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United States Department of Transportation
The committee will meet to consider and vote on the proposed rule, "Pipeline Safety: Applying Safety Regulation to All Rural Onshore Hazardous Liquid Low-Stress Lines" published in the Federal Register on June 22, 2010 (75 FR 35366) and on the associated regulatory analysis and environmental assessment.
This is a public meeting of the Technical Pipeline Safety Standards Committee (TPSSC) and of the Technical Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Standards Committee (THLPSSC). The PHMSA staff will brief the committee members on pipeline regulatory actions and policy concerns. The purpose of the meeting is to keep the members updated on current concerns, proposed rules, and future proposals.
Purpose:
PHMSA is co-sponsoring a 1-day public awareness workshop with the National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives (NAPSR). The workshop will be an opportunity, following the initial four-year implementation cycle, to review the implementation process, identify what implementation strategies have worked well, discuss challenges faced by the pipeline industry, discuss Federal and state regulatory oversight, learn about public interest and need for information about pipelines in their communities, and identify critical elements of a successful operator public awareness program. Pipeline trade associations, the Pipeline Safety Trust, the National Transportation Safety Board, and pipeline operators will share lessons learned from implementing their public awareness programs based on Federal regulations. PHMSA and state partners will discuss the scope of and timeline for conducting effectiveness evaluations. PHMSA and our state partners will use the results from this event, in addition to existing inspection activities, to further develop our programs for evaluating pipeline operator public awareness programs. The workshop will be webcast live, in real time; details on the webcast will be provided here, in advance of the meeting. Workshop presentations will be made available on this website following the workshop.
Background:
To address public awareness requirements, in 2005 PHMSA incorporated by reference the American Petroleum Institute (API) Recommended Practice (RP) 1162, "Public Awareness Programs for Pipeline Operators", into its regulatory program under 49 CFR 192.616 and 49 CFR 195.440. This RP was developed with participation from various concerned stakeholder groups and is based on the knowledge and experience of subject matter experts.
Under these regulatory requirements, pipeline operators must provide the affected public with information about how to recognize, respond to, and report pipeline emergencies. The importance of using the one-call notification system prior to excavation is to be emphasized for excavators and all stakeholders. Emergency officials and local public officials must be provided information about the location of transmission pipelines to enhance emergency response and community growth planning. Affected municipalities, school districts, businesses, and residents must be advised of pipeline locations.
In June 2005, PHMSA issued Advisory Bulletin ADB-06-02, requesting pipeline operators submit their written public awareness programs to the PHMSA Public Awareness Program Clearinghouse for review. The Clearinghouse review team compared these programs with API RP 1162 using criteria developed by pipeline safety staff from PHMSA and state pipeline safety agencies. In addition, several states conducted their own reviews outside of the Clearinghouse process.
PHMSA is holding a Workshop on the newly developed Guidelines for Integrity Assessment of Cased Pipe. The workshop focus will be for the public, pipeline operators, trade associations, and others to address ideas and concerns with successfully using External Corrosion Direct Assessment integrity evaluation methods and use of other technologies to assess pipelines in casings located within High Consequence Areas. The workshop is intended to discuss the PHMSA guidance "Guidelines for Integrity Assessment of Cased Pipe in Gas Transmission Pipelines" and related FAQs. The latest guidelines and FAQs are available online at: http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/gasimp/documents.htm
Under the 2002 Pipeline Safety and Improvement Act, all gas transmission pipelines located in High Consequence Areas (HCAs) must have an integrity management program (IMP). One aspect of an integrity management program specifically mandated by Congress is that each gas transmission pipeline located in an HCA must have an integrity assessment by an approved method no later than December 17, 2012, and must be periodically reassessed at least every seven years thereafter.
In response to congressional mandates, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) promulgated integrity management regulations to implement this and other IMP requirements now contained in 49 CFR 192, Subpart O. These guidelines for integrity assessment of cased pipe are intended to assist pipeline operators in complying with 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 192, Subpart O for cased pipe in HCAs.
Because of the difficulties being encountered while conducting ECDA on cased pipe for completion of baseline assessments, industry identified the need for more detailed guidance. In its response, PHMSA committed to hold a workshop to address the issues and to follow up with stakeholders to "identify and craft a consensus path forward to resolve challenges cased crossing pose." That workshop was held in July 2008 (http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/meetings/MtgHome.mtg?mtg=54).
Subsequent to the workshop, PHMSA worked with a group of state regulators, representatives from industry, trade associations, and other stakeholders to develop guidelines for performing ECDA of gas transmission pipe inside casings (http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/gasimp/ccCASQAT.htm). The guidelines incorporate some of the input developed by this work group, but have been updated in some areas to conform to the integrity management regulations and statutory requirements.
The guidelines and frequently asked questions (FAQs) are largely based on the work of this group and state regulators, and provide guidelines for pipeline operators to consider when implementing integrity management requirements for cased pipe. The casing guidelines are for operator usage in cases where other integrity methods are not viable due to the pipeline being unpiggable due to lateral location and customer outage requirements.
PHMSA is conducting a workshop cosponsored by the National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives (NAPSR) on new distribution pipeline construction. The workshop will allow stakeholders in the pipeline safety community to learn about and discuss construction issues and current practices in natural gas distribution pipeline construction management and quality control.
This workshop will address common issues, focusing on the results of federal and state regulators' perspectives, and explore potential solutions.
