Two PHMSA Pipeline Meeting Announcements

Today DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration published two pipeline meeting notices in the Federal Register (79 FR 37390, and 79 FR 37389-37390). The first will be held in Rosemont, IL on August 5^th, 2014 and will be a forum to gather and disseminate information on the state-of-the-art of crack detection in hazardous liquid and natural gas pipelines. The second will be public forum to generate a National research agenda that fosters solutions for the many challenges with pipeline safety and with protecting the environment and will be held the day after at the same location.

Pipeline Cracking Forum

According to the meeting web page this forum will address the challenges involved with detecting and characterizing crack like defects, including environmentally assisted cracks and cracks with corrosion. It will include five panel discussions:

• Regulator perspectives on cracking challenges;

• Operator perspectives on cracking challenges;

• Cracking detection technology developments;

• Presentation of research roadmaps; and

• Presentation of comprehensive case studies.

The public is invited to attend this meeting. Registration is required and may be done on-line.

Pipeline Research Forum

According to the meeting web page this two-day forum is designed to produce a consensus vision of a research agenda for pipeline safety. The forum would specifically address:

• The identification of key pipeline technical challenges facing industry and government;

• The dissemination of information on current research efforts; and

• The identification of new research that can help to meet known challenges.

To this end five working groups are currently planned:

• Damage prevention;

• Leak detection and fugitive methane;

• Anomaly detection and characterization;

• Improving risk models; and

• Addressing legacy materials challenges

The full meeting agenda will be published on the web site at a later date.

The public is invited to attend this meeting. Registration is required and may be done on-line.