma Dannenfelser

Thousands of University of Arkansas students walk to class each day, but many do not realize that they are walking mere feet above a powerful natural gas pipeline owned and operated by the university.   

 

The 3.5 million dollar pipeline project was completed in 2016 and has been operating as a transmission line ever since. Scott Turley, the associate vice chancellor of facility management, expects the pipeline to pay itself off by 2027.     

 

The line runs from the tennis facility on Razorback Road to Champions Hall on Dickson Street, Turley said in a Zoom interview.     

 

The push for a pipeline on campus came from the university’s installation of a natural gas combustion turbine, Turley said.  The turbine allows the university to generate about 25% the energy it consumes; essentially, it is a jet engine that runs and burns natural gas, Turley said.   

 

“The turbine requires extremely high-pressured gas to operate,” Turley said, “For example, the gas coming into a home is less than five pounds of pressure while we need 400 pounds of pressure”.   

 

 

The pipeline is considered a transmission line because it has no “taps” or distribution lines, which allows it to operate at a much higher pressure, according to the Pipeline Safety Trust Organization.   

 

According to Turley, the U of A’s energy system is unique for a college campus.   

 

“Except for other large schools, like University of Oklahoma and University of Alabama, we are some of the only universities to create our own energy this way,” Turley said.   

 

While the university is reducing its carbon footprint by some 40,000 metric tons, pipelines are not without fault, Turley said.   

 

An example of this happened in 2013, when a section of the ExxonMobil Pegasus Pipeline System ruptured.  It resulted in 5,000 barrels of crude oil spilling into the town of Mayflower, Arkansas, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.   

 

While the worst-case scenario for the campus would be an explosion, there were only 320 pipeline-related injuries reported from 2015 to 2020, according to Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.   

 

Sara Gosman, U of A law professor and president of the Pipeline Safety Trust Board, said the overall number of pipeline deaths and accidents are few, yet those few have significant consequences.   

“I think a lot about risk as it relates to pipelines. The reality is that we often walk over pipelines without even thinking about it. There are 2.8 million miles of energy pipelines in the U.S., so from that perspective, we all live with that risk every single day. This pipeline is just a part of that risk,” Gosman said in a phone interview. 

 

The U of A has stringent policies regarding pipeline safety, including frequent drills and practice scenarios, Jessica Post, the assistant emergency manager for the campus, said.   

 

In 2020, the Facilities Management Department and Police Department on campus, along with Triple S Alarm operators and the heating plant, had a drill exercise in Adohi hall, Post said in a phone interview.   

 

The drill tested the methane detection alarms first at a 1% supervisory level and then at the 20% evacuation level, in order to test the police department and security company’s ability to respond quickly and accurately, Post said.   

 

“A large part of these exercises is the different departments and companies just learning to communicate with each other in order be able to respond efficiently,” Post said.   

 

The drills also test how quickly the police department can notify the Fayetteville Fire department and send out the RazALERT, according to Post.   

 

“The more you work and prepare and communicate the better, all you can do is try to prepare,” Post said.