PHMSA Pipeline Accident Report ICR 30-day Notice

Today the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a 30-day information collection request (ICR) notice in the Federal Register (78 FR 55775-55776). The notice includes a response to the one comment PHMSA received from the American Petroleum Institute to the 60-day notice for proposed changes to the PHMSA hazardous liquid pipeline accident reporting program.

API Comment – PHMSA Response

API listed four objections to the proposed changes in to the reporting program. They suggested the following changes:

• That “facility” be replaced with “system” in the instructions for Volume Spilled and Volume Recovered;

• That a new option is needed when a NRC Report was not submitted and proposes that “NRC notification not required at time of release” be added as an option; and

• That changes to both the instructions and form to make clear that the information will be available to the public.

PHMSA adopted the first recommendation and did not take any actions on the other three.

The fourth API comment was an objection “to the instructions regarding the use of the phrase ‘when the operator became aware of the accident’ to describe the earliest date and time an operator identifies a pipeline failure”. PHMSA was not persuaded to make any changes to that wording.

Public Participation

PHMSA is soliciting public comments on this ICR and related changes to the accident reporting program. Responses should be made directly to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Comments may be submitted via email (OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov). Comments need to be submitted by October 11^th, 2013.