PHMSA Publishes Pipeline Safety ICR Change Notice

Today the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a notice in the Federal Register (78 FR 23972-23974) that they intend to submit to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) a change to the current information collection request (ICR) supporting their hazardous liquid pipeline accident reporting program. The ICR revision would also incorporate the current ICR on the incorporation by reference of the infantry standard on leak detection.

The changes to the current ICR would reflect proposed changes to the PHMSA form F 7000-1 Accident Report—Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Systems. The change would require additional fields on the form to be completed for releases of “at least 5 gallons but is less than 5 barrels with no additional consequences” where property damage is less than $50,000 and there are not deaths or injuries involved. Based upon recent history, PHMSA estimates that this would affect almost half of the submitted accident reports.

Small Spill Changes

The form revision would require completion of the following areas on the form that are currently not required for these small spills:

• Part C—pipe characteristics and specification;

• Part D—consequence information;

• Part E—operating information;

• Part F—drug and alcohol testing information; and

• Part G—details of the cause

PHMSA estimates that the change would double the time (from five hours to ten) it takes to fill out the accident report on the approximately 200 accidents per year that are currently exempted from providing this additional data.

Form Instruction Changes

Additionally, PHMSA is proposing changes to the instruction included on the form to revise how certain data is reported. Those changes would affect:

• Volume Spilled (Part A9);

• Volume Recovered (Part A11);

• Time sequence (Part A18);

• National Response Center Report (NRC) Number;

• County or Parish;and

• Accident Preparer and Authorizer.

Public Comment

PHMSA is soliciting public comments on these proposed changes. Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.regulations.gov; Docket # PHMSA-2013-006). Comments should be submitted by June 24^th, 2013.