[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 78 (Tuesday, April 23, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23972-23974]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-09474]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

[Docket No. PHMSA-2013-0061]


Pipeline Safety: Information Collection Activities

AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), 
DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, PHMSA 
invites comments on an information collection under Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) Control No. 2137-0047, titled 
``Transportation of Hazardous Liquids by Pipeline: Recordkeeping and 
Accident Reporting.'' PHMSA is preparing to revise Form PHMSA F 7000-1 
ACCIDENT REPORT--HAZARDOUS LIQUID PIPELINE SYSTEMS which is included in 
this information collection. In an effort to streamline processes, 
PHMSA is also proposing to include within this information collection, 
information currently collected under OMB Control No. 2137-0598 
regarding the incorporation by reference of the industry standard on 
leak detection. This recordkeeping requirement supports pipeline 
inspection and improves pipeline safety by providing early detection of 
a pipeline leak. PHMSA will request approval from OMB for the revision 
of the information collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
June 24, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted in the following ways:
    E-Gov Web site: http://www.regulations.gov. This site allows the 
public to enter comments on any Federal Register notice issued by any 
agency.
    Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
    Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of Transportation 
(DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building, Room W12-140, 
Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    Hand Delivery: Room W12-140 on the ground level of the West 
Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC, between 9:00 a.m. 
and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Instructions: Identify the docket number, PHMSA-2013-0061, at the 
beginning of your comments. Note that all comments received will be 
posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any 
personal information provided. You should know that anyone is able to 
search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our 
dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or 
signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, 
business, labor union, etc.). Therefore, you may want to review DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on 
April 11, 2000, (65 FR 19477) or visit http://www.regulations.gov 
before submitting any such comments.
    Docket: For access to the docket or to read background documents or

[[Page 23973]]

comments, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or to Room W12-
140 on the ground level of the West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue 
SE., Washington, DC, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, except Federal holidays. If you wish to receive confirmation of 
receipt of your written comments, please include a self-addressed, 
stamped postcard with the following statement: ``Comments on PHMSA-
2013-0061.'' The Docket Clerk will date stamp the postcard prior to 
returning it to you via the U.S. mail. Please note that due to delays 
in the delivery of U.S. mail to Federal offices in Washington, DC, we 
recommend that persons consider an alternative method (internet, fax, 
or professional delivery service) of submitting comments to the docket 
and ensuring their timely receipt at DOT.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Angela Dow by telephone at 202-366-
1246, by email at mailto:[email protected], by fax at 202-366-4566, or 
by mail at DOT, PHMSA, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, PHP-2, Washington, DC 
20590-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

    Section 1320.8(d), Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, requires 
PHMSA to provide interested members of the public and affected agencies 
an opportunity to comment on information collection and recordkeeping 
requests. This notice identifies an information collection request that 
PHMSA will be submitting to OMB for revision and extension. The 
information collection expires January 31, 2014, and is identified 
under OMB Control No. 2137-0047, titled: ``Transportation of Hazardous 
Liquids by Pipeline: Recordkeeping and Accident Reporting.''

B. Hazardous Liquid Accident Report

    PHMSA intends to revise the Form PHMSA F 7000-1 ACCIDENT REPORT--
HAZARDOUS LIQUID PIPELINE SYSTEMS (Hazardous Liquid Accident Report, 
report) to collect more information for smaller spills, require 
additional fields, and revise the instructions. Background for these 
topics is as follows:
    Collect additional information for certain low consequence events:
    Currently, if a release is at least 5 gallons but is less than 5 
barrels with no additional consequences such as, a release in the 
water, or a fire or explosion, and property damage is less than or 
equal to $50,000, and no death or injury is involved, operators submit 
a report with less information than for releases that do not meet this 
criteria. The required fields for the smaller releases with lesser 
impact are indicated on the form by grey shading. For accidents 
reported for calendar years 2011 and 2012, 47% of the reports were for 
releases that required minimal information. As a result, PHMSA is 
missing valuable data for approximately half of the reportable 
accidents. Therefore, PHMSA proposes to collect the same data for all 
releases. This will result in the collection of the following data for 
smaller releases with lesser consequences including: Part C--pipe 
characteristics and specification, Part D--consequence information, 
Part E--operating information, Part F--drug and alcohol testing 
information, and Part G--details of the cause. These reports are used 
for identifying long- and short-term trends at the national, state and 
operator-specific levels. The frequency, causes, and consequences of 
the accidents provide insight into the safety metrics currently used by 
PHMSA, state partners, and other pipeline safety stakeholders, 
including the pipeline industry and general public. PHMSA also uses the 
data for inspection planning and risk assessment. Based on previous 
reporting years, PHMSA estimates that 400 accident reports (responses) 
are submitted each year. PHMSA estimates that 200 forms report releases 
that use all data fields and take approximately 10 hours to file, while 
200 forms require approximately five hours to complete because there is 
less information to report. If PHMSA's proposal to collect the same 
information for all types of reportable accidents is approved, all 
reports will take approximately 10 hours to file resulting in an 
additional 1,000 burden hours.
    Revise instructions for Volume Spilled (Part A9) and Volume 
Recovered (Part A11):
    The volume spilled is critical data used to assess the impact of an 
individual spill and the long-term performance of the hazardous liquid 
pipeline industry. Prior to 2010, the instructions provided no guidance 
for either the volume spilled or the volume recovered. In 2010, PHMSA 
added instructions for the volume spilled explaining that the reported 
volume should include all product exiting the pipeline system. The 
volume recovered should include all product collected during spill 
response. In 2012, PHMSA modified the instructions by ending the volume 
spilled at the point where the operator gained control of the release 
and began immediately collecting the product as it exited the system. 
Instructions for the volume recovered were modified to also exclude 
volume collected immediately as it exited the pipeline system. Since 
this change was implemented, several PHMSA staff members have expressed 
concerns about long term trending. Although specific guidance was not 
provided prior to 2010, operators generally included all product 
exiting the system as volume spilled, regardless of whether the 
operator immediately collected the product. Since the change 
implemented in 2012 appears to have resulted in a significant departure 
from past practice, PHMSA is proposing to revise the current 
instructions for reporting volume to stipulate that the reported volume 
spilled should include all product exiting the pipeline system. 
Likewise, the volume recovered should include all product collected 
during spill response, as was the general practice prior to the 
revision made in 2012.
    Revise instructions for time sequence (Part A18):
    In a report titled, ``PIPELINE SAFETY Better Data and Guidance 
Needed to Improve Pipeline Operator Incident Response,'' (GAO-13-168) 
the Government Accountability Office recommends that PHMSA improve the 
reliability of incident response data. PHMSA proposes to require the 
time sequence fields in part A18 for every report. PHMSA has modified 
the instructions to clarify that PHMSA will use the time sequence data 
to calculate accident response time.
    Revise instructions for National Response Center Report (NRC) 
Number:
    PHMSA proposes to require this field in every report. PHMSA 
recognizes that in some cases operators are not required to submit an 
NRC report. In others, operators may submit multiple NRC reports for a 
single accident. Operators will be able to enter a single NRC number or 
select one of the following: NRC notification not required; NRC 
notification required but not made; or NRC report number not known. 
When there is more than one NRC report for an accident, operators will 
be instructed to enter the first report in this field and remaining NRC 
report numbers in Part H--Narrative.
    Revise instructions for City:
    PHMSA proposes to require this field in every report of an accident 
that occurs onshore to facilitate understanding about the location of 
the accident. Operators will also be able to enter ``not within a 
municipality'' in this field.
    Revise instructions for County or Parish:

