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Proposed DOT Rule Defines At-Risk Areas for Gas Pipe Blasts
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a proposed rule that seeks to identify and define the areas where people and property would be at greatest risk to “considerable” injury and damage if a natural gas pipeline should rupture and explode.
Identifying these so-called “high-consequence” areas is the first of a two-part process, which ultimately will lead to the DOT’s Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) requiring gas pipelines that are located in these at-risk areas to take additional safeguards to protect the public.
The DOT’s notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) offers a stricter definition of high-consequence areas for gas pipelines than is currently on the books. The proposed definition would include pipes located within: 1) 600 feet of facilities that house people who are confined (i.e. hospitals, retirement centers); 2) 1,000 feet of facilities that house people who are confined, if the pipe is greater than 30 inches in diameter and operates at a maximum allowable operating pressure greater than 1,000 psig; or 3) 660 feet (or 1,000 feet, if pipe is more than 30 inches in diameter) where 20 or more persons congregate at least 50 days in any given year (i.e. camping grounds, recreational facilities and museums).
The RSPA added camping grounds to its high-consequence area definition in response to the fatal explosion on El Paso Natural Gas pipeline in New Mexico in August 2000. The blast killed 12 members of two extended families, who had been fishing and camping along the Pecos River in the state.
The proposed rule also would include the existing Class 3 and Class 4 locations. Class 3 areas are located within 220 yards on either side of a continuous one-mile length of pipeline, and have 46 or more buildings intended for human occupancy. Class 4 are those sites that house buildings of four or more stories within a 220-yard perimeter of a pipeline. Public written comments on the NOPR are due at the DOT by March 11.
The RSPA said it didn’t believe it was necessary to extend its high-consequence definition to cover environmental areas. “[W]e did not include sensitive environmental areas due to the highly localized impact of a gas pipeline rupture and explosion. Since a release from a gas pipeline accident is airborne, it is unlikely any major damage will occur to a threatened or endangered species,” it said in the NOPR.
The DOT agency noted it has been working to develop the definition for high-consequence areas for gas pipelines for two years. During this time, it has met with state agencies, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the American Gas Association, Battelle Memorial Institute, the Gas Technology Institute, the Western States’ Land Commissions and National Governors Association, just to name a few.
Written comments on the NOPR can be mailed to U.S. Department of Transportation, Room PL-401, 400 Seventh St., SW, Washington, DC 20590-0001, or can be filed electronically at https://dms.dot.gov.
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