On November 26, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing at the South Lawrence East Middle School Gymnasium in Lawrence, Mass. The hearing was titled “Pipeline Safety in the Merrimack Valley: Incident Prevention and Response” and the following members of Congress were in attendance: Senator Markey (D-Mass.), Senator Warren (D-Mass.), Senator Hassan (D-N.H.), Representative Moulton (D-Mass.), and Representative Tsongas (D-Mass.). Witnesses included representatives from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), National Transportations Safety Board (NTSB), the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts and NiSource.
APGA is closely following all discussions related to the September 2018 incident, including outtakes from the hearing. One topic discussed during the hearing and identified in the NTSB Urgent Recommendations, issued on November 14 and discussed during the hearing is the elimination of the professional engineering licensure exemption for public utility work and requiring a professional engineer’s seal on public utility drawings. This recommendation is not specific to “publicly owned gas utilities” as defined by APGA, but would apply to all gas utilities, both public and investor-owned.
The implementation of this recommendation is being addressed through the Massachusetts state legislature. Massachusetts Governor Baker has filed legislation titled “An Act to Ensure Safety and Soundness of the Commonwealth’s Natural Gas Infrastructure.” The proposed legislation states that, “natural gas engineering plans and specifications must bear the stamp of approval of a certified professional engineer when that work could pose a material risk to public safety, as determined by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU).” If the legislation passes as written, it will provide the Massachusetts DPU with the ability to define the design activities required to have a PE stamp through a rulemaking process. During that rulemaking process stakeholders will have an opportunity to provide comments.
Additionally, the American Gas Association has developed “Leading Practices to Prevent a Natural Gas Over-Pressurization Event.” This document strives to address the numerous actions operators can take to prevent over-pressurization events. It was shared with members of Congress, the NTSB, PHMSA and state regulators. Last week, APGA had an opportunity to provide comments and APGA members are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the leading practices identified. The leading practices document can be found on the APGA Community.
More information on the Congressional hearing, including written testimonies from the witnesses, can be found at:
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings.
The Massachusetts press release and proposed legislation can be found at:
https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito-administration-files-legislation-to-strengthen-natural-gas-safety-procedures.
For questions on this article, please contact Erin Kurilla of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at
ekurilla@apga.org.