magazine

On the job, Kaaxan sniffs his way to a leak.
Photo provided by Bill Allen.
Leak detection dogs Kaaxan (left) and Rider (right).
Photo provided by Bill Allen.
“...their noses are far more sensitive. These dogs are
finding odors that are parts per billion, sometimes
even parts per trillion.
Training Academy are former law enforcement
personnel, which he says is a perfect
background for leak detection.
“We’ve all trained bomb dogs, narcotic
dogs, police dogs. So, what we look for is
a high drive, just like what you’d have for
a law enforcement dog,” says Nicholson.
“Relatively speaking, the training is simple
for this work because they’re basically only
searching for one odor they have to recognize.
Whereas, if you’re looking at explosives
or narcotics, there are a lot of different odors
a dog has to recognize. With narcotics, there
are several illegal narcotic substances, like
marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy or crack,
so you’ve got to train a dog on all those
odors. Whereas, with this chemical that we
use to find a leak on a patch, there’s only
one odor.”
Nicholson explains, once the dogs find
that all-important odor, his four-legged employees
are trained to use their instinctual response
of digging to alert the human handler
that they’ve hit pay dirt.
And he says getting them onto a site
to get to work is exactly what the dogs
want.
“Once the dog gets into his tracking harness
and sees the visual command we give, he’s
on fire. Those dogs are ready to walk 100 miles
until they find that smell,” says Nicholson.
On the hunt
While Allen’s company uses Labrador
Retrievers exclusively, Nicholson uses Labs,
Belgian Malinois and Coonhounds, because
those breeds are known to have a strong
hunting drive.
Both Nicholson and Allen say their dogs
are able to get remarkably close to the exact
spot where a leak has occurred; Allen says the
only time they might be a little further off is
if they’re dealing with a slope.
“If it’s halfway up a hill, a lot of time the
odor will run downhill with water or uphill
with air,” he says. “Then it’s just a matter of
us using our common sense to figure out that
the leak wasn’t exactly where the dogs alerted
us to. But even then, we’re usually within 15
to 20 feet.”
Allen says there are times when extenuating
circumstances prevent the dogs from
detecting the leak, but generally their success
rate is above 80 percent.
“What I tell my clients is, if the odor is
on the surface, we are going to pick it up
for you. And I mean, our guys are finding
leaks buried under five or six feet of cover,
in an area that’s leaked maybe ounces
throughout the day,” he says.
Although there is a slim chance the
detection dogs might not find a leak, the
reality is that giving the dogs a shot is far
more cost-effective than the alternative.
“The only other option an oil company
would have is to uncover the whole line
again and try to find it themselves, visually,”
explains Allen, “or they end up splitting
the line. By that, I mean they’ll dig up
a spot, cut it, put in a set of flanges, test
both sides, and just keep breaking it down
until they find what they’re looking for.
Obviously, letting the dogs find the spot
and then digging in that isolated area saves
a ton of money. What we charge to go and
find a leak is miniscule compared to what
it costs to dig up a long line. And, environmentally,
it’s important too, because if we
can get out there and find it before something
major happens, it’ll save from having
to do a major cleanup.”
BASIN BITS | Spring 2014 57