PHMSA 20-16
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Contact: Artealia Gilliard
Tel.: 202-366-4831
WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued an advisory bulletin to clarify the regulatory requirements for classifying pipelines based on their operational status. The bulletin highlights procedures for changing the status of a pipeline facility from "active" to "abandoned" for owners and operators of gas and hazardous liquid pipeline facilities and federal and state pipeline safety personnel.
A 2014 pipeline failure that allowed 1,200 gallons of crude oil to seep into a residential neighborhood near Los Angeles raised concerns about the need to remind pipeline operators about the proper way to purge and clean inactive pipelines. This action makes it clear that federal regulations consider pipelines to be either active and fully subject to all parts of the safety regulations or abandoned.
PHMSA is aggressively working to implement the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act of 2016, which was enacted in June of this year. Today's notice fulfills a requirement from Section 23 of the PIPES Act that mandates DOT issue an advisory bulletin to the pipeline industry regarding procedures to change the status of a pipeline facility from active to abandoned.
To view the Federal Register notice, click here.
For more information on the U.S. DOT's efforts to improve pipeline and hazardous materials safety and awareness, including details about the advisory bulletin, visit the PHMSA website at www.phmsa.dot.gov.
The mission of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is to protect people and the environment by advancing the safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials that are essential to our daily lives. PHMSA develops and enforces regulations for the safe operation of the nation's 2.6 million mile pipeline transportation system and the nearly 1 million daily shipments of hazardous materials by land, sea, and air. Please visit http://phmsa.dot.gov or https://twitter.com/PHMSA_DOT for more information.