12.08.06

Senate Approves Pipeline Safety Measures, Legislation Now Headed to President’s Desk

Cantwell-backed legislation updates and expands key 2002 pipeline safety package passed following Bellingham pipeline explosion

WASHINGTON, DC – Thursday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) applauded the Senate’s approval of the Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Enforcement, and Safety (PIPES) Act. The PIPES Act would add new pipeline inspectors, and would reauthorize and expand existing pipeline safety programs created in 2002 following the pipeline explosion in Bellingham that killed two children and one young adult. Cantwell, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, has long worked to extend and bolster existing pipeline safety laws, many of which are set to expire at the end of the year. The PIPES Act has already passed the House, and is now headed to the president for his signature.

“We’ve made significant progress since the devastating 1999 Bellingham pipeline explosion, but we need to keep up our efforts to improve and strengthen pipeline safety to prevent future loss of life or environmental damage.” said Cantwell. “This legislation will deliver more resources to pipeline safety efforts, reduce the accidents caused by construction and excavation, and increase the ranks of federal pipeline inspectors by 50 percent.”

The PIPES Act would reauthorize the existing pipeline safety programs administered by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration—a new agency created in 2002 to oversee pipeline safety. It would also set forth new pipeline safety initiatives and regulations in response to recent pipeline oil spills in Prudhoe Bay, as well as recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and would increase the pipeline inspector workforce by 50 percent with the addition 45 federal inspectors over four years. PHMSA currently has 90 inspectors—just one inspector for every 18,000 miles of pipeline. The additional inspectors would be funded through user fees on pipelines.

The PIPES Act would also authorize grants for state pipeline damage prevention programs, regulate currently unregulated low-stress pipelines, direct PHMSA to publish monthly reports on safety enforcement actions, and, under certain circumstances, authorize civil enforcement against parties that engage in tunneling, excavation, and other action that results in pipeline damage. It would also direct PHSMA to create rules to mitigate safety risks associated with human factors, such a fatigue. In developing the PIPES Act, Congress consulted pipeline safety advocates, including Bellingham’s Pipeline Safety Trust, and worked to strengthen PHMSA’s regulatory authority over pipeline safety and increase the resources dedicated to pipeline safety.

Since the creation of PHMSA in 2002 by the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act (PSIA), significant progress has been made toward increasing pipeline safety nationally. In 2006, there were a total of 80 reportable liquid pipeline accidents, resulting in no injuries or fatalities, and approximately $28 million in property damage. This represents a significant drop from the 194 reportable liquid pipeline accidents, 13 injuries, 5 fatalities, and approximately $85 million in property damage reported ten years earlier in 1996.

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