As the end of each year approaches, an accounting of its events typically emerges. This is no less the case in the pipeline industry than it is for movies, politics, or charities. What just passed is compared with what happened in earlier years, and what might lie ahead. This exercise offers an opportunity to both celebrate successes and renew the focus on addressing any failures.
ProPublica last month published an interactive Pipeline Safety Tracker (http://projects.propublica.org/pipelines/), allowing visitors easy access to a variety of incident data from the US Pipeline and Hazardous Material Administration (PHMSA) on a point-and-click basis. Users can find data regarding specific incidents on a US map, or on hot-linked graphs and tables sorting them by cause or the state in which they occurred, respectively. If these methods don't yield the desired results a search box sifting the data by state, city, operator, and year is available.
What's there?
At first glance, these data look alarming, even to someone who follows the pipeline industry. The map limits its coverage to what PHMSA terms "significant incidents"-those that caused either a death or serious injury, cost more than $50,000, released more than 50 bbl of liquid, or caused a fire or explosion. But even on this basis, entire parts of some states are obscured by markers denoting an incident. Similarly, a quick scan of graphs detailing pipeline deaths and injuries reveals some years with dozens of the former and more than 150 of the latter.
The ready availability of these data should, however, not be seen as a threat. The reasons for this are twofold. First, US pipeline operators benefit from the transparency. In a political environment characterized by the use of partial facts and half-truths presented as gospel in an effort to either thwart or advance any number of initiatives, including TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, information available to all helps ground the discussion in reality.
Secondly, there is much that is good in the PHMSA data.
Through the first three quarters of 2012, the number of incidents reported by PHMSA over the country's 2.6 million miles of pipelines was on pace to set a 25-year low. The previous low was 233 incidents in 2001. As of Sept. 28, 163 incidents had occurred this year. Incidents peaked at 361 in 2005 and have been following a downward trend since. Even more impressively, pipeline deaths have been in decline since 1996 and injuries since 1989.
Dig in
The ready availability of these data also helps keep all parties focused on what needs to happen next. Going just one layer below the surface reveals that 32% of the incidents reported so far this year have resulted from material, weld, or equipment failure, with only 10% stemming from excavation damage. This marks a reversal of events since 1986, when 35% of incidents related to excavation damage and 10% to material, weld, or equipment failure.
Organizations like the Common Ground Alliance and its 811 central call number have made great strides in limiting incidents of third-party damage. But as the US pipeline system continues to both age and expand the safety resources dedicated to it are spread ever thinner.
It's within this context that PHMSA's fiscal year 2013 budget requested 150 additional personnel, including 120 inspection and enforcement staff, nearly doubling its numbers for each. With failures now the leading cause of incidents additional inspectors will only help redouble the operators' own efforts in preventing them.
Only time will tell if an increased number of inspectors helps continue the downward trend in pipeline incidents and related fatalities and injuries. In the meantime, everyone with even a passing interest in US pipeline safety should have a look at the Pipeline Safety Tracker; whether a newbie or a life-long pipeliner, you're guaranteed to learn something.