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The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is a
United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...
agency created in 2004, responsible for developing and enforcing regulations for the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound operation of the US's 2.8 million mile pipeline transportation. It is responsible for nearly 1 million daily shipments of
hazardous materials Dangerous goods, abbreviated DG, are substances that when transported are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllab ...
by land, sea, and air. It oversees the nation's pipeline infrastructure, which accounts for 64 percent of the energy commodities consumed in the United States. Made up of the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) and the Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (OHMS). PHMSA was created within the U.S. Department of Transportation under the Norman Y. Mineta Research and Special Programs Improvement Act of 2004, which then-United States President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
signed into law on November 30, 2004.


Regulatory base

The PHMSA enforces the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968(), which was enacted in response to the
Richmond, Indiana explosion The Richmond, Indiana, explosion was a double explosion in the United States in 1968. It occurred at 1:47 PM EST on April 6, in downtown Richmond, Indiana. The explosions killed 41 people and injured more than 150. The primary explosion was du ...
, as well as the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Act of 1979 (), the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002, the Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Safety and Enforcement Act (PIPES) Act of 2006, the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011 (P.L. 112), regulations (49 CFR Parts 190-199) and other statutes.


History

Prior to 2005 the U.S. Department of Transportation had no focused research organization and no separately operating administration for pipeline safety and
hazardous material Dangerous goods, abbreviated DG, are substances that when transported are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllabi ...
s
Transportation safety in the United States Transportation safety in the United States encompasses safety of transportation in the United States, including automobile crashes, airplane crashes, rail crashes, and other mass transit incidents, although the most fatalities are generated ...
. The
Norman Y. Mineta Norman Yoshio Mineta ( ja, 峯田 良雄, November 12, 1931 – May 3, 2022) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Mineta served in the United States Cabinet for Presidents Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and George W. Bush, a R ...
Research and Special Programs Improvement Act of 2004 provided these, with an opportunity to establish mode government budget and information practices in support of then president Bush's 'Management Agenda' initiatives. Prior to the Special Programs Act of 2004, PHMSA's hazmat and pipeline safety programs were housed within the Transportation Department's Research and Special Programs Administration, known as RSPA.


Office of Hazardous Materials Safety

The Office of Hazardous Materials Safety oversees the transportation of
hazardous materials Dangerous goods, abbreviated DG, are substances that when transported are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllab ...
by air, rail, highway, and water, with the exception of bulk transportation of hazmat by vessel. The office promulgates a national safety program, which consists of evaluating safety risks, developing and enforcing standards for transporting hazardous materials, educating shippers and carriers, investigating hazmat incidents and failures, conducting research, providing grants to improve emergency response to incidents. The office website includes guidance documents, hazmat carriers' special permits and approvals information, reports and incidents summaries, penalty action reports, registration information and forms, the Emergency Response Guidebook for First Responders,
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...
requests, and the Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grants program.


Office of Pipeline Safety

The Office of Pipeline Safety oversees the nearly 3 million miles of the natural gas pipeline system in the United States and its hazardous liquid pipelines. about 80 percent of the funds states spend on pipeline safety comes from PHMSA. Several agencies collaborate on the 'federal pipeline safety program', authorized through the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015 such as the
Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...
, the
Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
, and the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the United States federal agency that regulates the transmission and wholesale sale of electricity and natural gas in interstate commerce and regulates the transportation of oil by pipeline in ...
. The Pipeline Risk Management Information System consists of integrity management programs originally created for transmission pipelines and has led to a reduced number of pipeline accidents. In 2001 the Liquid Integrity Management Program came into law, followed by the 2003 Transmission Integrity Management Program (TIMP) and the 2008 Distribution Integrity Management Program (DIMP). The Accountable Pipeline Safety and Partnership Act of 1996 requires that the Office of Pipeline Safety adopt rules requiring interstate gas pipeline operators to provide maps of their facilities to the governing body of each municipality, in which the pipeline is located. The National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS) was removed for a number of months from public use after September 11, due to security concerns. In 2012, it returned with restriction of use. National Pipeline Maps can still be bought from
PennWell Corporation Endeavor Business Media is an American business-to-business media company founded by Chris Ferrell and others in December 2017. The company is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a l ...
. As of 2014, the Office of Pipeline Safety and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration have not set minimum qualifications for state inspectors, who lead inspection teams. In one state, for example, an inspector with less than one year's experience was allowed to lead inspections.


Pipeline safety record

In the years 1996-2015, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration reported a total of 11,199 pipeline incidents in a system that includes a total of of gas pipelines and of hazardous liquids pipelines in the United States as of 2015. 856 of those were considered "serious incidents", 86 were serious incidents involving hazardous liquids pipelines. This is an average of approximately 560 incidents per year in the last 20 years for all types of pipelines. These incidents caused a total of 360 fatalities and 1,376 injuries. More recent data however reveals that pipeline incidents as well as the total number of releases has decreased by over 50% since PHMSA was created and pipelines now safely deliver over 99.999% of all shipments, the highest safety percentage of any transportation system. PHMSA also works directly with stakeholders to educate and research root causes of pipeline and buried utility damage. Their work on damage prevention and implementation of the 811 "call before you dig" program have greatly reduced the number of incidents caused by excavation damage and improved pipeline safety.


