About this series
This is the first in a series of articles by OGJ Senior Writer Sam Fletcher on US pipeline safety issues facing the industry as the year and a new administration in Washington, DC, begin. The next installment discusses how more-stringent safety requirements in high-consequence areas may send US pipeline companies scrambling for outside expertise they don't have in-house.
After President George W. Bush's cabinet appointees are confirmed, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will likely schedule more hearings on pipeline safety legislation, a committee aide has told OGJ.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), committee chairman, "will probably reintroduce legislation as soon as possible. He feels this is an urgent matter to accomplish before more lives are lost," said staff member Pia Pialorsi.
These efforts will come as public alarm over the safety of US oil and gas pipelines grows.
Legislation's provisions
The Pipeline Safety Improvement Act (S2438) was approved by unanimous consent of the US Senate in September 2000 but failed to receive the necessary votes in the House. The issue remains "a high priority" for McCain, however, said Pialorsi.
That bill reauthorizing expiring pipeline regulation would have required periodic checks of operational safety and the implementation of integrity-management programs for US pipelines. It would have required pipeline operators to sponsor continuing public-education programs on related safety matters.
(photo caption)
Workers remove the ruptured section of a 16-in. pipeline in Bellingham, Wash., which on June 10, 1999, spilled about 275,000 gal of gasoline into adjacent creeks. Three people died in the resulting explosion. Results of testing on the section by the National Transportation Safety Board will form part of NTSB's report expected later this year. Such incidents have alarmed the general public and led to calls for greater regulation of the US pipeline system. The line is owned and operated by Olympic Pipe Line Co.
The legislation would have increased maximum civil penalties to $100,000 for a single violation, up from $25,000 currently; and to $1 million for a series of safety violations, up from $500,000.
It would have allowed states to participate in the oversight of interstate pipelines through agreements with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and provided for collaborative research and development, directed by DOT with the assistance of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Academy of Sciences.
It further directed DOT to collect pipeline data to evaluate operator performance and analyze incident trends.
Opponents in the House said they wanted stronger pipeline safety legislation. But when the House failed by 28 votes in early October to pass the Senate bill, an irate McCain blamed partisan politics.
Although that bill did not address all the safety issues that some wanted, McCain claimed it was "the strongest bill possible at this time."
DOT efforts
In the meantime, DOT has authority to impose new measures on its own, said Stacey Gerard, associate administrator for pipeline safety at DOT's Research & Special Programs Administration (RSPA).
On Dec. 1, DOT Sec. Rodney E. Slater issued a notice of proposed rulemaking for better corrosion prevention, control, and detection in hazardous liquid pipelines. Corrosion is the second leading cause of accidents in such pipelines, officials said.
The rulemaking proposal will focus on establishing criteria for measuring cathodic protection of pipelines and clarifying methods of inspecting pipes without such protection, including nonelectrical inspections of bare pipe where electrical surveys are impractical.
Officials also are looking at amending the safety standard to require operators to inspect the condition of coating when they investigate exposed pipe. And they are considering requiring "highly technical" qualifications for supervisors of corrosion control programs.
RSPA has scheduled hearings Feb. 12-13 on the proposed rulemaking.
"We're working with industry and the state governments to develop a nondestructive safety testing process that will give us a clear picture of risks," Gerard said.
But any new testing and safety requirements will be "system specific" because "so much investment has gone into this infrastructure and some pipeline companies have done more than they're required," she said.
Most past and pending legislative proposals on pipeline safety center on the same issues, Gerard said, "including more opportunities for states to participate in the process. We want to open it up for states to work with us in an advisory capacity on interstate pipelines."
Officials of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) agree that states should have an appropriate role in helping regulate interstate systems, which account for more than 70% of total US pipeline mileage.
Almost all legislative proposals also include provisions for safety research, emphasizing a more collaborative effort.
Companies supportive
Colonial Pipeline Co., Atlanta, the recent target of a massive federal lawsuit for pipeline spills, said it plans to work with industry and government officials for better safety legislation.
"Colonial supported S2438 reauthorizing pipeline regulation during the past Congress," said Steve Baker, company spokesman.
However, he said, "As with any oversight effort, we believe improvements are possible in the way our industry is regulated."
As is the entire industry, said Baker, Colonial is committed to improving pipeline safety.
"We will continue to support efforts to improve pipeline regulation because we believe better regulations will protect our environment," he said.
El Paso Energy Co., Houston, also supported S2438 last year and would support similar legislation this year, said a company spokesman.
The rupture of a subsidiary El Paso Natural Gas Co. pipeline near Carlsbad, NM, last August killed 12 people, including five children (OGJ, Jan. 1, 2001; p. 70). Because that accident is still under investigation, officials said, it's impossible to say if additional safety regulations could have prevented it.
