API will host a two-day Pipeline Operator Qualification Conference, February 14-15, 2001 at Sheraton Houston Brookhollow, 3000 North Loop West Houston, TX. This conference will feature speakers from industry and TSI, and will include the following topics:

• Introduction to API RP 1161 – Guidance Document for Qualification of Liquid Pipeline Personnel
• Discussion of the API/ National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) Alliance OQ Program
• Discussion of OQ implementation issues, with recommended strategies.

The conference web page can be found at http://www.api.org/training/Conferences/OQconference.htm. RCP is one of the corporate sponsors for this conference. We hope to see you there!

RCP is conducting a 3 day workshop on Pipeline Integrity Management on Tuesday, March 6-8, 2001 at our Houston office. We will review the new federal rulemaking for Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas (see our December 2000 pipeline newsletter). This final rule specifies regulations to assess, evaluate, repair and validate through comprehensive analysis the integrity of hazardous liquid pipeline segments that, in the event of a leak or failure, could affect populated areas, areas unusually sensitive to environmental damage and commercially navigable waterways. This final rule takes effect March 31, 2001. We will also review and discuss the proposed pipeline integrity management rulemaking for the State of Texas, which will apply to ALL intrastate pipeline operators. The workshop web page can be found at http://www.your-rcp.com/dotseminar2001.htm

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is scheduling two one-day public meetings to provide interested parties a detailed overview of the Department's revised drug and alcohol testing procedures, published in the Federal Register on December 19, 2000 ( 65 Fed. Reg. 79462 ). [Insert link] The meeting notice is published at 66 Fed. Reg. 7590, Jan. 24, 2001.

The meetings are being held to provide the transportation industry and other interested parties a more in depth overview of the changes in the new rule and to clarify to the attendees issues, which they may raise at the meetings. Some of the major changes in the rule will be addressed in detail.

The public meetings will be held on February 21 and 22, 2001, at 9:00 am-5:30 pm on both days, at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Auditorium, 3rd Floor Center, 800 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20591. The second meeting will be a repetition of the previous day. Specifically, the same presentations will be repeated by the same DOT staff members. Individuals should attend only one of the meetings, not both. Both meetings will have limited seating capacity due to physical constraints of the facilities. Registered attendees will receive priority.

For general meeting information and to register for one of the meetings, contact Minnie McDonald or Don Shatinsky at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance, 400, 7th Street, SW., Room 10304, Washington, DC 20590, (202) 366-3784, fax (202) 399-3897, e-mail: minnie.mcdonald@ost.dot.gov.

All attendees must register with DOT for these meetings. All attendeesshould provide the name, name of alternate if the possibility exists that the primary registrant may not attend, full mailing address, company, agency, or association which you represent (if any), telephone number (in case the address is not legible or additional information is needed), e-mail address (optional), and which session you will be attending (i.e., February 21 or 22).

On January 24, 2001, President Bush placed a moratorium on new and proposed regulations, summarized below.

Subject to any exceptions the Director or Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (the "OMB Director") allows for emergency or other urgent situations relating to health and safety:

1. Send no proposed or final regulation to the Office of the Federal Register (the "OFR") unless and until a department or agency head appointed by the President after noon on January 20, 2001, reviews and approves the regulatory action.
2. With respect to regulations that have been sent to the OFR but not published in the Federal Register, withdraw them from OFR for review and approval as described in paragraph 1.
3. With respect to regulations that have been published in the OFR but have not taken effect, temporarily postpone the effective date of the regulations for 60 days.

This moratorium will delay the effective date of the Pipeline Integrity Management Rule for pipelines of more than 500 miles to May 31, 2001, and will delay the issuance of the proposed rulemaking on Integrity Management for systems less than 500 miles. The complete order is available on RCP's website at 66_FR_07702_012401_Rule_Moratorium.RTF.

FERC Meeting: Notice of Third Interstate Natural Gas Facility-Planning Seminar:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Energy Projects will hold the third in a series of public meetings around the country for the purposes of exploring and enhancing strategies for constructive public participation in the earliest stages of natural gas facility planning. This meeting will be held in Tampa, Florida on Thursday, February 15, 2001. FERC is inviting interstate natural gas companies; Federal, state and local agencies; landowners and non-governmental organizations with an interest in developing a new way of doing business to join in this effort.

