The United States is dependent on natural gas and petroleum liquids transported through pipelines, and Americans expect reliable delivery of products that fuel our vibrant economy, enable their mobility and enhance their quality of life. They expect that the pipelines that deliver these products, pipelines that move through their communities as well as nearby sensitive environments, will pose no danger to life, property or the environment. While pipelines are among the safest modes for transporting liquids and gases, the nature of their cargo is inherently dangerous, and pipeline failures can pose an immediate threat to people and communities. The recently enacted Pipeline Safety Act of 2002 will reinforce and strengthen initiatives and programs that RSPA already has in place to assure the long-term integrity and security of existing pipelines.

Performance Goal:

• Reduce all pipeline incidents by 5% per year, from 381 in 2000 to 295 in 2005.

Performance measures:

Excavation damage causes 31% of pipeline failures for all types of pipelines, corrosion causes another 20% of failures, and natural forces such as earthquakes cause 8% of failures. Incorrect operation, construction/material defects, equipment malfunction, failed pipe, and other miscellaneous causes account for the remaining 41% of pipeline failures. In the past 10 years, there have been 24 fatalities annually that are related to natural gas or hazardous liquid pipeline failures. DOT works to reduce the risk of pipeline failures by establishing safety regulations and assuring compliance.

RSPA’s Pipeline Safety program impacts both Safety and the Environment. Safety programs based only on regulatory compliance can result in a piecemeal approach to identifying and controlling risks, sometimes overlooking the subtle relationships among failure causes, and the benefits of coordinated risk control activities. Having operators implement systematic and integrated approaches to assure pipeline integrity and address the most important risks offers the greatest opportunity to improve safety performance. For this reason, RSPA has published integrity management requirements for pipelines in high consequence areas that include populated areas, commercially navigable waterways, and locations unusually sensitive to environmental damage and that might be impacted by a pipeline failure.

Because natural gas and hazardous liquids have different physical properties and pose different risks, RSPA will implement integrity management requirements for gas and liquid operators in stages, with separate requirements for hazardous liquid operators and natural gas operators. RSPA has promulgated these pipeline integrity management-related rulemakings to improve system integrity assessments:

Final Rules:

• Controlling Corrosion on Hazardous Liquid Pipelines;

• Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Accident Reporting Revisions;

• Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas (Repair Criteria);

• Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas (Hazardous Liquid Operators with less than 500 Miles of Pipe); and

• High Consequence Areas for Gas Transmission Pipelines.

Notice of Proposed Rulemakings:

• Natural Gas Transmission Pipeline Integrity Management; and

• Producer-Operated OCS Pipelines that Cross Directly into State Waters.

Additionally, RSPA uses new evaluation standards for assessing adequacy of operator qualification programs that limit human error, and for assessing pipeline operator’s security preparedness.

RSPA will make educational materials available to pipeline operators, one-call centers and other interested groups, support efforts of the Common Ground Alliance to offer “Dig Safely” training sessions around the country for groups interested in implementing the program, encourage participating operators to improve accuracy in locating and marking facilities, and continue evaluation of one-call system education best practices.

RSPA will also work to improve models for corrosion assessment and remaining pipe strength that will allow operators to better identify pipeline segments at higher risk of failure and take appropriate corrective action.

RSPA will enhance States’ abilities for oversight on outside force damage, as well as for other issues of local concern, such as accident investigation and new construction, for interstate pipelines within their borders. RSPA will offer a 50% grant match to cover costs of that State oversight.

Pipeline safety R&D will focus on improved operations, control, and monitoring technologies for better corrosion and leak detection; direct assessment techniques for unpiggable pipelines; improved pipeline coating technology; and mapping and information integration.

Other Federal Programs with Common Outcomes: RSPA continues to develop the National Pipeline Mapping System with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological Survey, and others. The system will help analyze risks to environmentally sensitive and populated areas. RSPA participates jointly with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior and NOAA to collect data on the location of environmentally sensitive areas and is co-funding efforts with EPA at the national and State levels to populate digital data banks.