In the May 24, 2011 Federal Register, the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced that it intends to hold two public meetings focused on pipeline safety.
According to the notice, recent pipeline incidents involving seam weld anomalies and gaps in data and recordkeeping are driving a stronger focus on better managing these challenges. PHMSA is holding these public meetings to discuss its review of inspection reporting and incident findings in these areas. In addition, these public meetings are part of PHMSA’s efforts to address the Secretary of Transportation’s ‘‘Call to Action’’ to address pipeline infrastructure risks, drive for more aggressive safety efforts and to be more transparent when executing these safety measures.
These public meetings are designed to provide an open forum for exchanging information on the challenges associated with pipeline seam welds and improving pipeline risk assessments and recordkeeping.
Specifically, these public meetings will facilitate individual, panel and working group discussions for the following objectives:
Managing Challenges with Pipeline Seam Welds—July 20
1. Further determining the nature and extent of the seam weld issue from industry and government data.
2. Presenting perspectives on how anomalies in seam welds are identified and managed employing risk assessments, technology and standards or best practices.
3. Presenting the scope of a recently awarded PHMSA research study on seam welds.
4. Providing specifically designed working groups to further craft the scope for this PHMSA research study and other related topics.
Improving Pipeline Risk Assessments and Recordkeeping—July 21
1. Provide a U.S. and International regulatory perspective on pipeline integrity risk assessments.
2. Provide an operator overview of the challenging factors with conducting risk assessments, canvassing effective approaches, and case studies.
3. Identify options with addressing interactive threats, legacy pipelines and approaches for dealing with recordkeeping gaps.
For more information about these meetings, including how to register and the preliminary agendas, please see the attached Federal Register notice.
