United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2002-03-19 monographic deposited born digital 13 p. GA 1.13:GAO-02-517T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-517T P0b002ee18039b80c f:d02517t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-517T machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-517T GAO-02-517T Pipeline operations Transportation safety Safety regulation Safety standards Hazardous substances OPS Risk Management Demonstration Program Testimony A02912 The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) oversees the safety of 2.2 million miles of pipelines that transport potentially dangerous materials, such as oil and natural gas. OPS has been slow to improve its oversight of the pipeline industry and implement critical pipeline safety improvements. As a result, OPS has the lowest implementation rate of any transportation agency for recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board. In recent years, OPS has initiated several actions to improve its oversight of the pipeline industry, including requiring "integrity management" programs for individual operators to assess their pipelines for risks, take action to mitigate the risks, and develop program performance measures. OPS has also made progress on other initiatives to improve the agency's oversight of the pipeline industry including (1) revising forms and procedures to collect more complete and accurate data, which will enable OPS to better assess the causes of incidents and focus on the greatest risks to pipelines, (2) allowing more states to oversee a broader range of interstate pipeline safety activities, and (3) increasing the use of fines, thereby reversing OPS' former trend of relying more heavily on less severe corrective actions. OPS has made progress in responding to recommendations from the Safety Board and statutory requirements, but some recommendations and requirements that are critical for pipeline safety--such as requiring pipeline operators to periodically inspect their pipelines--are more than a decade old and OPS still has not implemented them. OPS faces challenges that include (1) developing performance measures for the integrity management approach, (2) ensuring sufficient resources and expertise to oversee operators' integrity management programs, (3) providing consistent and effective enforcement of integrity management program requirements, and (4) issuing requirements for integrity management programs for operators of gas transmission pipelines. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-517T/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-517T.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-517T/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-517T.pdf GAO-02-517T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-517T Testimony GAO-02-517T; Pipeline Safety: Status of Improving Oversight of the Pipeline Industry; Pipeline operations Transportation safety Safety regulation Safety standards Hazardous substances OPS Risk Management Demonstration Program