[[Page 23974]]

    PHMSA proposes to require this field in every report of an accident 
that occurs onshore to facilitate understanding about the location of 
the accident.
    Revise instructions for Accident Preparer and Authorizer:
    PHMSA proposes to require the name, email address, and phone number 
for each of these individuals in every report. PHMSA and state 
investigators need this contact information to facilitate communication 
with the operator. If an individual does not have a work email address, 
the individual will be able to enter ``no email address'' in this 
field.

C. Incorporation by Reference of Industry Standard on Leak Detection

    Sections 195.134 and 195.444 of the Federal pipeline safety 
regulations require operators of hazardous liquid pipeline facilities 
installing new computational pipeline monitoring (CPM) leak detection 
systems or replacing components of existing CPM systems to comply with 
section 4.2 of the American Petroleum Institute's recommended practice 
API 1130 ``Computational Pipeline Monitoring for Liquid Pipelines'' 
(API 1130). API 1130 section 4.2 provides information collection and 
maintenance guidance on many factors such as measurement capabilities, 
communications reliability, pipeline operating condition, and product 
type. PHMSA reviews this information during pipeline inspection. The 
information supports the pipeline inspection and improves pipeline 
safety by providing early detection of a pipeline leak. This 
information is currently collected under OMB Control No. 2137-0598. 
Because this recordkeeping requirement is unique to hazardous liquid 
operators, PHMSA proposes to incorporate it into this package that 
currently contains recordkeeping and reporting requirements for 
hazardous liquid operators. The incorporation of this information 
collection will add 50 responses and 100 burden hours to OMB Control 
No. 2137-0047.

D. Summary of Impacted Collection

    The following information is provided for this information 
collection: (1) Title of the information collection; (2) OMB control 
number; (3) Type of request; (4) Abstract of the information collection 
activity; (5) Description of affected public; (6) Estimate of total 
annual reporting and recordkeeping burden; and (7) Frequency of 
collection. PHMSA will request a three-year term of approval for this 
information collection activity. PHMSA requests comments on the 
following information collection:
    Title: Transportation of Hazardous Liquids by Pipeline: 
Recordkeeping and Accident Reporting.
    OMB Control Number: 2137-0047.
    Current Expiration Date: 1/31/2014.
    Type of Request: Revision.
    Abstract: This information collection covers recordkeeping and 
accident reporting by hazardous liquid pipeline operators who are 
subject to 49 CFR Part 195. Section 195.444 requires operators of 
single-phase hazardous liquid pipeline facilities that use CPM leak 
detection systems to comply with the standards set out in American 
Petroleum Institute (API) publication API 1130. Compliance with API 
1130, including its recordkeeping requirements, supports pipeline 
safety by ensuring the proper functioning of CPM leak detection 
systems. Section 195.50 specifies the definition of an ``accident'' and 
the reporting criteria for submitting a Hazardous Liquid Accident 
Report (PHMSA Form PHMSA F7000-1) is detailed in Sec.  195.54. PHMSA is 
proposing to revise the Hazardous Liquid Accident Report to collect 
more data on small spills and to revise the instructions for completing 
the form.
    Affected Public: Hazardous liquid pipeline operators.
    Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Burden:
     Annual Responses: 897.
     Annual Burden Hours: 52,429.
    Frequency of collection: On Occasion.
    Comments are invited on:
    (a) The need for the proposed collection of information for the 
proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether 
the information will have practical utility;
    (b) The accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    (c) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (d) Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques.

Jeffrey D. Wiese,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 2013-09474 Filed 4-22-13; 8:45 am]
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