[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 183 (Thursday, September 21, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49040-49042]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-23350]



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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT
[Docket No. PS-142; Notice 1]


Risk Management and the Pipeline Industry, Notice of Public 
Conference

SUMMARY: Pipeline regulators, pipeline operators, and the public are 
invited to a conference, Risk Management and the Pipeline Industry, on 
November 6, 1995 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on Nov. 7 from 8 a.m. until 
6 p.m. at the McLean Hilton at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia. 
Sponsoring the conference are the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), 
RSPA, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT); the American Gas 
Association (A.G.A.); the American Petroleum Institute (API); the 
Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA); the Gas Research 
Institute (GRI); the American Public Gas Association (APGA); and the 
Association of Oil Pipe Lines (AOPL).

DATES: The conference will be held on November 6 through 9 at the 
McLean Hilton at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia. To register for the 
conference, please call up the Walcoff and Associates home page on the 
Internet, htpp://www.walcoff.com/ or fax, mail, or use the Internet to 
e-mail the registration printed at the end of this notice to Ms. Debra 
Banks, Walcoff and Associates, 12015 Lee Jackson Highway, Suite 500, 
Fairfax, Virginia, 22033, office: (703) 218-1449, fax: (703) 934-9866, 
Internet e-mail address: [email protected]. The charge for the 
conference lunch on November 7 is $25. Checks should be made payable to 
and mailed to Walcoff and Associates. Walcoff also accepts MasterCard, 
Visa, and American Express.
    Sponsors will have background material for participants to read 
before the conference. Background reading includes the Oil and Gas Risk 
Assessment Quality Team reports, the Harvard School of Public Health 
Center for Risk Analysis' Reform of Risk Regulation: Achieving More 
Protection at Less Cost, and the Gas Research Institute's Natural Gas 
Pipeline Risk Management Reports, Volumes One through Four.
    To discuss the conference or to order reading material, please 
contact one of the sponsors: INGAA, Terry Boss, [email protected], 
(202) 626-3234; API, Krista Mutch, (202) 682-8188; A.G.A., John 
Erickson, (703) 841-8450, [email protected]; GRI, Tina Thomas, (202) 
662-8937, [email protected]; APGA, Bob Cave, (703) 352-3890; AOPL, 
Michele Joy, (202) 408-7970; or OPS, Melanie Barber, (202) 366-4560, 
[email protected].


[[Page 49041]]

ADDRESSES: The conference will be held at the McLean Hilton at Tysons 
Corner Hotel, 7920 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, Virginia, 22102, phone: 
(703) 847-5000.
    Send two copies of written comments on the eight questions to be 
discussed in the November 7 break-out sessions that are listed in the 
next to last paragraph of this notice to the Dockets Unit, Room 8421, 
Research and Special Programs Administration, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., 20590-0001. 
Identify the docket and notice numbers in the heading of this notice.
    All comments and docketed material will be available for inspection 
and copying in Room 8421 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. each business 
day. A summary of the conference will be available from the Dockets 
Unit about two months after the conference.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The conference will focus on openly 
discussing how Government and pipeline industries may use risk 
management, learning how risk management may be used to invest 
resources more wisely in pipeline safety and environmental protection, 
and addressing how Government can oversee pipeline operations while 
allowing industry more latitude in choosing safety options.
    Conference participants are encouraged to take part in the follow-
on activities. On the morning of November 8, INGAA, GRI, and the 
Pipeline Research Committee are sponsoring a seminar on preventing, 
inspecting, identifying, and responding to third party damage to 
pipelines. Conferees are also invited to the Technical Pipeline Safety 
Advisory Committee meetings on November 8 and 9 at the McLean Hilton. 
The Technical Advisory Committee meeting agendas will be published in 
the Federal Register at least thirty days before the November 8 and 9 
meetings.
    The conference will begin with a risk management primer on methods 
and tools for practitioners on November 6 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Gas 
Research Institute, Hartford Steam Boiler, and Chevron representatives 
will lead the primer. The November 7 session will start with an 
introduction to risk management principles and the value risk 
management brings to Government and industry. Keynote speakers will be 
Joe Martinelli, President, Chevron Pipe Line Company; John Riordon, 
President and CEO, MidCon Corporation; Robert Catell, President and 
CEO, Brooklyn Union Gas Company; Bruce Ellsworth, New Hampshire Public 
Utility Commissioner; and Richard Felder, Associate Administrator for 
Pipeline Safety, OPS, RSPA, DOT.
    After risk management is explained, key risk management initiatives 
being developed will be explained. Government/Industry Oil and Gas Risk 
Assessment Quality Team (RAQT) members will discuss making the 
transition from prescriptive regulations to pipeline company specific 
risk management plans. Conferees will hear presentations from and ask 
questions of Federal, State, and Local Government officials and gas and 
liquid industry representatives expressing views and raising concerns 
about implementing risk management programs.
    Among featured speakers on November 7 are William Burnett, Senior 
Vice President, GRI; Bernie Selig, Vice President, Hartford Steam 
Boiler; Don Stursma, Iowa Commerce Department; Ruth Kretschmer, 
Illinois Commerce Commission; Andy Drake, Panhandle Eastern; Mike 
Neuhard, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department; and Jim Thomas, OPS 
Southwestern Regional Director.
    Following the perspective presentations and questions and answers, 
conferees will meet in break-out sessions to address issues raised in 
the presentations and the participants' concerns, including: (1) How 
can industry use resources more effectively to improve pipeline safety? 
(2) How can one determine if risk management equals or improves the 
current safety level? (3) Why is risk management good for a company? 
(4) How much flexibility will a company gain by developing an approved 
risk management program? (5) How much information are industry and 
Government comfortable sharing? (6) What are good benchmarks to judge 
the risk management demonstration projects? (7) How will standards be 
created and applied? (8) What roles do State and local agencies play?
    After the break-out sessions, all participants will return to the 
main meeting room. The break-out session leaders will summarize each 
break-out group's concerns and issues for all conferees to discuss. The 
conference is designed (1) for all pipeline stakeholders to share 
concerns about and discuss issues inherent to implementing risk 
management and (2) for government and industry to respond to these 
concerns and issues with strong action.

    Issued in Washington, D.C. on September 14, 1995.
Richard B. Felder,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.

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[FR Doc. 95-23350 Filed 9-20-95; 8:45 am]
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