Office of Pipeline Safety and their State partners regularly participate in joint government-industry-public committees and task forces to discuss and address concerns related to risk management, compliance, emerging technology, damage prevention, and environmental protection.
About State Programs
The pipeline safety statutes allow for States to assume safety authority over the intrastate gas and hazardous liquid pipelines through Certifications and Agreements with PHMSA under 49 U.S.C. §§ 60105- 60106. The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and all States except Alaska and Hawaii participate in the pipeline safety program. State pipeline safety programs employ approximately 328 full time pipeline safety inspectors responsible for inspecting and enforcing the Federal and State pipeline safety regulations over 80 percent of the Nation’s intrastate transmission and distribution pipelines.
To participate in the pipeline safety program States must adopt the minimum pipeline safety regulations; however, States may pass more stringent regulations for pipeline safety through their State Legislatures. If States did not participate in the pipeline safety program, these intrastate pipeline facilities would be PHMSA’s responsibility for inspection and enforcement.
To support States participating in the pipeline safety program PHMSA provides grants to States to reimburse up to 80 percent of the total cost of the personnel, equipment, and activities reasonably required by the State agency for conducting its pipeline safety program during a given calendar year. State pipeline safety programs provide a local presence for protecting the public from pipeline incidents. PHMSA works closely with State pipeline safety programs to improve pipeline safety across the Nation.
