The state of Utah has revised its gas pipeline safety regulations in Title R746 – Public Service Commission: Administration; Rule 409 – Pipeline Safety and in Title 54 – Public Utilities; Chapter 13 – Natural Gas Pipeline Safety. It changes a previous requirement for operators to file their O&M manuals with the commission, and instead requires operators to provide them to the commission upon request. It also increases the civil penalty caps to $100,000 per violation and $1,000,000 for any related series of violations. It also adds a definition of “State Reportable Incident”, as follows (emphasis added):
means an event that falls within the definition of a federally reportable incident or a safety-related condition as identified in CRF Title 49, Part 191.23, Reporting safety-related conditions, or meets one or more of the following:
- Results in damage to any segment of:
- steel main, twelve inches or greater in diameter, or
- transmission pipeline;
- Requires removal from service or repair of any segment of:
- steel main, twelve inches or greater in diameter, or
- transmission pipeline;
- Results in property damage of $15,000 or more, including the loss to the operator and others, or both, but excluding the cost of gas that is lost;
- Results in the loss of gas service to ten or more customers; or
- Results in the known evacuation of any highly populated areas including commercial businesses, office buildings, eateries, schools, churches or public meeting places.
Note that these “state reportable incidents” would NOT require the release of gas in order to meet the reporting criteria.