[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 114 (Thursday, June 13, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40768-40770]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-14955]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs Administration


Pipeline Safety: Gas and Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Mapping

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

ACTION: Notice; issuance of advisory bulletin.

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SUMMARY: The Research and Special Programs Administration's (RSPA) 
Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) is issuing this advisory to gas 
distribution, gas transmission, and hazardous liquid pipeline systems. 
Owners and operators should review their information and mapping 
systems to ensure that the operator has clear, accurate, and useable 
information on the location and characteristics of all pipes, valves, 
regulators, and other pipeline elements for use in emergency response, 
pipe location and marking, and pre-construction planning. This includes 
ensuring that construction records, maps, and operating history are 
readily available to appropriate operating, maintenance, and emergency 
response personnel.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Richard Huriaux, (202) 366-4565; Steve 
Fischer, (202) 366-6267; or by e-mail, [email protected]. This 
document can be viewed at the OPS home page at http://ops.dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    The need for accurate maps of pipeline systems has been highlighted 
by pipeline accidents in which the lack of accurate maps contributed to 
an accident or inhibited effective emergency response. The National 
Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) Safety Recommendation P-87-34 
urged RSPA to revise the pipeline safety regulations ``to require that 
gas company system maps and records be maintained accurately to 
identify the locations, size, and operation[al] pressure of all their 
pipelines.'' Most recently, in Safety Recommendation P-97-19, NTSB 
emphasized the need for RSPA/OPS to ``develop mapping standards for a 
common [pipeline] mapping system, with a goal to actively promote its 
widespread use.'' NTSB recommends that pipeline mapping should consider 
the amount of detail and the accuracy of information necessary for 
effective use.
    These recommendations resulted from a series of accidents in which 
a lack of accurate maps played a role. A typical problem described by 
the NTSB included workers at a college campus in Connecticut that 
searched for more than a half hour to find the shut-off valve after 
excavation damage to a telephone cable. The gas line and valves were 
not marked on maps. Another was the 1996 gas explosion in San Juan, 
Puerto Rico, which resulted in 33 fatalities and 69 injuries. A lack of 
accurate information on and maps of the underground piping system was 
cited as a factor contributing to this excavation-caused accident.
    NTSB noted that damage prevention programs often use many different 
types of maps, ranging from city road maps to grid systems based on 
State coordinate systems. Pipeline engineers, maintenance workers, 
repair crews, and emergency responders are forced to use a variety of 
data sources to locate underground piping and facilities, including 
land use maps, zoning maps, tax assessor maps, easement descriptions, 
highway and transportation network maps, topographic maps, construction 
permit drawings, construction plans, and aerial photographs.
    NTSB also noted that different utilities and pipeline companies may 
use maps that vary in scale, resolution, data formats, notational 
systems, and accuracy. Some pipelines have imaged older paper-based 
diagrams and maps and some have developed fully digitized mapping 
systems. The accuracy of the underlying information on these maps is 
often problematical. For example, the digital maps may not reflect the 
uncertainties inherent in the original paper source maps. In addition, 
many mapping systems lack any information on abandoned facilities, 
without which excavators may mistake the abandoned facility for an 
active, potentially dangerous, pipeline.
    Maps and other locational records maintained by gas companies and 
other underground facility operators are the most common source of 
information

[[Page 40769]]

