Maine’s Updated Damage Prevention Regulations

Maine has updated its “65-07 – Public Utilities Commission – General” natural gas pipelines regulations. Several of the additions and changes focused on changing the wording and requirements to align with current PHMSA regulations for natural gas. This means renumbering of the regulation and adding several new definitions to existing portions; therefore, a lot of word substitution. Outlined below are a few of the changes:

1. Incident reporting changed from 1-hour limit of reporting an incident to as soon as practical, without compromising safety. Also, incidents are to be reported on the new MPUC Underground Facility Incident Reporting Form.
2. New training requirement for locators and new mapping requirements.
3. Damage Prevention documentation will need to be updated to include new procedures for protecting underground facilities.
4. New communication requirements to third-party excavators.
5. Determining the depth of cover has been changed to less cover but the depth has to be measured from the shallowest pipe appurtenance.
6. Control Room Management Plans have been added to the list of documents that are to be submitted to the PUC.
7. The PUC updated its enforcement procedures to align with PHMSA’s enforcement procedures.

For more information about this rule or how RCP can assist you with implementation of the compliance programs required within this rule, contact Jessica Foley.