The Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) has issued a final rule that amends pipeline safety regulations to require operators of natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines to prepare and follow procedures for periodic inspections of facilities located in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico and its inlets.

Under the final rule, pipeline companies will formulate and follow procedures to identify pipelines in waters of less than 15 feet deep that are at risk of being exposed underwater facilities or a hazard to navigation, and to conduct appropriate periodic underwater inspections.

The OPS estimates that the initial cost of the inspections under the rule will be $6.25 million, with re-inspection costs of $200,000 a year.

The OPS action will potentially affect 125 pipelines that operate in the Gulf, it said. The agency said it would take a pipeline operator approximately 500 hours to develop and implement a program to determine the need for periodic inspections.

The final rule is in response to congressional mandates and recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which called for the OPS to take steps to address the hazards of underwater pipelines. The NTSB’s recommendations followed two separate accidents in the Gulf in the late 1980s in which fishing vessels struck submerged gas pipelines, killing a total of 13 people.

The rule requires offshore pipeline operators to promptly notify the National Response Center (1-800-424-8802) of any facilities that are exposed (where the top of the pipe protrudes) or a hazard to navigation. Operators further are required to mark the location of the exposed/hazardous pipe within seven days, according to the rule.

And within six months after discovery, or not later than Nov. 1 of the following year (if that is sooner), operators must bury the pipeline facility so that the top of the pipe is 36 inches below the underwater natural bottom, the OPS said.

Procedures for identifying pipes that are at risk of being exposed or a hazard to navigation must be in effect by one year from publication of the final rule in the Federal Register.

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