Sec. 206. Pipeline safety practices
566 words·~3 min read·
/bill/116/s/2299/rs/section-206·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Section 60102 of title 49, United States Code (as amended by section 204), is amended by adding at the end the following: Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall promulgate regulations to require an operator of a distribution system— to identify and manage traceable, reliable, and complete records, including maps and other drawings, critical to ensuring proper pressure controls for a gas distribution system, and updating these records as needed, while collecting and identifying other records necessary for risk analysis on an opportunistic basis; and to ensure that the records required under subparagraph
(A)are— accessible to all personnel responsible for performing or overseeing relevant construction or engineering work; and submitted to, or made available for inspection by, the Secretary or the relevant State authority with a certification in effect under section 60105. Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall promulgate regulations to require that not less than 1 agent of an operator of a distribution system who is qualified to perform relevant covered tasks (as defined in section 192.801(b) of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation)) shall monitor gas pressure at the district regulator station or at an alternative site with equipment capable of ensuring proper pressure controls and have the capability to promptly shut down the flow of gas or control over pressurization at a district regulator station during any construction project that has the potential to cause a hazardous overpressurization at that station, including tie-ins and abandonment of distribution lines and mains, based on an evaluation, conducted by the operator, of threats that could result in unsafe operation. In promulgating regulations under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall ensure that those regulations do not apply to a district regulating station that has a monitoring system and the capability for remote or automatic shutoff. Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall promulgate regulations to require that each operator of a distribution system assesses and upgrades, as appropriate, each district regulator station of the operator to ensure that— the risk of the gas pressure in the distribution system exceeding, by a common mode of failure, the maximum allowable operating pressure (as described in section 192.623 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation)) allowed under Federal law (including regulations) is minimized; the gas pressure of a low-pressure distribution system is monitored, particularly at or near the location of critical pressure-control equipment; the regulator station has secondary or backup pressure-relieving or overpressure-protection safety technology, such as a relief valve or automatic shutoff valve, or other pressure-limiting devices appropriate for the configuration and siting of the station and, in the case of a regulator station that employs the primary and monitor regulator design, the operator shall eliminate the common mode of failure or provide backup protection capable of either shutting the flow of gas, relieving gas to the atmosphere to fully protect the distribution system from overpressurization events, or there must be technology in place to eliminate a common mode of failure; and if the Secretary determines that it is not operationally possible for an operator to implement the requirements under clause (iii), the Secretary shall require such operator to identify actions in their plan that minimize the risk of an overpressurization event. .