The US Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), part of the Department of Transportation's Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) is requiring that a hazardous-liquid pipeline operator develop and follow an integrity-management program that provides for continually assessing the integrity of all pipeline segments that could affect high consequence areas.
HCAs are populated areas, areas unusually sensitive to environmental damage, and commercially navigable waterways
OPS will make maps of HCAs available on the internet as part of the National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS). This information can be downloaded for operator use. Operators who have supplied their pipeline system locations to NPMS can view the HCA overlay on line.
OPS will maintain and update the NPMS periodically. It is the operator's responsibility, however, to ensure that it has identified all HCAs that could be affected by a pipeline segment. An operator is also responsible for periodically evaluating its pipeline segments to look for population or environmental changes that may have occurred around the pipeline and to keep its program current with this information.
Appendix C of 49 CFR Part 195 lists sources that an operator may use to help identify HCAs. (CFR = Code of Federal Regulations)
By comparing the identified HCAs to the locations of its pipelines, the operator must identify all segments of its pipelines where hazardous liquid released from a leak or rupture could physically impact an HCA. These segments were to be initially identified by Dec. 31, 2001 (Nov. 18, 2002 for operators with fewer than 500 miles of pipe).
In making this determination, the operator should consider topography near the line, drainage patterns, the amount of product that could be spilled, and other factors.
More information is available at http://primis.rspa.dot.gov/iim/step.htm and based on 49 CFR 195 which can be viewed on-line at http://www .archives.gov/federal_register/.
Source: http://ops.dot.gov