Regulatory failures

The 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion of a
Pacific Gas and Electric Company The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...
(PG&E) gasline in
San Bruno, California San Bruno (Spanish for " St. Bruno") is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, incorporated in 1914. The population was 43,908 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is between South San Francisco and Millbrae, adjacent to S ...
, a suburb south of San Francisco, killed eight people, injured 58 and destroyed much of a subdivision. Investigators from the
National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
found weak state and federal oversight. The long term costs for pipeline inspection and safety upgrades will be borne at 55% by electricity rate payers per California Public Utilities Commission judgement On 1 April 2014 PG&E was indicted in U.S. District Court, San Francisco, California, for multiple violations of the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 relating to its record keeping and pipeline "integrity management" practices. In 2011, the PHMSA came under criticism for not releasing a Canadian company’s plans for managing oil spills and estimating a worst-case scenario in the event its pipeline burst in the US. Then Transportation Secretary
Ray LaHood Raymond H. LaHood (born December 6, 1945) is an American politician who served as the 16th United States Secretary of Transportation from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the ...
, who oversaw the pipeline agency, acknowledged weaknesses in the program and asked Congress to pass legislation that would increase penalties for negligent operators and authorize the hiring of additional inspectors. Federal records showed that although the pipeline industry reported 25 percent fewer significant incidents from 2001 through 2010 than in the prior decade, the amount of hazardous liquids being spilled remained substantial. There were more than 100 significant spills each year, a trend that dates back more than 20 years. The percentage of dangerous liquids recovered by pipeline operators after a spill dropped considerably. In 2013, PHMSA's Jeffrey Wiese told several hundred oil and gas pipeline compliance officers that his agency has "very few tools to work with", in enforcing safety rules, even after Congress in 2011 allowed it to impose higher fines on companies that cause major accidents. "Do I think I can hurt a major international corporation with a $2 million civil penalty? No," he said. These comments reflect the growing trend toward creating industry standards, in order to "drive safety through the adoption of Safety Management Systems (SMS) in regulated communities." A May 2014 report by the
Office of Inspector General for the Department of Transportation The U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT OIG) is one of the Inspector General offices created by the Inspector General Act of 1978. The Inspector General for the Department of Transportation, like the Inspectors Gen ...
found the PHMSA did not ensure "that key state inspectors are properly trained, inspections are being conducted frequently enough and inspections target the most risky pipelines".


Leadership

At the end of FY2012, PHMSA employed 203 staff in total, including 135 inspection and enforcement staff. Timothy P. Butters is the acting Administrator, since Cynthia L. Quarterman left in October 2014. The PHMSA has a 'senior leadership team' of eight people with the following positions: Administrator, Deputy Administrator, Chief Safety Officer, Chief Counsel, two Directors and three Associate Administrators. The current leadership team includes: Past leadership includes *
Brigham McCown Brigham A. McCown (born July 3, 1966 in Ironton, Ohio) is a former member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service at the United States Department of Transportation. He served as chief executive of (2020-2022) the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company ...
, first acting administrator July 1, 2005 until March 31, 2006 and first Deputy Administrator, July 1, 2005 until January 1, 2007. * Thomas J. Barrett, first permanent Administrator from March 31, 2006 - June 1, 2007. * Stacey Gerard, first Assistant Administrator/Chief Safety Officer, first acting Deputy Administrator until July 1, 2005. * Krista Edwards, Chief Counsel in 2006, Deputy Administrator, acting Administrator in late 2007. * Carl T. Johnson, Administrator from January 9, 2008 until 2009. * Cynthia L. Quarterman, Administrator from November 16, 2009 - October 4, 2014 *Timothy Butters, acting Administrator from October 4, 2014 - June 8, 2015 *Marie Therese Dominguez, Administrator from October 7, 2015 until 2016 *Howard "Skip" Elliott, Administrator from October 30, 2017 - January 20, 2021


See also

*
List of North American natural gas pipelines This is a list of pipelines used to transport natural gas. Africa * Trans-Saharan gas pipeline (planned) * West African Gas Pipeline * Escravos–Lagos Pipeline System Asia * Altai gas pipeline (planned) * Arab Gas Pipeline * Pak Arab Pipel ...
*
List of pipeline accidents in the United States in the 21st century This list of pipeline accidents in the United States provides access to links for various timeframes, which are sometimes quite extensive. Before 1900 1900–1949 1950–1974 1975–1999 * List of pipeline accidents in the United States ...
*
Weld monitoring, testing and analysis Weld quality assurance is the use of technological methods and actions to test or assure the quality of welds, and secondarily to confirm the presence, location and coverage of welds. In manufacturing, welds are used to join two or more metal surf ...
* Robotic Non-Destructive Testing * Intelligent pigging *
Emergency Response Guidebook The ''Emergency Response Guidebook:'' ''A Guidebook for First Responders During the Initial Phase of a Dangerous Goods/Hazardous Materials Transportation Incident'' (ERG) is used by emergency response personnel (such as firefighters, paramedics an ...


Notes


References


External links

*
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
in the
Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every weekday, except on feder ...

PHMSA Public Map Viewer
- Application enables the user to view the National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS) data one county at a time. The user may zoom in to a map scale of 1:24,000. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pipeline And Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Energy in the United States United States Department of Transportation agencies 2004 establishments in the United States Government agencies established in 2004 Oil pipelines in the United States Natural gas safety Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety