Pipeline Safety: Repair Criteria for Hazardous Liquid and Gas Transmission Pipelines

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Parts 191, 192 and 195</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. PHMSA-2025-0019]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2137-AF44</RIN> <SUBJECT>Pipeline Safety: Repair Criteria for Hazardous Liquid and Gas Transmission Pipelines</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> PHMSA is publishing this advance notice of proposed rulemaking to solicit stakeholder feedback on potential opportunities to improve the cost-effectiveness of its repair requirements for gas transmission and hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide pipelines. PHMSA also seeks stakeholder feedback on authorizing a risk-based approach for determining the inspection interval for in-service breakout tanks. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments on this ANPRM must be submitted by July 21, 2025. PHMSA will consider late-filed comments to the extent practicable, consistent with 49 CFR 190.323. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments identified by the Docket Number using any of the following ways: <E T="03">E-Gov Web: https://www.regulations.gov.</E> This site allows the public to enter comments on any <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notice issued by any agency. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. <E T="03">Mail:</E> Docket Management System: U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001. <E T="03">Hand Delivery:</E> DOT Docket Management System: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. <E T="03">Fax:</E> 202-493-2251. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> Please include the docket number PHMSA-2025-0019 at the beginning of your comments. If you submit your comments by mail, submit two copies. If you wish to receive confirmation that PHMSA received your comments, include a self-addressed stamped postcard. Internet users may submit comments at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> <E T="03">Note:</E> Comments are posted without changes or edits to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> including any personal information provided. There is a privacy statement published on <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> <E T="03">Privacy Act Statement:</E> In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments from the public to inform its rulemaking process. DOT posts these comments, without edit, including any personal information the commenter provides, to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> as described in the system of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at <E T="03">https://www.dot.gov/privacy.</E> <E T="03">Confidential Business Information:</E> Confidential Business Information (CBI) is commercial or financial information that is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA, 5 U.S.C. 552), CBI is exempt from public disclosure. It is important that you clearly designate the comments submitted as CBI if: your comments responsive to this document contain commercial or financial information that is customarily treated as private; you actually treat such information as private; and your comment is relevant or responsive to this notice. Pursuant to 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 190.343, you may ask PHMSA to provide confidential treatment to the information you give to the agency by taking the following steps: (1) mark each page of the original document submission containing CBI as “Confidential”; (2) send PHMSA, along with the original document, a second copy of the original document with the CBI deleted; and (3) explain why the information that you are submitting is CBI. Submissions containing CBI should be sent to Sayler Palabrica, Office of Pipeline Safety (PHP-30), Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), 2nd Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001, or by email at <E T="03">sayler.palabrica@dot.gov.</E> Any materials PHMSA receives that is not specifically designated as CBI will be placed in the public docket. <E T="03">Docket:</E> For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for accessing the docket. Alternatively, you may review the documents in person at the street address listed above. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Sayler Palabrica, Transportation Specialist, by telephone (202) 744-0825, or by email at <E T="03">sayler.palabrica@dot.gov.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> PHMSA is publishing this advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) to solicit stakeholder feedback on potential opportunities to improve the cost-effectiveness of its repair requirements for gas transmission (49 CFR part 192) and hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide (49 CFR part 195) pipelines. Many of those requirements—particularly for hazardous liquid and carbon dioxide pipelines—have not been updated in over two decades, and others do not fully account for recent advancements in pipeline safety technology and best practices or the maturation of PHMSA's regulatory regime. PHMSA is also seeking stakeholder feedback on authorizing risk-based inspection procedures for determining the inspection interval for in-service breakout tanks under part 195. Materials obtained from this ANPRM will inform a forthcoming notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in this proceeding. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background</HD> PHMSA's safety standards for gas transmission lines (49 CFR part 192) and hazardous liquid and carbon dioxide pipelines (49 CFR part 195) address the remediation of anomalies in two ways: (1) through a set of traditional, prescriptive remediation requirements in the operation and maintenance provisions that generally apply to all pipelines; and (2) through risk-based, integrity management (IM) requirements that apply to pipeline segments posing risks to “high consequence areas.”  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> This two-tiered regulatory approach—coupled with PHMSA's efforts to enhance its requirements for the design, construction, testing, operation, and maintenance of gas transmission and hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide pipelines—has contributed to a positive safety trend since 2005: fewer incidents and accidents entailing significantly lower public safety consequences and property damage. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> §§ 192.903 (definition of high consequence areas, or HCAs, for gas transmission lines) and 195.450 (definition of HCAs for hazardous liquid and carbon dioxide pipelines) </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> PHMSA, “Pipeline Incident 20 Year Trends,” <E T="03">https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/pipeline-incident-20-year-trends</E> (last visited Mar. 26, 2025). </FTNT> Despite this strong safety record, PHMSA recognizes that some of its repair requirements have not been updated for decades, and that others may not account for the latest advances in pipeline safety technology and industry best practices. PHMSA also recognizes that its repair requirements may need to be updated to align with the significant changes made to part 192 and part 195 in recent rulemaking proceedings. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> Existing repair requirements, therefore, may introduce barriers to development and deployment of innovative, safety-enhancing technology and industry practices by increasing costs and potential liability risks for first-movers. Similarly, the accretion of complex and potentially overlapping regulatory requirements over time could similarly stifle innovation and entail compliance costs without a corresponding safety benefit. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Listing in this ANPRM the large number of those rulemakings would be difficult; however, PHMSA maintains a comprehensive list of its rulemakings on its website. <E T="03">See</E> PHMSA, “Notices and Rulemaking Documents,” <E T="03">https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/regulations/federal-register-documents</E> (last visited Mar. 27, 2025). </FTNT> For example: • The repair criteria and remediation timelines in part 195 for hazardous liquid and carbon dioxide pipelines have been relatively static for decades. PHMSA's generally applicable repair requirements at § 195.401 have not been changed substantially since 1981, <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> and the IM requirements for hazardous liquid and carbon dioxide pipelines at § 195.452 have not been updated substantially since their introduction in 2000. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> In the years since the adoption of each of those regulatory frameworks, PHMSA has completed over a dozen rulemakings imposing a variety of design, testing, operational, maintenance, and emergency response requirements intended to reduce the frequency and severity of accidents on hazardous liquid and carbon dioxide pipelines. <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), “Transportation of Liquids by Pipeline,” 46 FR 38357 (July 27, 1981). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  RSPA, “Pipeline Safety: Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas (Hazardous Liquid Operators with 500 or More Miles of Pipe),” 65 FR 75406 (Dec 1, 2000). </FTNT> • PHMSA most recently addressed part 192 anomaly remediation requirements for gas transmission lines in its August 24, 2022 final rule (a rulemaking initiated following the 201 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 38k characters. 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