Overview
Ballard Marine Construction was retained by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and American Water Works Association to perform required periodic inspection, testing, and maintenance of their water-based fire protection systems. Above-ground steel tanks are often used at nuclear plants as part of fire protection and potable water systems.

Scope of Work
Ballard evaluated thousands of steel water storage tanks constructed to store potable water in systems nationwide. To ensure compliance with applicable requirements, Ballard’s certified commercial divers safely and successfully conducted internal steel water tank inspections, cleaning, and minor repair work in four nuclear generating site water storage tanks in accordance with operational safety and health standards.

Innovative Solutions
The elevated tanks ranged in size from 300,000 gallons to 750,000 gallons. Working underwater and in confined spaces, divers were required to document via HD video and real-time audio recording that the tank inspections were meeting project objectives.

Results
Our team safely performed more than 4,000 worker hours on this contract with no quality control issues.