Pipeline Safety: Integration of Innovative Remote Sensing Technologies for Right-of-Way Patrols on Gas and Hazardous Liquid Pipelines

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Parts 192 and 195</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. PHMSA-2025-0118; Amdt. Nos. 192-154, 195-116]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2137-AF79</RIN> <SUBJECT>Pipeline Safety: Integration of Innovative Remote Sensing Technologies for Right-of-Way Patrols on Gas and Hazardous Liquid Pipelines</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Direct final rule (DFR); request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This DFR clarifies that PHMSA's right-of-way patrol requirements are technology neutral, and that remote sensing technologies, such as unmanned aerial systems and satellites, can be used for compliance purposes. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The DFR is effective October 9, 2025, unless adverse comments are received by September 2, 2025. If adverse comments are received, notification will be published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> before the effective date either withdrawing the rule (in its entirety or portions thereof) or issuing a new final rule which responds to those comments. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments identified by the Docket Number PHMSA-2025-0118 using any of the following methods: <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> U.S. DOT Docket Management System: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. <E T="03">Fax:</E> 1-202-493-2251. For commenting instructions and additional information about commenting, see <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> . <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Sayler Palabrica, Transportation Specialist, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590, 202-744-0825, <E T="03">sayler.palabrica@dot.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. General Discussion</HD> PHMSA requires operators to perform periodic patrols of gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipeline rights-of-way (ROW). Section 192.705 requires operators to patrol gas transmission pipelines between one and four times each calendar year, depending on the class location of the pipeline and whether the pipeline is located at a highway or railroad crossing. Similarly, § 195.412 requires hazardous liquid pipeline operators inspect the surface conditions on or adjacent to each pipeline ROW at least 26 times each year. Both sections specify that patrols or inspections may include walking, driving, flying, or other appropriate means of traversing the ROW. During these inspections, an operator patrols the ROW to identify indications of leaks or threats to pipeline integrity, such as construction, excavation activity, and earth movement. While these are primarily visual inspections, PHMSA is aware of operators who integrate additional sensing technologies, such as thermal imaging or light detection and ranging sensors to identify leaks, earth movement, the condition of water crossings, and other safety risks, in conducting ROW patrols. PHMSA has clarified in interpretation letters that unmanned aircraft systems (UAS, commonly known as drones) and satellite surveillance may satisfy patrol requirements, so long as they provide current information and imaging quality comparable to traditional aerial patrols (PI-19-0005 (Aug. 1, 2019), PI-21-0006 (Jul. 13, 2021)). However, PHMSA has never clarified this explicitly in the regulation, resulting in regulatory uncertainty that discourages the adoption of cost-effective, advanced technologies. In response to a DOT request for information on deregulation (90 FR 14593 (Apr. 3, 2025)), the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association (LEPA) recommended PHMSA “state clearly in regulation (not just interpretive guidance) that drone and satellite technology is eligible for inspecting ROWs” (Docket No. DOT-OST-2025-0026-0874 (May 5, 2025)). To provide operators with additional regulatory certainty and encourage the use of cost-effective, advanced technologies, this rule revises §§ 192.705 and 195.412 to authorize explicitly UAS, satellite surveillance, and other technologies suitable for observing current surface conditions in conducting ROW patrols. This amendment will reduce potential barriers to the use of these technologies, resulting in potential cost savings and safety and environmental benefits. UAS and satellite surveys are often less expensive than ground-based surveys or surveys conducted with traditional fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft. A UAS or satellite patrol is also less likely to create risks to operator personnel, particularly when compared with patrols conducted using traditional ground-based or aerial technologies. Finally, satellite and UAS patrols are also likely to have lower local air quality and noise impacts when compared with traditional methods as UAS are lower in mass than traditional aircraft and often use battery-electric propulsion. PHMSA notes that while UAS are authorized for compliance with pipeline ROW patrol requirements under §§ 192.705 and 195.412, nothing in this rule affects other regulatory obligations regarding the commercial operation of UAS in the National Airspace System. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Commenting</HD> <E T="03">Instructions:</E> Please include the docket number PHMSA-2025-0118 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> <NOTE> <HD SOURCE="HED">Note:</HD> 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> </NOTE> <E T="03">Privacy Act:</E> In accordance with 5 United States Code (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 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, 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">http://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. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Regulatory Analysis and Notices</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Legal Authority</HD> This direct final rule is published under the authority of the Secretary of Transportation set forth in the Federal Pipeline Safety Laws (49 U.S.C. 60101 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) and delegated to the PHMSA Administrator pursuant to 49 CFR 1.97. PHMSA has determined that the clarification included in this direct final rule is unlikely to elicit significant adverse comment. <E T="03">See</E> 49 U.S.C. 60102(b)(6)(A); 49 CFR 190.339. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Executive Order 12866; Regulatory Planning and Review</HD> Executive Order (E.O.) 12866 (“Regulatory Planning and Review”; 58 FR 51735 (Oct. 4, 1993)), as implemented by DOT Order 2100.6B (“Policies and Procedures for Rulemaking”), requires agencies to regulate in the “most cost-effective manner,” to make a “reasoned determination that the benefits of the intended regulation justify its costs,” and to develop regulations that “impose the least burden on society.” DOT Order 2100.6B specifies that regulations should generally “not be issued unless their benefits are expected to exceed their costs.” In arrivi ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 25k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━