PERMFILE107445

• Permit No: C1989074
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 12/11/2001
• Section_Exhibit Name: 4.08 Use of Explosives
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

4) Charles Dowding, Professor of Civil Engineering at
Northwestern University and well known blasting expert.
Professor Dowdiag has published a number of papers on
this and related subjects.
5) Geosonics, Inc., an established blasting and blasting
compliance firm with considerable experience in blasting
near buried structures and pipelines.
6) American Gas Association,
many technical papers on
Current OSM laws have no specific
structures such as gas pipelines.
the safe distance to blasting, as
816.67(d), is as follows:
a group noted for publishing
the gas industry.
distance requirements for
The procedures for determining
explained in OSMRE Section
" All structures in the vicinity of the blasting area,
not listed in Paragraph (d)(2)(i) of the section, such
as water towers, pipelines and other utilities,
tunnels, dams, impoundment, and underground mines shall
be protected from damage by establishment of a maximum
allowable limit on the ground vibration, submitted by
the operator in the blasting plan and approved by the
regulatory authority:"'
In order to establish a maximum allowable limit on the ground
vibration for the pipeline at the Rimrock !tine, Geosonics Inc.
was contracted to evaluate the site specific conditions and
provide a safe particle velocity that should not be exceeded to
protect the pipeline. Geosonics Inc. was formerly a divisioa of
Philip R. Berger 6 Associates and has been providing specific
blast and vibration engineering work to the mining industry for
over 18 years.
The base information for the evaluation is given below:
Overburden blast data - 3" diameter holes, spacing of 10 feet,
burden of 10 feet, top stemming of 4 feet, minimum delay of 8
milliseconds between holes, hole depth of 10 feet, charge depth
of 6 feet, ANFO explosives and toe of less than 1 foot. Although
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