    cartome.org

23 June 2002

Source: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a020613c.html

    [Federal Register: June 13, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 114)]
    [Notices]
    [Page 40768-40770]
    From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
    [DOCID:fr13jn02-153]

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    DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

    Research and Special Programs Administration

    Pipeline Safety: Gas and Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Mapping

    AGENCY: Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT.

    ACTION: Notice; issuance of advisory bulletin.

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    SUMMARY: The Research and Special Programs Administration's (RSPA)
    Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) is issuing this advisory to gas
    distribution, gas transmission, and hazardous liquid pipeline systems.
    Owners and operators should review their information and mapping
    systems to ensure that the operator has clear, accurate, and useable
    information on the location and characteristics of all pipes, valves,
    regulators, and other pipeline elements for use in emergency response,
    pipe location and marking, and pre-construction planning. This includes
    ensuring that construction records, maps, and operating history are
    readily available to appropriate operating, maintenance, and emergency
    response personnel.

    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Richard Huriaux, (202) 366-4565; Steve
    Fischer, (202) 366-6267; or by e-mail, steve.fischer@rspa.dot.gov. This
    document can be viewed at the OPS home page at http://ops.dot.gov.

    SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

    I. Background

        The need for accurate maps of pipeline systems has been highlighted
    by pipeline accidents in which the lack of accurate maps contributed to
    an accident or inhibited effective emergency response. The National
    Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) Safety Recommendation P-87-34
    urged RSPA to revise the pipeline safety regulations ``to require that
    gas company system maps and records be maintained accurately to
    identify the locations, size, and operation[al] pressure of all their
    pipelines.'' Most recently, in Safety Recommendation P-97-19, NTSB
    emphasized the need for RSPA/OPS to ``develop mapping standards for a
    common [pipeline] mapping system, with a goal to actively promote its
    widespread use.'' NTSB recommends that pipeline mapping should consider
    the amount of detail and the accuracy of information necessary for
    effective use.
        These recommendations resulted from a series of accidents in which
    a lack of accurate maps played a role. A typical problem described by
    the NTSB included workers at a college campus in Connecticut that
    searched for more than a half hour to find the shut-off valve after
    excavation damage to a telephone cable. The gas line and valves were
    not marked on maps. Another was the 1996 gas explosion in San Juan,
    Puerto Rico, which resulted in 33 fatalities and 69 injuries. A lack of
    accurate information on and maps of the underground piping system was
    cited as a factor contributing to this excavation-caused accident.
        NTSB noted that damage prevention programs often use many different
    types of maps, ranging from city road maps to grid systems based on
    State coordinate systems. Pipeline engineers, maintenance workers,
    repair crews, and emergency responders are forced to use a variety of
    data sources to locate underground piping and facilities, including
    land use maps, zoning maps, tax assessor maps, easement descriptions,
    highway and transportation network maps, topographic maps, construction
    permit drawings, construction plans, and aerial photographs.
        NTSB also noted that different utilities and pipeline companies may
    use maps that vary in scale, resolution, data formats, notational
    systems, and accuracy. Some pipelines have imaged older paper-based
    diagrams and maps and some have developed fully digitized mapping
    systems. The accuracy of the underlying information on these maps is
    often problematical. For example, the digital maps may not reflect the
    uncertainties inherent in the original paper source maps. In addition,
    many mapping systems lack any information on abandoned facilities,
    without which excavators may mistake the abandoned facility for an
    active, potentially dangerous, pipeline.
        Maps and other locational records maintained by gas companies and
    other underground facility operators are the most common source of
    information

    [[Page 40769]]

