On November 3, 2000, President Clinton issued an executive memorandum on pipeline safety to the Secretary of Transportation. The memo notes the importance of pipeline safety and mentions improvements that have been made. It also stresses the need for stronger pipeline safety legislation to address five basic principles:
- improve pipeline safety standards,
- strengthen enforcement of pipeline safety laws and regulations,
- enhance Federal-State partnerships,
- provide the public with better information and opportunities to participate, and
- support research and development of innovative pipeline safety technologies.
Pending this stronger legislation, the administration is prepared to take action to fulfill these principles to the greatest extent possible using existing authorities. This includes:
- issuing a final rulemaking within 30 days to define environmentally sensitive areas in which hazardous liquid pipeline operators must develop and follow integrity management plans.
- developing and begin implementing no later than January 15, 2001, a comprehensive plan for further improving hazardous liquid and natural gas pipeline safety standards for all hazardous liquid pipeline operators and natural gas transmission pipeline operators.
- prompt proposal of regulations for adequate corrosion control of hazardous liquid and natural gas pipelines, including cathodic protection.
- ensuring that integrity management programs and operator qualification programs are thoroughly reviewed by the Department. These reviews should examine whether operators are using internal inspection, leak detection, and emergency flow restricting devices, where necessary, as a part of their integrity management programs.
- Strengthen enforcement of pipeline safety laws and regulations, and assess the efficacy and current use of all enforcement tools available to the Office of Pipeline Safety.
- Enhance Federal-State partnerships, and issue guidelines, within 60 days, outlining opportunities and responsibilities for States to participate in the oversight of interstate pipelines. Under these guidelines, States should be allowed to participate in new construction and incident investigation, as well as additional oversight of interstate pipeline transportation that will add to overall pipeline safety and address local concerns. In addition, under these agreements, States should be allowed to participate in the review of integrity management, operator qualification, and damage prevention programs.
- Provide the public with better information and opportunities to participate. Develop a comprehensive plan that expands public participation in pipeline decisions and provides increased access to gas and hazardous liquid pipeline data and information including safety-related condition reports, pipeline incident reports, integrity management programs, and operator qualification programs, including access through the internet, annual reports, and other methods as appropriate;
- Collection of more complete and detailed information on the causes of accidents, thereby facilitating better trends analysis and helping to prevent future accidents. Specifically, you should improve accident reporting forms as soon as possible for both hazardous liquid and natural gas pipelines by expanding causal categories and clarifying instructions so that data submissions are more consistent and accurate; and
- assistance to communities to help them more effectively address their pipeline safety concerns, including the potential availability of a limited number of technical assistance grants, subject to the availability of appropriations.
- Supporting research and development of innovative pipeline safety technologies, including expand internal inspection device capabilities to identify and measure defects and anomalies, including automated internal pipeline inspection sensor systems; inspect pipelines that cannot accommodate internal inspection devices, including structural integrity measurement; develop and improve technologies to identify, monitor, and prevent outside force damage, including satellite surveillance; improve corrosion control and prevention methods; expand leak detection; and ensure public safety and environmental protection in other related ways.
The complete memorandum can be downloaded from RCP's website at http://www.your-rcp.com/downloads/Misc/Dec2000/11-3-00ExecutiveMemorandumonPipelineSafety.PDF.