[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 59 (Tuesday, March 26, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13226-13227]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-7289]



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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Research and Special Programs Administration
[Docket PS-142; Notice 3]


Risk Management Public Meeting

Agency: Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT.

Action: Public meeting notice.

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Summary: This notice announces a public meeting, Risk Management and 
the Pipeline Industry, Your Input into Regulatory Reform, to discuss 
Government and industry work on the feasibility and benefits of using 
risk management to improve safety and efficiency in the pipeline 
industry. The Risk Management Quality Team, which represents the 
pipeline industry, Government, and the public, will discuss issues 
related to an interim risk management standard, a regulatory framework 
for risk management, performance measures, and communication with the 
public. Pipeline companies will share information on their risk 
management programs.

Dates: The public meeting will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on April 14 and 
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 15 at the Westin Galleria Hotel in 
Houston, Texas. The sponsors need to know the number of participants to 
have enough conference background materials and space in the main 
meeting and break out session rooms. To register for the April 14 and 
15 meeting, please contact Allie Chamberlain, API, 1220 L ST, NW, 
Washington, D.C., 20005, o: (202) 682-8229, fax: (202) 682-8222. 
Participants may choose to pay a fee to cover lunch and refreshments at 
breaks. A fee is not required to attend or to participate in the 
meeting. People who are unable to attend may submit written comments in 
duplicate on moving toward conducting risk management demonstration 
projects by May 15, 1996. Interested people should submit as part of 
their written comments all material that is relevant to statements of 
fact or argument. Late filed comments will be considered as far as 
practicable.

Addresses: The public meeting will be at the Westin Galleria Hotel, 
5060 West Alabama, Houston, TX 77056, (713) 960-8100.
    Send written comments in duplicate to the Dockets Unit, Room 8421, 
RSPA, DOT, 400 Seventh St., SW, Washington, DC 20590-0001. Identify the 
docket and notice numbers in the notice heading.
    All comments and docketed material will be available for inspection 
and copying in the Dockets Unit, Room 8421, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 
p.m. Monday thru Friday.

For Further Information Contact: Melanie Barber or Eben Wyman, OPS, 
DOT, Room 2335, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590-0001, 
fax: (202) 366-4566, Melanie Barber's office: (202) 366-4560, e-mail: 
[email protected] and Eben Wyman's office: (202) 366-0918, e-mail: 
[email protected].

Supplementary information

I. Background

    The first risk management public meeting, held November 6-9, 1995, 
in McLean, Virginia, gave over four hundred participants a chance to 
share their views on risk management. The meeting featured public and 
private sector risk management leaders and break-out sessions to 
address the many challenges that moving from the current regulatory 
system to conducting risk management demonstration projects poses. The 
April meeting will address the issues that were raised at the November 
meeting and help OPS and the pipeline industry create the foundation 
for the risk management demonstration projects. These projects will 
test whether a company creating a plan to manage risks can equal or 
exceed the safety level reached by complying with current regulations.
    The pipeline industry's move toward risk management results from 
the pipeline industry's desire to demonstrate its willingness to 
improve pipeline safety, from OPS' and the pipeline industry's 
recognition that cost effective improvements can be made outside the 
current regulatory environment, and from the public's interest in OPS 
protecting people and the environment from the dangers pipelines pose. 
OPS, pipeline industry, State, and public representatives have been 
working on a Risk Management Quality Team to create, evaluate, and test 
an alternative approach to improving pipeline safety. Risk management 
assigns the greatest assets to the greatest risks pipelines pose. It 
systematically applies management policies, procedures, resources, and

[[Page 13227]]
practices to analyzing, assessing, and controlling risks to protect the 
public, the environment, and company employees and assets. The meeting 
is designed for all pipeline stakeholders to learn more about how risk 
management would work in the pipeline industry and the effect it would 
have on the environment, human safety, and all stakeholders. The 
benefits the meeting offers are: (1) Learning about risk management 
processes and tools pipeline companies are using, (2) contributing 
ideas on the technical standard, regulatory framework, and baseline 
safety performance measures for the risk management demonstration 
program, and (3) considering whether a company would like to compete to 
conduct a demonstration program.

II. Risk Management Public Meeting

    A risk management drama will highlight the challenges OPS, State 
pipeline regulators, the pipeline industry, and the public will face 
when risk management demonstration projects are conducted. At the April 
15 and 15 meeting, speakers, panel members, and the risk management 
drama cast will include: representatives from OPS Headquarters and 
Regions, State pipeline safety offices, fire fighting and hazardous 
material response officers, the public, pipeline trade associations, 
and companies including Chevron, Shell, Tenneco, Natural Gas Pipe Line, 
American Natural Resources, Enron, and Mapco.
    Key topics include technical standards, a risk management 
regulatory framework, effective risk communication, risk management 
demonstration projects, safety performance measures, how to measure 
program effectiveness, how state and federal regulators could interact 
with industry, and how much information companies will have to share 
with OPS. Sponsoring the April 14 and 15, 1996, meeting are the Office 
of Pipeline Safety (OPS), the American Petroleum Institute (API), the 
Association of Oil Pipe Lines (AOPL), the American Gas Association 
(AGA), the Gas Research Institute (GRI), the Interstate Natural Gas 
Association of America (INGAA), the American Public Gas Association 
(APGA), NACE International, and the National Association of Regulatory 
Utility Commissioners (NARUC).
    Participants will get the latest information on the Risk Management 
Quality Team's work and public comments on the Federal Register notice 
outlining a draft regulatory framework for risk management 
demonstration projects. Break out sessions will allow participants to 
help design program elements needed for the risk management 
demonstration projects and will address questions from the November 
meeting.
    For information on the April 14 and 15 meeting, please contact 
Melanie Barber, OPS; John Erickson, A.G.A., 1515 Wilson Blvd., 
Arlington, VA 22209-2469, o: (703) 841-8450, fax: 841-8492, e-mail: 
jerick06.reach.com; Michele Joy, AOPL, 1101 Vermont Ave., N.W., 
Washington, D.C. 20005-3521, o: (202) 408-7970, fax: 408-7983; Marty 
Matheson, API, 1220 L St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005, o: (202) 682-
8192, fax: (202) 682-8222, e-mail: [email protected]; Bob Cave, APGA, 
Suite 102, 11094-D Lee Highway, Fairfax, VA 22030, o: (703) 352-3890, 
fax: 352-1271; Tina Thomas, GRI, Suite 730 North, 1331 Pennsylvania 
Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004, o: (202) 662-8937, fax: 347-6925, 
e-mail: [email protected]; Terry Boss, INGAA, Suite 300 West, 555 
Thirteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004, o: (202) 626-3234, fax: 
626-3249, e-mail: [email protected]; Shelley Leavitt Nadel, NACE 
International, P.O. Box 21834, Houston, TX 77218-8340, e-mail: 
[email protected]; or Rick Marini, NARUC, NH Public Utilities 
Commission, 8 Old Suncook RD, Concord, NH 03301, o: (603) 271-2443, 
fax: (603) 271-3878.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on March 21, 1996.
Richard B. Felder,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 96-7289 Filed 3-25-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P