Page 10 - Mississippi 811 Magazine 2019 Issue 1

D t h 1 gy ‘t’
h f th ° 1' ° (1 t g
amaa Mam Size]:
511M-Sguzmzs
hen lt eomes to leak
detection, Heath
consultants as a
company that knows
what tt's doing. one remnn thts
cumpany has been In bustness for the
past 35 years is they am constantly on
the lookuul fol new and lnnovzllive
Iachnolugy to bnng to then eltents.
Paul Wehnexl, senlnr tnee paestelent
or sales and marketing, says, ”Eal:ll
- — e - teehnology has to be at least as good
3 : , ( as the one that came before." so you
A —- —- A can bet that when Heath began to use
:- _ __ — uAvs (unmanned aenal velneles) 01
~ ,1 ii ( V D .. s_ "dmn£.~'”, they had been Lhomugllly
,- $7 - ‘-V I tested and the numbers had been
_ run
‘ About rout years ago, Heath
— consultants and Physical sciences,
Inc. were awarded a Depamnent
w 3 or Energy grant meant to develop
_ tnnovanve teohnology to reduce
Q greenhouse gas emasstons The
C . ob,eet was to find new uses for
- V Exlsllng Iechnnlngy so the eoanpames
"'—"‘- set to work to (male a new way of
_/ .v- ~‘ , tnspeeung plpelme rights-oz-way fol
_ ‘ t leaks and damage
. ' _ ‘ " Cumbmlng Heath consultants’
. ' _ pomlbls leak detection hardware
3 V‘. ' O, ‘ u ' wtth Physieal scteuees, lne lnstant
' Eye technology and mounttng them
~ on a deelasstheel mllilary drone

proved to be a wuuung comblnallon.
"W2 wen: able to nuntatunze the
teehnology and put it on a drone to
do mspeettons vta the air along R-0-
ws, pzlmzlnly vnth natuml gas."

But leaks am not the only tlung these
drones ate handy for. According

_, -' ‘ ‘ to Paul, "They can detect leaks
- =» " on theltne, but atthesame time,

wtth the cameras, you can monitor
eonstmenon or enetoaehanents

by landowners or eonstauetton
cnmpam2~'." This ieamm saves
manpower that would otheawtse be
rzqulmd to walk the entue length of
a plpelme.

Ptevlously, teehntetans equipped
wtth gas eleteetton devtees on then
persons would have walked the hne

a~ Mlsslss!PD!€1l 2019 Vssuel