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Federal Oversight of State Pipeline Damage Prevention Programs – NPRM

[Docket No. PHMSA-2009-0192] RIN 2137–AE43 PHMSA has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to establish the criteria and procedures for PHMSA to exercise federal oversight of state damage prevention programs, and to implement federal programs when the state programs are deemed to be inadequate. The proposed regulations would revise the Pipeline Safety Regulations to…

Public Awareness Effectiveness Program Inspections

In October, 2009, the NTSB issued a Safety Recommendation that PHMSA initiate a program to evaluate pipeline operators’ public education programs, including pipeline operators’ self-evaluations of the effectiveness of their public education programs. Since then, PHMSA organized an ad hoc team which developed inspection forms and guidance information regarding these inspections, which are scheduled to…

National Safe Digging Month

April 2011 will once again be National Safe Digging Month (NSDM), the time of year when all Common Ground Alliance (CGA) stakeholders come together to communicate how important it is that professionals and homeowners alike call 811 and follow the safe digging process to help prevent injuries, property damage and inconvenient outages. To assist damage…

AGA Ops Conference & Biennial Exhibit May 24 -27 at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN

The annual AGA Operations Conference is the natural gas industry’s premier gathering of natural gas utility and transmission company operations management from across North America and the world for the sharing of technical knowledge, ideas and practices to promote the safe, reliable, and cost-effective delivery of natural gas to the end-user. RCP invites you to…

PHMSA Pipeline Safety Executive Forum April 18 – Washington, DC

The Department of Transportation/Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (DOT/PHMSA) is hosting a half-day Forum to bring together safety experts, researchers, industry representatives, State partners, other Federal agency officials as well as members of the public to share their expertise, experiences, research, and ideas regarding the status of the nation’s pipeline infrastructure and to address pipeline…

Transmission Annual Report Deadlines

During a recent webinar on how to complete the revised annual report for gas transmission pipelines, PHMSA announced the deadline to submit this year’s gas transmission annual report has been moved back to August 15th. Annual reports for 2012 and beyond will revert to the March 15 deadline. PHMSA will be providing some additional webinars…

Control Room Management Services

RCP is able to provide pipeline operators with fully compliant, customized Control Room Management Programs that take advantage of any existing processes that are currently in place and develop new processes that are tailored to your organization’s ability to successfully implement. RCP also has the expertise to conduct readiness assessments as well as compliance analysis…

Control Room Management – Deadline Modifications

On September 17, 2010, PHMSA published a Control Room Management/Human Factors notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to expedite the program implementation deadlines to August 1, 2011, for most of the requirements, except for certain provisions regarding adequate information and alarm management, which would have a program implementation deadline of August 1, 2012. That proposed…

PHMSA Updates DIMP FAQ’s

The following Distribution Integrity Management Frequently Asked Questions were updated or added on March 10, 2011. C.3.8 What do operators need to have implemented by August 2, 2011? By August 2, 2011, operators of gas distribution systems (other than a master meter or small LPG operator) must have developed and implemented an integrity management program…

National Safe Digging Month

In order to address the issue of underground damage prevention, the Common Ground Alliance and its stakeholders have designated April 2010 as National Safe Digging Month. In support of this, the month of April will be dedicated to increasing awareness of safe digging practices across the country and to celebrate the three-year anniversary of 811,…

Placement and Removal of Real Estate Signs Affected by Changes Proposed in State of Virginia’s HB553

The State of Virginia recently approved HB 553, which permits local government bodies to adopt ordinances to control and enforce signage regulation in public highway rights-of-way (ROW). At closer glance, this legislation provides authority to county employees (and others defined in the Bill) to remove and confiscate signs from the ROW. It also allows for…

PHMSA Pipeline Safety Program Management Changes

On March 12, the Department of Transportation/Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced the appointment of two new PHMSA Pipeline Safety Program Executives (both will be stationed in Washington DC): Linda Daugherty, Director of the PHMSA Southern Region, is appointed as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Policy and Programs. She will have oversight of regulations,…

Key Features

GIS integrated workflow management Custom tailored e-mail notifications and reporting Runs on any web-enabled device, no software to download Powerful reporting and custom query functionality Multiple security and user privilege settings Document storage and control (ex. procedures, maps, images, and completion documentation) Automatic recurrence setting for routine tasks (example: leak surveys, CP surveys, etc.) Create…

DIMP Integration

For gas distribution operators looking for a powerful tool to implement DIMP, the RCP CMS integrates O&M data captured from field personnel along with inherent system attributes to provide real-time risk analysis, performance reporting, as well as track additional and accelerated actions taken to mitigate risks.