PHMSA Publishes 60-day ICR Notice for Pipeline Reports

Today the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a 60-day information collection request (ICR) notice in the Federal Register (78 FR 38803-38806) for the renewal of authority to collect pipeline safety information on seven separate pipeline reporting forms. This is an early renewal request because PHMSA is proposing changes to the information collected on these forms.

The forms covered by this ICR renewal request are:

• PHMSA F 7100.1 Incident Report—Gas Distribution System;

• PHMSA F 7100.1-2 Mechanical Fitting Failure Report Form for Calendar Year 20_ for Distribution Operators;

• PHMSA F 7100.2 Incident Report—Natural and Other Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipeline Systems;

• PHMSA F 7100.2-1 Annual Report for Calendar Year 20_ Natural and Other Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipeline Systems;

• PHMSA F 7100.3 Incident Report—Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities; and

• PHMSA F 7100.3-1 Annual Report for Calendar Year 20__ Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities

Gas Distribution Incident Report

Changes are being proposed in the following areas:

• Adding pipe material type of reconditioned cast iron;

• Adding commodity of landfill gas;

• Changing system types;

• Revise instructions for National Response Center number;

• Revise instructions for city;

• Revise instructions for county or parish;

• Revise instructions for incident preparer and authorizer; and

• Estimated response and burden hours revision.

Mechanical Fitting Failure Report

Changes are being proposed in the following areas:

• Reporting “Incorrect Operations” as an apparent cause; and

• Estimated response and burden hours revision.

Incident Report—Natural and Other Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipeline System

Changes are being proposed in the following areas:

• Restore MOAP established by section;

• Adding commodity of Landfill Gas;

• Revise instructions for National Response Center number;

• Revise instructions for city;

• Revise instructions for county or parish;

• Revise instructions for incident preparer and authorizer; and

• Estimated response and burden hours revision.

Annual Report—Natural and Other Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipeline Systems

PHMSA is proposing to remove Part C – Volume transported by transmission lines. In the future if PHMSA needs this data it will be obtained from the  FERC data which covers the largest component of the volume information.

Incident Report—Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities 

Changes are being proposed in the following areas:

• Limit location data to the State;

• Modify the “Regulated by” data; and

• Estimated response and burden hours revision.

Annual Report for Calendar Year 20_ Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities

Changes are being proposed in the following areas:

• Remove section A5;

• Require entry of interstate or intrastate field;

• Remove duplicative reporting; and

• Estimated response and burden hours revision.

Change to Reporting Burden

PHMSA noted that they expect only one of the above set of revisions to result in changes to their burden estimate; the Mechanical Fitting report. The number of reports is being revised based upon recent history and the time for submission is being reduced from 1 hour per report to 30 minutes. The total change in the burden estimate is shown below. PHMSA does not explain how a decreased number of reports and a decreased reporting time result in an increase in the total annual burden hours.

	Existing	Proposed
Total Annual Responses	21,864	12,164
Total Annual Burden Hours	83,131	96,471

Public Comments

PHMSA is soliciting public comments on the proposed changes to the forms and the ICR. Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # PHMSA-2013-0084). Comments should be submitted by August 26^th, 2013.