Protecting America’s High Consequence Areas (HCAs)

Beginning in 2004, hazardous liquid pipeline operators have been required to submit performance measure reports for pipeline infrastructure covered by Integrity Management (IM) programs. PHMSA uses data from these reports, which are due on June 15th for the previous calendar year, to monitor and report on industry progress in meeting the requirements of the hazardous liquid pipeline integrity management (HL IM) regulations, to prioritize operators for future PHMSA inspections, and to respond to inquiries about PHMSA’s oversight program.

Hazardous Liquid Integrity Management Reporting

HL IM reporting data shows the trend for High Consequence Area (HCA) miles, large spills in HCAs, HCA miles assessed (both baseline and reassessment), and HCA repairs. The definitions below provide additional details about the reporting criteria. Operators submit this data separately for inTERstate and inTRAstate pipelines. The data is submitted by individual State for inTRAstate pipelines. Use the Inter/Intra prompt and State prompt to tailor the reports to the data you want to see.

Definitions:

Large Spills are accidents including one or more of these consequences:

1. death or personal injury requiring hospitalization
2. property damage greater than $50,000
3. more than 5 barrels released
4. fire or explosion
5. pollution of water

Accidents are releases of hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide from a pipeline that results in one or more of the following consequences: a death or personal injury necessitating in-patient hospitalization; estimated property damage of more than $50,000; a release of 5 gallons or more of hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide (or 5 barrels or more resulting from most types of maintenance activity); or, an explosion or fire not intentionally set by the operator.

Immediate Repair - More specifically defined in 49 CFR 195.452 (h)(4) (i), these repairs are deemed important enough to require a temporary reduction in operating pressure or shutdown of the pipeline until such time as the urgent repair is completed.

60-day Condition Repair - More specifically defined in 49 CFR 195.452 (h)(4) (ii), these repairs are deemed less urgent than Immediate Condition Repairs, but must be completed within 60 days.

180-day Condition Repair - More specifically defined in 49 CFR 195.452 (h)(4) (iii), these repairs are deemed less urgent than either Immediate Condition Repairs or 60-day Condition Repairs, but still must be completed within 180 days.

For all Immediate, 60-day, and 180-day Condition Repairs - These repairs result from In-Line Inspections (ILI), External Corrosion Direct Assessment (ECDA), and other inspection techniques used by operators. In all cases, operators must notify PHMSA (or PHMSA’s State partner agencies, depending on who has jurisdiction) and take additional mitigating action in the event the repair cannot be completed within the described deadlines. Additional repairs can result from Pressure Tests when they are conducted by operators (see definition below).

Pressure Test Failure Repair - These repairs result when failures occur due to pressure tests conducted by operators, typically involving the use of water as the test medium.