RCP is pleased to announce that Mr. Ron McCoy has joined the firm as Vice President for Business Development and Project Management. Mr. McCoy brings a wealth of experience in the major business areas of the pipeline industry. He has extensive experience in engineering design, construction, operations, and regulatory affairs (both FERC and OPS). Mr. McCoy has been Project Manager for the engineering and construction of numerous domestic and international liquid and gas pipelines, including offshore pipelines in water depths of one thousand feet. Other unusual projects included in Mr. McCoy’s portfolio include pipeline systems operating above the fluid’s cricondenbar, installations in sensitive/hazardous areas, and pipelines connecting to major international oil and gas producing facilities. Mr. McCoy is well versed in all phases of pipeline design, construction, and operations, including integrity management and risk analysis. Mr. McCoy was Facilities Engineering Manager for Mobil’s Statfjord Unit in Norway, responsible for engineering the field’s gas gathering pipeline system and treating facilities. Previously, he served as Operations Manager for the Sacroc carbon dioxide pipeline system in West Texas. This system was the first operating carbon dioxide pipeline system in the United States.

Mr. McCoy is also well experienced in all phases of pipeline regulation by both OPS and the FERC. He was an active participant in the natural gas industry’s deregulation through FERC Orders 436, 451 and 636, and has served as expert witness at both the federal and state levels. He was Gas Marketing Director for an 11 trillion cubic feet natural gas field development in South America, and advised the local regulatory body on the development of gas pipeline and distribution system regulations.

Mr. McCoy received his bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M; University and is a Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas (Hazardous Liquid Operators With Less Than 500 Miles of Pipelines):

On March 21, 2001, RSPA proposed a rule to extend the requirements for protection of populated areas, commercially navigable waterways, and areas unusually sensitive to environmental damage from hazardous liquid pipeline spills to those regulated hazardous liquid pipeline operators who own or operate less than 500 miles of pipeline. This action builds upon the December 01, 2000, final rule that applied only to hazardous liquid pipeline operators who own or operate 500 or more miles of pipeline. After further review, it was determined that the same requirements should be extended to the remaining regulated hazardous liquid pipeline operators. The sole difference is in compliance dates which are linked to the effective date of this final rule. Because this proposed rule, and thus the eventual final rule, will be published at a later date, the compliance dates in this proposed rule will be accordingly shifted to give the operators with less than 500 miles of pipeline the same amount of time to comply with the requirements. If comments to this proposed rule cause RSPA to impose different requirements on those regulated operators with less than 500 miles of pipelines, we will distinguish those requirements in the final rule. Also, the December 1, 2000 final rule proposed repair criteria that may be changed based on comments. Any changes to that proposal will also be reflected in the final rule for small liquid operators.

The proposed rule for Hazardous Liquid Operators with less the 500 miles of pipelines is available on RCP's website HERE. See RCP's December 2000 pipeline newsletter for a description of the hazardous liquid pipeline integrity rulemaking requirements HERE.

RCP will conduct a 2 day workshop on DOT Pipeline Regulations on May 15 and 16th in Houston. This workshop will present an overview of all the current DOT regulations for pipeline operators, including recent regulatory initiatives such as operator qualification and pipeline integrity management. It will be followed by a half day workshop on May 17th dedicated to OPA-90 oil spill response planning for DOT pipelines. Both of these workshops are suitable for personnel who need a general introduction to DOT pipeline regulatory requirements. Additional information is available on our website HERE.

RCP will repeat our 2 day workshop on Pipeline Integrity Management on July 17 and 18th in Houston. This workshop presents a detailed analysis of the recent federal Pipeline Integrity Management regulation and the management programs / elements that it requires. We will also review recent state initiatives / proposed rules on pipeline integrity management. On the 18th we will discuss various methods of actually conducting a risk assessment for pipeline segments, and will work though several hands-on examples. We received very positive feedback from the Pipeline Integrity Management workshop that we conducted in March, and expect the July session to fill up rapidly. Additional information is available on our website HERE.