Meanwhile, a pipeline-mapping project that began as a volunteer program some years ago is still under way. "We've worked with the US Geological Survey and other government agencies to standardize an approach to mapping," said Gerard.
Public attention
Recent "high-profile" accidents, including two in the past 20 months with multiple fatalities, have focused public attention on pipeline safety issues, despite that industry's overall good record, say government officials.
"Pipelines are not less safe now than they were in the past. The industry's safety record has been fairly constant," said RSPA's Gerard.
Still, she told OGJ, "More can be done. Technology has progressed enough and the industry's understanding of that technology is mature enough that it's time to raise the bar for safety requirements."
Public concern about pipeline safety has increased recently as accident "victims reached out to other victims," said Gerard.
"In an age of deregulation of the pipeline industry and with so many mergers among companies, safety questions have come up. There has been a lot of discussion and speculation about the impact of those changes on safety programs," she said.
"People want more information," Gerard said. "We have to address the public confidence issue. We hope to get more safety as a result, but the pipeline industry is really pretty safe already."
Safety record
Pipelines transport all of the natural gas and 60% of the oil and petroleum products that fuel industries, homes, and the US economy. The RSPA is charged with ensuring safe, reliable, and environmentally sound operation of that interstate pipeline infrastructure.
Gerard acknowledged "a significant decrease" in pipeline accident rates over a 30-year period, although she said that progress has "flattened out in the last 5-10 years."
In a period of nearly 15 years, from 1986 through the first 9 months of 2000, the RSPA's Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) reported 1,184 incidents involving natural gas transmission pipelines, resulting in 55 fatalities, 210 injuries, and $253.4 million in property damage (Table 1).
That included 62 incidents during the first 9 months of 2000-the latest period for which information is available-with 14 fatalities, 14 injuries, and $9.1 million in damages. The number of fatalities was second only to 1989, when 103 incidents produced 22 fatalities, 28 injuries, and $20.5 million in damages.
During the same period of 1986 through 9 months of 2000, OPS recorded 2,000 incidents involving natural gas distribution systems, resulting in 273 fatalities, 1,213 injuries, and $235.2 million in property damage.
The partial figures for 2000 included 114 incidents, 17 fatalities, 51 injuries, and $16.2 million damages.
There were 2,859 incidents involving hazardous liquid pipelines during the same 15-year period, resulting in 36 deaths, 239 injuries, and $563.4 million property damage, with the net loss of 1.6 million bbl of liquids, OPS reported.
DOT's "own numbers show that pipelines are very safe. Less than 0.01% of all transportation accidents involve pipelines," said Mel Scott, a spokesman for El Paso Energy Co.
Because of the greater danger from explosions, safety regulations are more stringent for natural gas pipelines, Gerard said.
Industry sources claim third-party damage-often involving excavation equipment accidentally striking buried pipelines-accounts for 40% of all accidents on interstate pipeline systems and 70% of the associated fatalities. OPS officials said outside force damage is the leading cause of pipeline failures and is responsible for half the accidents resulting in fatalities.
Last June, OPS reported the number of incidents resulting in damage to pipelines from outside forces had dropped 20% over the previous 12 months. Rodney Slater, then DOT secretary, said at that time the total number of pipeline accidents was down 5% in the same period (OGJ Online, June 30, 2000).
He attributed some of that reduction to the year-old "Dig Safely" program instituted by the OPS.
Concerns
Nonetheless, NTSB officials said in November 2000 that pipeline operators may need improved procedures to alert excavators to the dangers of multiple leaks and underground migration of gas from damaged pipelines (OGJ Online, Nov. 28, 2000).
Officials said municipal personnel also should be trained on how to secure the area around a pipeline accident to protect citizens.
Those recommendations were based on a staff report of a January 1999 pipeline rupture in Bridgeport, Ala., that killed three people and injured five. NTSB officials said that accident occurred when a backhoe operator damaged a 3.4-in., 35-psig steel gas service line, enabling gas to migrate into an adjacent building. Three buildings were destroyed and several others damaged in the resulting explosion.
The entire onus of pipeline safety is not on the industry's back, however. Gerard said residents near pipeline rights-of-way have "a shared responsibility, like a neighborhood watch" to guard against third-party activity that can rupture pipelines.
NTSB officials say, however, that recent pipeline accidents have raised concerns about the aging pipeline infrastructure.
"Many of the hazardous liquid and natural gas transmission pipelines in our community are 30-50 years old. Although age alone does not indicate that a pipeline may be unsafe, determining the integrity of pipelines becomes increasingly important as our pipeline systems age," NTSB officials said before a hearing late last year to examine the technology available for assessing pipeline integrity.
Moreover, NTSB officials said a large percentage of the pipeline accidents that they investigated in 1999-2000 involved "controllers who may have failed to promptly recognize pipeline ruptures and then initiate timely action to reduce the consequences of the spill" (OGJ Online, Sept. 28, 2000).
