Pipeline Safety: The Office of Pipeline Safety Is Changing How It Oversees the Pipeline Industry

Details

• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Government Accountability Office
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Hazardous Materials Pipeline Safety Pipelines By Product Carried
• Publication/ Report Number:
  GAO/RCED-00-128
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. General Accounting Office
• Abstract:
  Pipelines are inherently safer to the public than other modes of freight transportation for natural gas and hazardous liquids (such as oil products) because they are, for the most part, located underground. Nevertheless, the volatile nature of these products means that pipeline accidents can have serious consequences. For example, when a pipeline ruptured and spilled about 250,000 gallons of gasoline into a creek in Bellingham, Washington, in June 1999, three people were killed, eight were injured, several buildings
  
  were damaged, and the banks of the creek were destroyed along a 1.5-mile
  
  section.
  
  The Office of Pipeline Safety, within the Department of Transportation,
  
  administers the national regulatory program to ensure the safe
  
  transportation of natural gas and hazardous liquids by pipeline. The Office
  
  has traditionally carried out its responsibility by issuing minimum
  
  standards and enforcing them uniformly across these pipelines. The
  
  Accountable Pipeline Safety and Partnership Act of 1996 directed the
  
  Office to establish a demonstration program to test a risk management
  
  approach to pipeline safety. This approach involves identifying and
  
  addressing specific risks faced by individual pipeline companies rather
  
  than applying uniform standards regardless of risks. The act allowed the
  
  Office to exempt companies in the program from the uniform standards but
  
  did not eliminate the standards.
  
  Concerned about the recent accident in Bellingham, you asked us to review
  
  the Office?s performance in regulating pipeline safety. Accordingly, we
  
  examined (1) the extent of major pipeline accidents from 1989 through
  
  1998 (the most recent data available), (2) the Office?s implementation of the
  
  1996 act?s risk management demonstration program, (3) the Office?s
  
  inspection and enforcement efforts since the act?s implementation, and
  
  (4) the Office?s responsiveness to recommendations from the National
  
  Transportation Safety Board (the Safety Board) and to statutory requirements designed to improve pipeline safety. In addition, you asked us
  
  to provide information on the current status of the investigation of the
  
  accident in Bellingham.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bf1788b686adae20093fe64d387d9b3a523936eea72192e2a1285689c9aa2f52937cd72432d8fb76b13607993887bf952c5a66dd822978e94401418fa7fbf1bb
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/33844/dot_33844_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.01 MB ]