RSPA, along with GTI, invite the pipeline industry, in-line inspection ("smart pig") vendors, and the general public to a meeting to review the status of a two-year research program to identify and characterize mechanical damage using magnetic flux leakage (MFL) inspection tools. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel, 101 Bowie, San Antonio, TX, and is open to anyone (no registration is required). The meeting will cover a review of the overall project plan, the status of the contract tasks, progress made during the past quarter, and projected activity for the next quarter. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lloyd W. Ulrich, Agreement Officer's Technical Representative, Office of Pipeline Safety, telephone: (202) 366-4556, FAX: (202) 366-4566, e-mail: lloyd.ulrich@rspa.dot.gov. You may also contact Harvey Haines, Principal Investigator, GTI, telephone: (773) 399-8223, FAX: (773) 864-3495, e-mail: harvey.haines@gastechnology.org.

This research continues work that DOT supported at Battelle to improve in-line inspection of mechanical damage and more closely coordinates work that GTI is supporting at Southwest Research Institute to develop critical assessment criteria based on these NDE measurements. This program extends the work conducted under the RSPA-funded contract "Detection of Mechanical Damage in Pipelines" (Contract DTRS-56-96-C-0010)1 by looking at the circumferential magnetic flux leakage field instead of the traditional axial field and extends the critical assessment criteria research to work with full scale samples that are being used for MFL measurements. The goal of the research is to evaluate and develop techniques for assessing pipeline metal loss, mechanical damage, and cracks using circumferential MFL. These techniques are expected to complement the techniques used for axial MFL systems.

The research will extend the failure assessment methodology for mechanically damaged pipes to include the influence of local cold working due to the gouging/denting process on the pipe's remaining life. The program will combine full scale tests and MFL monitoring of pipes, laboratory tests and elastic-plastic finite element analyses to develop a validated methodology for determining the remaining life of a damaged pipe. The proposed SwRI research will complement the work at Battelle in developing criteria for characterizing mechanical damage found through in-line inspection.

On Thursday morning, April 19, 2001, Southwest Research Institute will offer a tour to anyone interested in the facilities used in this research project. Interested parties should contact Al Crouch at SwRI, (210) 522-3157.

On March 20, 2001, RSPA published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the federal register (66 FR 15681) to lower the existing threshold for accident reporting for operators of hazardous liquid pipeline systems subject to RSPA regulations under Part 195. The existing threshold of 50 barrels would be lowered to the new threshold of 5 gallons. The reporting burden for small spills would be minimized by collecting only minimal information for spills from 5 gallons to less than 5 barrels, except where a spill of 5 gallons or more occurs in water. Spills between 5 gallons and less than 5 barrels that occur during normal maintenance activities are exempt if they are confined to the operator's property or pipeline right-of-way and they are cleaned up without delay. A spill of 5 or more barrels, or any accident reportable by the already existing criteria specified in section 195.50 will, as at present, require complete reporting. Comments on the subject of this proposed rule must be received on or before May 21, 2001 (docket number RSPA-01-8663).

The hazardous liquid accident form will also be revised to improve its usefulness. On the revised accident form, reporting for spills from less than 5 barrels down to 5 gallons will require reporting minimal information, whereas any spill in water of 5 gallons or more, any spill of 5 barrels or more, or where otherwise reportable according to existing reporting criteria as outlined in 49 CFR 195.50, will require completion of the entire new proposed accident report. Additionally, RSPA proposes to further improve the usefulness of the information collected on the hazardous liquid accident form RSPA F 7000-1 by strengthening the cause and consequence detail information on the accident report. The proposed new reporting form and instructions can be downloaded from RCP's website here (FORM)(INSTRUCTIONS).

RSPA acknowledges the need for consistent pipeline information for both natural gas and hazardous liquid pipeline accidents. Plans are currently underway to similarly revise natural gas transmission incident pipeline information. RSPA also plans to adopt a similar failure cause scheme for natural gas distribution pipeline incidents later in 2001. By adopting recognized industry proposed failure causal categories for natural gas and hazardous liquid pipeline incidents, RSPA is taking a step toward further standardization of pipeline safety statistics for all pipeline types, increasing the overall usefulness of the data, and making analysis more efficient and meaningful.

