Last week, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) released the report of the Voluntary Information-sharing System Working Group (VISWG). The VISWG was created to comply with Section 10 of the Protecting Our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-183 – PIPES Act 2016). Congress required PHMSA to establish a federal advisory committee to provide recommendations to the United States Department of Transportation Secretary on the development of a voluntary information-sharing system (VIS). The VIS encourages collaborative efforts to improve inspection information feedback and information-sharing with the purpose of improving gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipeline facility integrity risk management. Erin Kurilla participated in the working group on behalf of APGA.
The VISWG report includes three primary recommendations:
1. Congress should authorize a VIS and direct PHMSA to establish the VIS, including a governance structure and technology platform, to include participation by pipeline operators, PHMSA, and other pipeline safety stakeholders, as more fully described in this report;
2. Congress should enact legislation to provide confidentiality, non-punitive, and other legal protections to pipeline operators and other pipeline safety stakeholders that participate in the VIS, as more fully described in this report; and,
3. Information sharing should include gas distribution system data in the VIS program to significantly reduce industry incidents nationwide, across all three key industry segments: natural gas transmission, natural gas distribution, and hazardous liquids transportation.
APGA anticipates that PHMSA will follow through on the working group’s recommendations, however because two of the recommendations require legislation, PHMSA will have to wait for congressional action before PHMSA can proceed to create the VIS. A copy of the full report can be found here.
For questions on this article, please contact John Erickson by phone at 703-407-0212 or by email at
jerickson@apga.org.