Ms. Stacey Gerard has been officially named as the new Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety. She was previously named as the Acting Associate Administrator upon Rich Felder's departure from that post.

Mr. Joel E. Kohler, PE, Assistant Director of Pipelines for the State of Louisiana, Office of Conservation, Pipeline Division, was recently elected Chairman of the National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives (NAPSR). This is the first time that a public official from Louisiana has been elected chairman of this organization. NAPSR was formed in 1982, to set policies, procedure and standards for the gas and liquid pipeline industry across the United States. Membership is comprised of professionals from each state pipeline safety program with participation from the federal Department of Transportation and various trade organizations.

Mr. Kohler has also been appointed by the Secretary of the US Department of Transportation to the National Technical Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Standards Committee (THLPSSC). The THLPSSC is a statutorily mandated advisory committee that advises OPS on proposed safety standards and other safety policies for hazardous liquid pipelines. The committee consists of 15 members representing government, industry, and the public. The committees meet twice a year, usually in May and November. Mr. Rickey Cotton from Mississippi and Mr. John Gawronski from New York are other state Pipleine safety Representatives who also serve on this committee.

Upcoming Seminar

RCP is planning an Operator Qualification Workshop at the Houston offices in October. For more information on the seminar, please contact Bill Byrd at wrbyrd@your-rcp.com or phone 225-229-8080.

The Technical Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Standards Committee (THLPSSC) will hold a briefing on Thursday, August 24, 2000, at 11:30 a.m. EST and a regular meeting on Monday, September 11, 2000, at 11:30 a.m, to consider two Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), "Areas Unusually Sensitive to Environmental Damage" (64 FR 73464) and "Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas for Hazardous Liquid Pipelines" (65 FR 21695). Both the briefing and the meeting will be conducted via conference call. Members of the public may attend the meetings at the Department of Transportation, Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590. The August 24 meeting is in room 8442 and the September 11 meeting is in room 6200. An opportunity will be provided for the public to make short statements on the topics under discussion. Anyone wishing to make an oral statement should notify Juan Carlos Martinez, (202) 366-1933, not later than August 16, 2000, on the topic of the statement and the time requested for presentation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cheryl Whetsel, OPS, (202) 366-4431 or Richard Huriaux, OPS, (202) 366-4565, regarding the subject matter of this notice. However, because the THLPSSC requested a delay in its formal review of two proposed rules at the May 2000 meeting and OPS intends to complete action on both rulemakings this year, a meeting is being held in September. The biannual meeting generally held in November for both the THLPSSC and the Technical Pipeline Safety Standards Committee will be postponed until February 2001.

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.

In May, 2000, the GAO submitted a report on pipeline safety to Rep. John Dingell of the Committee on Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives. The full report is available for download on RCP's website here. NOTE: the report file is 2,000 kb, so do not attempt to download this report via a slow internet connection such as a phone line. Some items of interest in the report include:

• in 1999, OPS employed 51 pipeline inspectors, and the states employed about 300
• hazardous liquid pipelines represent about 7% of the regulated pipeline mileage, but cause 50% of the property damage (liquid spills are costly to clean up and can damage a lot of properly, while gas releases tend to dissipate to the atmosphere).
• the three most prevalent causes of pipeline accidents are outside force (45%), "other" (25%), and corrosion (15%).
• the number of "enforcement actions" has risen from 94 in 1990 to 218 in 1998.
• the % of enforcement actions with fines decreased from 49% in 1990 to 4% in 1998 (the GAO wants to DOT to determine if the reduced emphasis on fines is effective).
• OPS is emphasizing "system wide inspections", and plans to conduct 8 system wide inspections in 2000 (up from 4 in 1999).
• OPS is spending more time on construction inspections (546 days in 1999, versus 102 days in 1995).
• OPS is continuing to address open recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board.These include items such as pipeline isolation valves, periodic internal inspections of pipelines, and pipeline operator training.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has developed a final policy describing the Agency's treatment of voluntary employer self-audits that assess workplace safety and health conditions, including compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Act). The policy provides that the Agency will not routinely request self-audit reports at the initiation of an inspection, and the Agency will not use self-audit reports as a means of identifying hazards upon which to focus during an inspection. In addition, where a voluntary self-audit identifies a hazardous condition, and the employer has corrected the violative condition prior to the initiation of an inspection (or a related accident, illness, or injury that triggers the OSHA inspection) and has taken appropriate steps to prevent the recurrence of the condition, the Agency will refrain from issuing a citation, even if the violative condition existed within the six month limitations period during which OSHA is authorized to issue citations. Where a voluntary self-audit identifies a hazardous condition, and the employer promptly undertakes appropriate measures to correct the violative condition and to provide interim employee protection, but has not completely corrected the violative condition when an OSHA inspection occurs, the Agency will treat the audit report as evidence of good faith, and not as evidence of a willful violation of the Act. The complete policy can be downloaded from RCP's website here.

Pending Audits?