about these facilities. The pipeline safety regulations for both gas 
and hazardous liquid operators require operators to (1) Maintain 
current records and maps of the location of their facilities for use in 
operations, maintenance, and emergency response activities (e.g., 
surveillance, leak surveys, cathodic protection, abnormal operations 
response, etc.); (2) establish active damage prevention programs, 
including participation in local one-call notification programs, 
outreach to local construction and excavation companies, ensuring 
accurate location and marking of pipeline facilities, and explanation 
of this system of markings to persons who give notice of their intent 
to excavate near a pipeline; and, (3) hire and train employees and 
contractors to safely perform their duties, including both routine and 
emergency operations.
    All gas and hazardous liquid pipeline operators must maintain an 
operating and maintenance plan that includes procedures for making 
construction records, maps, and operating history available to 
appropriate operating personnel to enable them to safely and 
effectively perform their duties (49 CFR 192.605 and 195.402). 
Furthermore, the hazardous liquid pipeline regulations at 49 CFR 
195.404 explicitly require that the maps and records must include, at a 
minimum, the following information:
    (1) Location and identification of pipeline facilities.
    (2) All crossings of public roads, railroads, rivers, buried 
utilities, and foreign pipelines.
    (3) The maximum operating pressure of each pipeline.
    (4) The diameter, grade, type, and nominal wall thickness of all 
pipe. Not all this information need be on maps, but must be readily 
available to appropriate personnel.
    Operators also need to ensure that abandoned facilities are not 
inadvertently identified as active. This is especially important in 
locating gas mains and service lines in congested urban environments. 
Operator maps that are used for one-call response and pipeline location 
and marking should clearly distinguish pipelines that do or could 
contain gas or hazardous liquids (pipeline that have not been purged 
and cleaned and are available for service on short notice) from those 
lines that are abandoned (purged, cleaned, and pipe ends sealed) and do 
not contain gas or hazardous liquids.
    Operators have a responsibility to maintain construction records, 
maps, and operating history and to make this information available to 
appropriate operating personnel to enable them to safely and 
effectively perform their duties. Therefore, RSPA/OPS is issuing this 
advisory bulletin to all pipeline operators to emphasize the operator's 
responsibility to: (1) Accurately locate and clearly mark key pipeline 
features and other information needed for effective emergency response 
on company maps and records; (2) keep these maps and records up-to-date 
as pipeline construction and modifications take place; (3) be 
knowledgeable about their abandoned lines and to keep data on their 
location to further eliminate confusion with active lines during 
construction or emergency response activities; and (4) communicate 
pipeline information and maps to appropriate operating, maintenance, 
and emergency response personnel.
    RSPA/OPS has been working to develop a national mapping system for 
use by Federal and State pipeline inspectors. The National Pipeline 
Mapping System (NPMS) collects selected data on natural gas 
transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines. The NPMS data standards 
are consistent with the policies of the Federal Geographic Data 
Committee (FGDC) and the mapping application uses commercial mapping 
software. Although the data submissions to the NPMS are limited in 
comparison to the requirements for the detailed maps used by pipeline 
operators, these standards emphasize the importance of using accurate 
geospatial data, multiuser access, and standardized pipeline mapping 
data. RSPA's/OPS's intention in creating a mapping standard is to 
harmonize efforts across federal and state agencies to set criteria for 
map quality and to have a uniform standard for various mapping 
purposes.
    Another initiative to improve the accuracy of information in 
pipeline location is RSPA's/OPS's issuance of a Broad Agency 
Announcement (BAA) for research and development proposals on damage 
prevention and leak detection, including development of advanced pipe 
location technologies. Furthermore, RSPA/OPS is finalizing a 
Cooperative Agreement with the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) to assist 
with public education at the national, state, and local levels and to 
provide state and local officials with information and tools to help 
their residents live safely with pipelines, and to become familiar with 
pipeline locations. The CGA is examining and promoting practices that 
have proven to effectively reduce the risk of damage to underground 
facilities, including pipeline data and mapping systems. We urge all 
pipeline operators to contribute to pipeline research and development 
on location technologies and to work with CGA to improve and 
standardize pipeline mapping systems. This includes the promotion of 
consistent mapping symbols for pipeline components and common 
notational systems.
    We are also working with our inspectors and our pipeline safety 
partners in the National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives 
to focus during standard inspections on ensuring that operators are 
maintaining clear and current records and maps. Moreover, we are also 
ensuring during inspections of operator qualification programs that 
pipeline operations and maintenance workers have demonstrated their 
ability to use company maps and records for timely and decisive 
emergency response, as well as to support accurate underground facility 
marking. We recognize that operators and excavators should never rely 
solely on maps before beginning an excavation near a buried utility, 
but should fully comply with state underground excavation laws and pipe 
locating technologies.

II. Advisory Bulletin (ADB-02-03)

    To: Owners and Operators of Gas Distribution Systems.
    Subject: Gas and Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Mapping.
    Purpose: To advise owners and operators of gas distribution, gas 
transmission, and hazardous liquid pipeline systems of the need to 
maintain and review construction records, maps, and operating history, 
and to make this information available to operating, maintenance, and 
emergency response personnel.
    Advisory: Owners and operators of gas distribution, gas 
transmission, and hazardous liquid pipeline systems should ensure that 
accurate construction records, maps, and operating history are 
available to appropriate operating, maintenance, and emergency response 
personnel. The maps or associated records should provide the following 
information:
    (1) Location and identification of pipeline facilities, including 
key features needed in emergency response.
    (2) Crossings of roads, railroads, rivers, buried utilities, and 
pipelines.
    (3) The maximum operating pressure of each pipeline.
    (4) The diameter, grade, type, and nominal wall thickness of pipe.
    RSPA urges every pipeline operator to (1) accurately locate and 
clearly mark on company maps and records key pipeline features and 
other information needed for effective emergency response; (2) keep 
these maps and records up-to-date as pipeline construction and 
modifications take place; (3) ensure that

[[Page 40770]]

its personnel are knowledgeable about the location of abandoned 
pipelines and to keep data on their location in order to further 
eliminate confusion with active pipelines during construction or 
emergency response activities; and (4) communicate pipeline information 
and maps to appropriate operating, maintenance, and emergency response 
personnel. Operators are also encouraged to collaborate with the Common 
Ground Alliance and the Federal and State pipeline safety programs to 
improve all phases of underground facility damage prevention, including 
improved mapping standards; and to work toward developing and using, to 
the maximum feasible extent, consistent mapping symbols and notational 
systems.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on June 6, 2002.
Stacey L. Gerard,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 02-14955 Filed 6-12-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P