Participants will discuss the facility planning process, not the merits of any pending or planned pipeline projects. The staff of the Commission's Office of Energy Projects will give a briefing on the results of our first two seminars in Albany, NY and Chicago, IL, including problems that were identified and potential solutions that were offered in the seminars.

The meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn City Centre, located in Tampa, Florida. The meeting is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. and finish at 4 p.m. If you plan to attend, please email gasoutreach@ferc.fed.us by February 6, 2001. Or, you can respond via facsimile to Pennie Lewis-Partee at 202-208-0353. Please include in the response the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all attendees from your organization. FERC will send an acknowledgment of your request. Please consider issues and/or questions you would like to have addressed at the meetings and email them to FERC.

OPS will host a three-day public meeting on pipeline integrity management issues on February 12-14, 2001, at the Crystal City Marriott, 1999 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA, 22202, 703-413-5500. For further information, contact Beth Callsen (tel: 202-366-4572; beth.callsen@rspa.dot.gov). You can read comments and other material in the docket on the Internet at: http://dms.dot.gov. Topics to be discussed each day are listed below.

Day 1: February 12, 2001 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. – Gas Pipeline Integrity Presentations will be made on each of these subject areas:

• Considerations for defining HCAs affected by gas pipelines
• Evaluation of design factors currently used for gas transmission pipelines
• Evaluation of performance history and experience with the impact zone in gas transmission failures
• Integrity management best practices and relationship between incident causes and industry practices
• Options for various forms of direct assessment of the integrity of gas pipelines; their costs and effectiveness
• Basis for establishing test intervals
• Appropriateness of distinguishing between pipelines on basis of pressure
• Status of research activities
• Status of development of new national consensus standards

Day 2: February 13, 2001, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. – Communications With the Public

Because communications with the public is an important part of a pipeline integrity management program, OPS is examining the need for standards for how operators are to communicate with State and local officials and the public about results of risk assessment processes and measures to prevent and mitigate damage to pipelines in case of a failure. OPS seeks comment on how State and local officials and the public could use and benefit from risk assessment information, how the consequences of potential pipeline failures should be characterized, how risk control actions should be described, and what operational information would be meaningful. To provide OPS input on both the content and optimal delivery of pipeline information, OPS formed the Integrity Management Communications Work Group. This nine-member group includes balanced representation of government, industry, and public interest stakeholders. At the public meeting, the Work Group will report the status of its discussions on the following topics:

• Proposed information to be communicated
• Expected utility of that information to the end user
• Feasibility of collecting/reporting that information
• Summary of any issues or debates concerning public access to that information

Presentations from members of the public will further explore communication needs and options.

Day 3:February 14, 2001, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon – In-Depth Integrity Management Discussions

To ensure full consideration of all issues relating to gas pipeline integrity, attendees are invited to participate in a more in-depth and interactive treatment of topics raised on Day 1. These unstructured discussions will utilize an informal roundtable format.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) submitted a Best Practices Damage Prevention Report to the legislature on December 22, 2000. The Washington State Pipeline Safety Act identified one-call systems as a key ingredient to preventingdamage to underground utilities, including pipelines. Section 16 of the bill directed the Utilities and Transportation Commission to make recommendations to the Legislature regarding one-call systems inthe state. Theirreport contains recommendations regarding minimum standards and best practices for one-call locator services that were derived from a series of stakeholder workshops held in the summer and fall of 2000. The basis for discussion during these workshops was a 1999 report initiated by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Pipeline Safety, called "Common Ground – Study of One-Call Systems and Damage PreventionBest Practices." The WUTC report may be found on the Commission's website located at: http://www.wutc.wa.gov. Just click on the "Pipeline Safety" tab on theCommission's homepage and then look for the "Best Practices Report" hyperlink.

Acquiring a pipeline?

RCP can provide due diligence audits to help you ensure that potential compliance issues have been addressed before the sale is final.

Pending Audits?