On March 9, 2001, the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) published their approval of a waiver of certain regulatory requirements relating to class location changes on fifteen natural gas pipeline segments (the "waiver segments") operated by Duke Energy (Duke), permitting Duke to carry out alternative risk control activities (the "Activities") in lieu of compliance with these requirements. The waiver segments are located on the three parallel lines 10, 15, and 25, downstream from the Mt. Pleasant Compressor Station. The waiver segments lie in Maury and Williamson Counties, Tennessee. The waiver segments include five locations in a 3-line system, ranging from 0.5 miles to 0.88 miles in length and totaling 12.2 miles. See our January 2001 DOT Pipeline newsletter for further details of the waiver request.

On March 9, the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) published an advisory to gas distribution pipeline system operators. Operators should examine the location of shut-off valves controlling gas service to permanently moored vessels (PMV) and ensure that gas service can be quickly shut down, if necessary, even during high-water conditions. If not, the valves should be moved to a location above the reasonably anticipated high-water mark or equipped to be readily accessible during high-water events. In addition, operators should review their operations and maintenance manual and their emergency response manual to ensure that procedures are in place to successfully shut down the flow of gas to PMVs when necessary, including during high-water conditions.

This advisory is a result of NTSB's investigation of a natural gas leak on a permanently moored vessel (PMV), the President Casino on the Admiral (Admiral), on April 4, 1998. The Admiral was struck by barges that detached from a tow during high-water conditions on the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The Admiral lost most of its mooring lines, causing the barge to rotate away from the quay, severing the gas service line. The natural gas did not ignite, but an emergency repair crew was unable to shut off the gas supply because the flooded regulator pit made it impossible to reach the shut-off valve. After three hours the crew was able to clamp-off the line and stop the flow of gas.

There are hundreds of PMVs in U.S. waters. This incident highlights the need to evaluate the accessibility and operability of gas service line valves serving PMVs. Although not all these valves are subject to potential high-water conditions, gas distribution pipeline system operators serving PMVs should ensure that they can promptly shut down the flow of natural gas to PMVs, even during high-water conditions.

Editor's Note: This same advice applies to any vessel that has shoreside connections to natural gas pipelines, whether permanently moored or not. It also applies to companies that install and operate these pipelines, even if they are not regulated Local Distribution Companies.

FERC Meeting: Notice of Fourth Interstate Natural Gas Facility-Planning Seminar:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Energy Projects will hold the fourth in a series of public meetings around the country for the purposes of exploring and enhancing strategies for constructive public participation in the earliest stages of natural gas facility planning. This meeting will be held in Seattle, Washington on Thursday, April 26, 2001. FERC is inviting interstate natural gas companies; Federal, state and local agencies; landowners and non-governmental organizations with an interest in developing a new way of doing business to join in this effort.

Participants will discuss the facility planning process, the potential benefits of pipeline facilities, and ways of improving the environmental review process for interstate natural gas pipeline projects. The staff of the Commission's Office of Energy Projects will give a briefing on the results of our first three seminars in Albany, NY, Chicago, IL, and Tampa, FL, including problems that were identified and potential solutions that were offered in the seminars.

The meeting will be held at the Washington Athletic Club, 1325 Sixth Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98101 (click here for a map and directions). The meeting is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and finish at 2:30 p.m. If you plan to attend, please email lloyd.ulrich@rspa.dot.gov by April 20, 2001. Or, you can respond via facsimile to Pennie Lewis-Partee at 202-208-0353. Please include in the response the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all attendees from your organization. FERC will send an acknowledgment of your request. Please consider issues and/or questions you would like to have addressed at the meetings and email them to FERC. Additional meetings are being considered in the Boston, Massachusetts/Portland, Maine area in May/June, 2001, and in the Reno, Nevada or Salt Lake City, Utah area in July/August, 2001. Comments on these proposed future meetings can also be directed to FERC as described above.

EPA will conduct EPCRA/TRI Training workshops across the country during the spring of 2001. These workshops are intended to assist persons preparing their annual reports on release and other waste management activities as required under sections 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) and section 6607 of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (PPA). These reports must be submitted to EPA and designated state officials on or before July 1, 2001. Information concerning the EPCRA/TRI Training workshops is available on EPA's web site at http://www.epa.gov/tri.

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