While the Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) took it on the chin during a House subcommittee mark-up of pipeline safety legislation last Thursday, its chief detractor, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), removed the agency from its “Most Wanted List” after it responded to two remaining recommendations for safety improvements to pipelines.

The OPS was taken off the list after it acted on the NTSB’s recommendations for better prevention of pipeline excavation damage and on standards for common pipeline mapping. “I would like to commend [the OPS] for making such progress; they’ve come a long way,” said NTSB Chairman Marion C. Blakely.

But Capitol Hill lawmakers don’t think so. The OPS is a “recalcitrant agency that refuses to do the job Congress has given to them,” said Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-MN) during the House Transportation highways and transit subcommittee’s mark-up of a pipe safety bill. The OPS has “routinely failed,” agreed another subcommittee member, but he added that was partly because the agency has been “chronically underfunded” by Congress.

Despite the biting criticism, the OPS patted itself on the back. “This is the first time in a dozen years that the NTSB has no recommendations solely directed towards the Office of Pipeline Safety on its Most Wanted List,” said Ellen G. Engleman, administrator of the Research and Special Programs Administration, which oversees the OPS.

In response to the NTSB recommendations, the OPS said it was dedicating new field staff solely to evaluate how well state excavation programs follow best practices. Also, it has established standards that require companies to maintain maps that are “clear, accurate, current, and depict pipeline system features for emergency response and damage prevention.”

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