PHMSA Pipeline ICR 30-Day Renewal Notice

On Monday morning (it was actually published on-line on Saturday) the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a follow-up notice in the Federal Register (76 FR 65778-65779) that they would be requesting that the Office of Management and Budget would approve a three year extension of some of the information collection requests (ICRs) that support their pipeline safety program. This 30-day notice follows their 60-day notice that was published back on August 1, 2011.

I typically don’t write about these follow-up notices since very few people ever avail themselves of the information to file a comment on the government’s paperwork burden on industry. Again, there were no comments filed on the earlier notice during the 60-day comment period. And my readers know that I never beat dead horses (well, only a few).

In this case I will make an exception since PHMSA is making two substantial changes to this ICR. First they are eliminating one ICR and then they are merging two ICRs.

Excess Flow Valves – Customer Notifications

PHMSA begins their listing of ICRs by explaining that pipeline operators “are no longer required to provide notifications about excess flow valves to service line customers” (76 FR 65778) so they are discontinuing the ICR that supported that old requirement. This was not mentioned in the earlier notice. Of course I’m sure that any number of operators will complain about the end of this ICR (just a little sarcasm).

Pipeline Integrity Management

There are currently two different ICR’s supporting PHMSA’s pipeline integrity management program for pipelines in High Consequence Areas; one for operators with less than 500 miles of hazardous liquid pipelines (2137-0605) and one for those with more than 500 miles (2137-0604). PHMSA is merging the two ICRs into one under a retitled 2137-0605; Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas for Operators of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines (76 FR 65779).

Public Comments

As is required under federal law, PHMSA is soliciting public comments about the renewal, elimination and modification of these ICR’s. Public comments need to be submitted by November 23, 2011, directly to OMB. There are no provisions in this notice for electronic submissions; only a mailing address is provided. That address is:

OMB

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Attn: Desk Officer for the U.S. Department of Transportation (PHMSA)

725 17th Street, NW.

Washington, DC 20503

Typically, these 30-day notice comment solicitations include either an email address or fax number for the OMB submission. There isn’t one in this case and OMB is too good to use the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.regulation.gov) for managing their public comments.