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.