On August 1 and 2, John Erickson spoke at the Louisiana Gas Association’s Pipeline Safety Seminar in New Orleans, La. In his first talk, John briefed attendees on recent activities that could affect public awareness regulations. In 2013, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) convened a working group of industry, public and regulators to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of current public awareness requirements and operators’ programs to educate stakeholders about natural gas safety. Bill Defoor of the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia and John Erickson represented public natural gas on this working group. Among the key findings of the final report are that collaborative public awareness efforts in which operators band together to promote the same messages can be effective; however, some state and federal enforcement policies inhibit the ability of operators to participate in collaborative efforts. Of particular interest to APGA members, the report recognized that there are significant differences between distribution operators and interstate pipelines that affect how public awareness programs are developed and implemented. Studies have shown that most people are aware that there are distribution pipes in their area even if they are not gas customers; however, people do not expect to encounter large gas and oil transmission pipelines in their neighborhoods.
John also mentioned that the American Petroleum Institute (API) is in the process of updating Recommended Practice 1162 that has been adopted by PHMSA as the requirements for public awareness. He emphasized that operators must continue to follow the first edition of RP 1162 until PHMSA incorporates by reference a later edition.
In his second presentation, John described APGA’s efforts to assist public natural gas systems to adopt pipeline safety management systems (PSMS). In 2014, API published Recommended Practice 1173 on PSMS; however, that document was heavily oriented towards large interstate pipeline operators rather than local distribution systems. APGA is working with other trade associations to develop tools to assist operators to understand the principles of PSMS and allow operators to measure their current level of compliance with RP 1173. John emphasizes that PSMS is not a regulation and that compliance is voluntary, however the 10 basic principles outlined in RP 1173 were applicable to systems of all sizes.
John closed the second presentation with a brief update on APGA’s System Operational Achievement Recognition (SOAR) program and programs of the Security and Integrity Foundation (SIF). For questions on this article, please contact John Erickson of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-0834 or by email at
jerickson@apga.org.