    about these facilities. The pipeline safety regulations for both gas
    and hazardous liquid operators require operators to (1) Maintain
    current records and maps of the location of their facilities for use in
    operations, maintenance, and emergency response activities (e.g.,
    surveillance, leak surveys, cathodic protection, abnormal operations
    response, etc.); (2) establish active damage prevention programs,
    including participation in local one-call notification programs,
    outreach to local construction and excavation companies, ensuring
    accurate location and marking of pipeline facilities, and explanation
    of this system of markings to persons who give notice of their intent
    to excavate near a pipeline; and, (3) hire and train employees and
    contractors to safely perform their duties, including both routine and
    emergency operations.
        All gas and hazardous liquid pipeline operators must maintain an
    operating and maintenance plan that includes procedures for making
    construction records, maps, and operating history available to
    appropriate operating personnel to enable them to safely and
    effectively perform their duties (49 CFR 192.605 and 195.402).
    Furthermore, the hazardous liquid pipeline regulations at 49 CFR
    195.404 explicitly require that the maps and records must include, at a
    minimum, the following information:
        (1) Location and identification of pipeline facilities.
        (2) All crossings of public roads, railroads, rivers, buried
    utilities, and foreign pipelines.
        (3) The maximum operating pressure of each pipeline.
        (4) The diameter, grade, type, and nominal wall thickness of all
    pipe. Not all this information need be on maps, but must be readily
    available to appropriate personnel.
        Operators also need to ensure that abandoned facilities are not
    inadvertently identified as active. This is especially important in
    locating gas mains and service lines in congested urban environments.
    Operator maps that are used for one-call response and pipeline location
    and marking should clearly distinguish pipelines that do or could
    contain gas or hazardous liquids (pipeline that have not been purged
    and cleaned and are available for service on short notice) from those
    lines that are abandoned (purged, cleaned, and pipe ends sealed) and do
    not contain gas or hazardous liquids.
        Operators have a responsibility to maintain construction records,
    maps, and operating history and to make this information available to
    appropriate operating personnel to enable them to safely and
    effectively perform their duties. Therefore, RSPA/OPS is issuing this
    advisory bulletin to all pipeline operators to emphasize the operator's
    responsibility to: (1) Accurately locate and clearly mark key pipeline
    features and other information needed for effective emergency response
    on company maps and records; (2) keep these maps and records up-to-date
    as pipeline construction and modifications take place; (3) be
    knowledgeable about their abandoned lines and to keep data on their
    location to further eliminate confusion with active lines during
    construction or emergency response activities; and (4) communicate
    pipeline information and maps to appropriate operating, maintenance,
    and emergency response personnel.
        RSPA/OPS has been working to develop a national mapping system for
    use by Federal and State pipeline inspectors. The National Pipeline
    Mapping System (NPMS) collects selected data on natural gas
    transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines. The NPMS data standards
    are consistent with the policies of the Federal Geographic Data
    Committee (FGDC) and the mapping application uses commercial mapping
    software. Although the data submissions to the NPMS are limited in
    comparison to the requirements for the detailed maps used by pipeline
    operators, these standards emphasize the importance of using accurate
    geospatial data, multiuser access, and standardized pipeline mapping
    data. RSPA's/OPS's intention in creating a mapping standard is to
    harmonize efforts across federal and state agencies to set criteria for
    map quality and to have a uniform standard for various mapping
    purposes.
        Another initiative to improve the accuracy of information in
    pipeline location is RSPA's/OPS's issuance of a Broad Agency
    Announcement (BAA) for research and development proposals on damage
    prevention and leak detection, including development of advanced pipe
    location technologies. Furthermore, RSPA/OPS is finalizing a
    Cooperative Agreement with the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) to assist
    with public education at the national, state, and local levels and to
    provide state and local officials with information and tools to help
    their residents live safely with pipelines, and to become familiar with
    pipeline locations. The CGA is examining and promoting practices that
    have proven to effectively reduce the risk of damage to underground
    facilities, including pipeline data and mapping systems. We urge all
    pipeline operators to contribute to pipeline research and development
    on location technologies and to work with CGA to improve and
    standardize pipeline mapping systems. This includes the promotion of
    consistent mapping symbols for pipeline components and common
    notational systems.
        We are also working with our inspectors and our pipeline safety
    partners in the National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives
    to focus during standard inspections on ensuring that operators are
    maintaining clear and current records and maps. Moreover, we are also
    ensuring during inspections of operator qualification programs that
    pipeline operations and maintenance workers have demonstrated their
    ability to use company maps and records for timely and decisive
    emergency response, as well as to support accurate underground facility
    marking. We recognize that operators and excavators should never rely
    solely on maps before beginning an excavation near a buried utility,
    but should fully comply with state underground excavation laws and pipe
    locating technologies.

    II. Advisory Bulletin (ADB-02-03)

        To: Owners and Operators of Gas Distribution Systems.
        Subject: Gas and Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Mapping.
        Purpose: To advise owners and operators of gas distribution, gas
    transmission, and hazardous liquid pipeline systems of the need to
    maintain and review construction records, maps, and operating history,
    and to make this information available to operating, maintenance, and
    emergency response personnel.
        Advisory: Owners and operators of gas distribution, gas
    transmission, and hazardous liquid pipeline systems should ensure that
    accurate construction records, maps, and operating history are
    available to appropriate operating, maintenance, and emergency response
    personnel. The maps or associated records should provide the following
    information:
        (1) Location and identification of pipeline facilities, including
    key features needed in emergency response.
        (2) Crossings of roads, railroads, rivers, buried utilities, and
    pipelines.
        (3) The maximum operating pressure of each pipeline.
        (4) The diameter, grade, type, and nominal wall thickness of pipe.
        RSPA urges every pipeline operator to (1) accurately locate and
    clearly mark on company maps and records key pipeline features and
    other information needed for effective emergency response; (2) keep
    these maps and records up-to-date as pipeline construction and
    modifications take place; (3) ensure that

    [[Page 40770]]

    its personnel are knowledgeable about the location of abandoned
    pipelines and to keep data on their location in order to further
    eliminate confusion with active pipelines during construction or
    emergency response activities; and (4) communicate pipeline information
    and maps to appropriate operating, maintenance, and emergency response
    personnel. Operators are also encouraged to collaborate with the Common
    Ground Alliance and the Federal and State pipeline safety programs to
    improve all phases of underground facility damage prevention, including
    improved mapping standards; and to work toward developing and using, to
    the maximum feasible extent, consistent mapping symbols and notational
    systems.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on June 6, 2002.
    Stacey L. Gerard,
    Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
    [FR Doc. 02-14955 Filed 6-12-02; 8:45 am]
    BILLING CODE 4910-60-P