New guidelines to help communities, planners improve safety near transmission pipelines

Last month, as part of the Department of Transportation's ongoing commitment to safety, we released a set of guidelines to help local governments, developers, and planners better protect communities near transmission pipelines.

Natural gas and hazardous liquid transmission pipelines play a crucial role in America's economy by safely and efficiently transporting almost 100 percent of the natural gas and about 66 percent of the oil and refined petroleum products consumed in the United States. Many of these pipelines were constructed in sparsely populated areas.

While trees help enhance green space, root damage makes planting atop a pipeline a practice to be avoided.

However, as development of residences, businesses and green space continues across our nation, these once-rural areas with pipelines have become urban or suburban. Land development in proximity to pipelines can increase the risk of a pipeline incident. The new guidelines--the first of their kind--will help communities safely coexist with nearby pipelines.

I want to thank the Pipelines and Informed Planning Alliance (PIPA) for developing these important safety recommendations. Led by DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, PIPA is a 130-member coalition that includes the pipeline safety community, city and county governments, the public, developers, fire marshals, pipeline operators, and state and federal regulators.

I think it's terrific when a group with such diverse interests can work together with safety as their top priority. And the report they have produced, Partnering to Further Enhance Pipeline Safety in Communities through Risk-Informed Land Use Planning, offers stakeholders practical options for planning that can help protect both existing pipeline infrastructure and America's growing communities.

Building too close to a pipeline right-of-way complicates pipeline maintenance and repair.

The report and its recommendations will help communities make what PIPA calls risk-informed decisions. As PHMSA Administrator Cynthia Quarterman said:

“These recommendations describe actions local governments can take to make full use of available resources and how they can communicate effectively with transmission pipeline operators to better understand all factors that can affect risks.”

Shallow rooted plants atop a pipeline avoid root damage while still enhancing green space.

With so much of America's energy economy running below ground that now has increased activity above, the guidelines in this report provide communities an important new tool. It's just one more way that we at DOT are working hard to advance our number one priority--safety.

Comments

[Mason Hicks]

Apologies for being way off-topic: I mis-read the headline to refer to (high-voltage electric)transmission lines instead of pipelines. Of course, that would have been under the Dept. of Energy (DOE). However, my initial mis-read brought to mind this question:
Is anyone studying for the possibility of coordination between DOE's "smart grid" development and DOT's development planning of a continental high speed rail network?
While I am nothing remotely close to being an electric transmission engineer, having traveled extensively in Europe, it is quite obvious to me that the two networks (rail and general electricity transmission) are closely coordinated...

Happy New Year, and again, my apologies for being so far off-subject...

[Jared]

I'm glad to see these guidelines put into place. They are much overdue!

[Michael E. Bailey]

This is a very critical issue area for the pipelines and the public. Information has come out today on the September 9 pipeline explosion and fire in San Bruno that PG&E, who owned the line, did not keep good records on the construction of the pipeline and that the pressure had been set for seamless pipe. But part of the line was seamless pipe, part was outside weld pipe and part was inside and outside welded pipe. The pressure that seamless pipe can take is more than welded pipe can. So record keeping improvements by the pipeline operators are also necessary. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Kenton Dick]

Another important concern to worry about when planting trees, avoid planting trees directly over utility lines. In time, it will cost to trim trees if not properly addressed.