PHMSA: Notice of Advisory Committee Meeting

Come One, Come All

On September 19, 2023, the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a Notice of advisory committee meeting of the Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee (GPAC) to discuss the notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs) titled “Gas Pipeline Leak Detection and Repair” and “Class Location Change Requirements.”

Within the Gas Pipeline Leak Detection and Repair NPRM PHMSA proposes to make regulatory amendments to help reduce methane emissions from new and existing gas facilities, pipelines, and equipment. To accomplish this, PHMSA is looking to amend Part 192 to:

1. Strengthened leakage survey and patrolling requirements.
2. Performance standards for advanced leak detection programs.
3. Leak grading and repair criteria with mandatory repair timelines.
4. Requirements for mitigation of emissions from blowdowns.
5. Pressure relief device design, configuration, and maintenance requirements.
6. Clarified requirements for investigating failures.
7. Expand reporting requirements for operators of all gas pipeline facilities within DOT’s jurisdiction, including underground natural gas storage facilities and liquefied natural gas facilities.

Within the Class Location Change requirements PHMSA plans to:

1. Revise the Federal Pipeline Safety Regulations to amend the requirements for gas transmission pipeline segments that experience a change in class location.
   1. Add an alternative set of requirements operators could use—based on implementation of integrity management principles and pipe eligibility criteria—to manage certain pipeline segments where the class location has changed from a Class 1 location to a Class 3 location.

This meeting will be open to the public and held from November 27, 2023, to December 1, 2023. All those wishing to participate in the meeting should register no later than November 20, 2023.

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