PHMSA Announces Pipeline Safety R&D Meeting

Today the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a notice in the Federal Register (77 FR 36606-36607) that it would be cosponsoring a public forum to aid in the development of a National research agenda that “will foster solutions for the many challenges with pipeline safety and with protecting the environment” (77 FR 36606). The National Association of Pipeline Safety Representative (NAPSR) is the other co-sponsor of the meeting to be held July 18^th and 19^th in Arlington, VA.

Agenda

According to the announcement the purpose of the forum is to:

• Identify key pipeline technical challenges facing industry and government;

• Disseminate information on current research efforts; and

• Identify new research that can help to meet known challenges.

The first day will start with panel discussions covering existing challenges, current R&D roadmaps and a discussion about advancing new technology into the market. The remainder of the first day and most of the second day will be taken up with breakout working groups that will address:

• Threat Prevention;

• Leak Detection/Mitigation & Storage;

• Anomaly Detection/Characterization;

• Anomaly Repair & Remediation; and

• Design/Materials/Welding-Joining/Valves.

The second day’s efforts in the working groups will be targeted on identifying 3 to 5 research priorities including specifying the types of outputs needed for each of the priorities. Each group will prepare a brief presentation to be made at the closing session of the forum.

Registration

Advance registration is available on-line and special room rates are available at the Westin Arlington Gateway for participants. There will not be a web cast of this meeting (ignore the web cast blocks on the standard DOT meeting registration form). All presentations, including the final working group presentations, will be available on the meeting web page within a couple of days of the meeting.