The Inspector General of the Department of Transportation (DOT)has found severe shortcomings in the inspection practices andtraining of federal pipeline inspectors at DOT’s Office of PipelineSafety (OPS), according to a preliminary report. The unfavorableDOT report comes in the wake of a number of legislative measures onCapitol Hill seeking to reauthorize the federal Pipeline SafetyAct.

Among the key findings, the department’s IG said the Researchand Special Programs Administration (RSPA), which oversees the OPS,has failed to implement inspection standards to protect highlypopulated and environmentally sensitive areas as was mandated byCongress in both the 1992 and 1996 Pipeline Safety Acts.

Moreover, the report said OPS research and development programshave not developed internal inspection devices, called “smartpigs,” capable of detecting seam weld defects that often lead topipeline ruptures. Nor has OPS examined or developed alternativepipeline inspection technologies for pipelines that cannotaccommodate smart pigs. The pipeline industry estimates that 80% oftransmission pipelines fit into the latter category.

The IG also said RSPA safety inspectors weren’t trained in theuse of internal inspection devices, and couldn’t read or interpretthe results of internal inspections conducted by operators ofpipelines. Additionally, the OPS doesn’t collect sufficient data toaccurately determine accident causes and trends, and evaluatesafety performance measures, the report noted.

The DOT conducted the review of its inspection practices andtraining methods at the request of Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), whointroduced a pipeline safety bill earlier this year that wouldgreatly expand the safety-inspection authority of states over alltypes of pipelines, including the 480,000 miles of natural gas andhazardous liquid lines that criss-cross the U.S.

Under her legislation, states could require inspections andtests of pipeline facilities in addition to those at the federallevel; require pipeline operators to satisfy state training andeducation requirements in addition to the federal qualificationrequirements; mandate that the owner or operator of a pipelinecertify to the state or states in which it operates that its safetyprocedures and accident-response plans comply with federalrequirements; and demand that pipelines use equipment to detect andlocate release of hazardous liquids or gases.

Such measures would greatly increase what interstate gaspipelines currently spend to comply with safety rules andregulations, which is about $600 million annually, according toTheopolis Holeman, senior vice president of gas transmission withDuke Energy.

Cries by congressional and state lawmakers for greater stateoversight of interstate pipelines have mounted since apipeline-related explosion last summer in Bellingham, WA,apparently caused by leaking gasoline, killed three.

In a related move, state regulators last week called on the DOTto put a hold on proposed changes to a program that gives statesauthority to act as agents of the federal government to conductsafety inspections of interstate pipelines in their respectivestates. The program was initiated in the early 1980s when DOTdidn’t have enough federal inspectors to conduct safety reviews ofall the pipelines under its jurisdiction.

The resolution, which was adopted by the gas committee of theNational Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) atits winter meeting in Washington DC, further proposed that anyrevisions to the program be made only after “full consultation”with the states, and that the OPS be instructed to accept”additional interested states” as interstate agents.

NARUC’s action came in response to OPS letters sent out lastDecember announcing Arizona and Nevada were being terminated asinterstate agents, and that the entire interstate agent programwould be phased out over three years. “This action was takenunilaterally and without notice to or consultation with theaffected states,” the resolution stated.

In the wake of Arizona’s and Nevada’s terminations, this leavesonly eight states with interstate agent status: Connecticut,California, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio and WestVirginia, the resolution said. Four other states – New Hampshire,Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia – requested but were denied interstateagent status.

Richard B. Felder, associate administrator for pipeline safetywith DOT’s Research and Special Programs Administration, called thecommittee’s resolution “somewhat premature given where we are inthe reauthorization of the pipeline safety program.” He tried toreassure state commissioners that, while the number of interstateagents has declined over the years, the OPS had no plans todissolve the program in its entirety. The decisions to drop certainstates from the interstate inspection program, Felder said, werebased on whether “we [OPS] actually had sufficient resources [inthose particular states] to conduct all of these inspections,”which he stressed wasn’t the case in every state.

Felder noted a provision in DOT’s reauthorization proposal,which is expected to be introduced soon, would allow every statewith a pipeline safety program to “join with us” to ensure the safeoperation of pipes, and be reimbursed fully for inspection-relatedexpenses. Under the bill, states could perform studies or alert theOPS to potential problems with interstate pipelines, but they won’tbe able to do “standard” inspections.

Susan Parker

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