1. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), founded in 2004, is the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) agency responsible for developing and enforcing regulations for the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound operation of the U.S.’s nearly 2.6 million miles of pipeline transportation.  PHMSA’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) is the office that monitors interstate natural gas transmission operators’ compliance with the applicable standards and regulations.
2. Enforcement – The Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 authorized PHMSA to regulate pipeline transportation of natural gas as well as the transportation and storage of liquefied natural gas (LNG).  PHMSA’s statutory authority can be found in Chapter 601 of Title 49.  The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) monitors operator compliance through a variety of inspections, such as field inspections of pipeline facilities and construction projects, and operators’ plans, procedures, and processes.  When non-compliances and safety issues are identified, they are addressed through a variety of enforcement tools, such as Corrective Action Order, Safety Order, Notices of Probable Violation, and Warning Letters (CFR Title 49, Part 190, Subpart B “Enforcement”).  To assist operators with compliance decisions PHMSA regularly publishes website rule interpretations, notices and advisory bulletins, FAQs, and enforcement guidance, which describes practices used by PHMSA personnel in undertaking their compliance, inspection, and enforcement activities.
3. CFR Title 49 – CFR Title 49 is the main set of statutes and regulations issued by the DOT and Homeland Security regarding transportation and transportation related security.  Parts 190-199 pertain to interstate gas pipelines, and Part 192 is considered the minimum federal safety standards that transmission operators must follow to stay in compliance, although individual states can have their own more stringent laws and regulations.  Part 192 covers items such as construction requirements, pipeline design, operating and maintenance procedures, corrosion control, integrity management programs, and emergency plans.
   a.  Electronic Code of Federal Regulations Title 49
4. Rulemaking – PHMSA utilizes rulemaking to propose and adopt changes to regulations.  This process can be initiated by PHMSA for several reasons such as a new statutory mandate from Congress, PHMSA identifying a problem due to research it conducts, petitions from the public and groups such as the American Gas Association (AGA), and from agency recommendations (i.e. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and DOT Inspector General (IG)).  After the rulemaking process is initiated PHMSA issues a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), which provides an opportunity for public comments on the proposal before a final rule is issued.  After the comment period closes PHMSA reviews the comments and decided whether to modify, withdraw, or proceed with the rule as proposed and issue a final rule.
5. NTSB Recommendations – The NTSB is an independent federal agency charged by Congress to investigate transportation incidents, and it often issues safety recommendations in response to these incidents.  These recommendations usually address a specific issue or issues uncovered during an investigation or study and specify how to correct these issues. PHMSA is required by law to review and respond to these safety recommendations, although it is not required to adopt them all into new regulations.

The pipeline safety statues allow for states to assume safety authority over intrastate gas pipelines through certification agreements with PHMSA, which must be renewed annually. With this agreement, states assume the regulatory, inspection, and enforcement responsibilities for intrastate pipelines. This certification means that state agency regulations must be at least at stringent as the federal regulations, however states may pass more stringent regulations as they see fit. Currently, every state except for Alaska and Hawaii participates in one of these pipeline safety programs, which cover over 80 percent of the infrastructure under PHMSA’s authority.

Federal pipeline statues provide exclusive federal authority to regulate interstate pipelines; however, PHMSA may authorize a state to act as its agent to inspect interstate pipelines, but in this situation PHMSA retains responsibility for the actual enforcement of the regulations, as opposed to the state program agreements where the states regulate, inspect, and enforce the intrastate pipelines. Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Washington, and West Virginia are the only states authorized as interstate agents for OPS.

There are more than 2.9 million miles of natural gas pipeline in the United States: 296,700 miles of onshore trunk pipelines, 10,500 miles of field gathering pipelines, 745,600 miles of residential and commercial service pipelines, and 1.1 million miles of industrial distribution mains.⁴⁹ All 50 states and the District of Columbia maintain damage prevention laws (“One-Call,” “811,” or “Diggers Hotline”) intended to reduce the number of hazardous excavator strikes on natural gas pipelines and other underground facilities that can result in fatalities, injuries, or significant property damage.⁵⁰ Federal law requires all states to maintain a One Call, 811, or Diggers Hotline program as a condition of receiving federal grant funding for state pipeline safety programs.⁵¹ Generally, One-Call, 811, and Diggers Hotline laws establish centralized, statewide systems where a single operational center receives excavation notices and transmits them to affected transmission facility owners.⁵² These systems also provide annual pipeline safety training seminars for excavator and utility personnel, and serve as forums for pipeline safety best practices.

49. Smil, Vaclav. Natural Gas: Fuel for the 21st Century. Wiley & Sons; 2015.
50. Common Ground Alliance. Call Before You Dig. https://call811.com.
51. 49 CFR § 198.35. Regulations for Grants to Aid State Pipeline Safety Programs.
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=2e0ef242d15929abdaaaea7c668178ac&mc=true&node=se49.3.198_135&rgn=div8.
52. 49 CFR § 198.37. Regulations for Grants to Aid State Pipeline Safety Programs.
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=2e0ef242d15929abdaaaea7c668178ac&mc=true&node=se49.3.198_137&rgn=div8.

Pipeline damage prevention laws are enforced in 49 states and the District of Columbia.  Prevention laws and penalties assessed for violations differ depending on the jurisdiction involved.⁵³ Generally, states that do enforce prevention laws do so by assessing financial penalties against excavators or utilities for violations of the law.  Many states assess stronger financial penalties for repeat offenses and persisting violations.  Several states assess penalties based on the outcome of the violation, where excavator or utility incidents leading to fatalities, serious injuries, or significant property damage are penalized stronger than incidents without serious outcomes.  At least one state assesses a flat fee for all prevention law violations.  PHMSA assumed limited enforcement authority in the Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Enforcement and Safety (PIPES) Act of 2006 regarding violations of state damage prevention laws in states with inadequate enforcement programs.⁵⁴  The PIPES Act mandates that all excavators nationwide must utilize the One-Call, 811, or Diggers Hotline system to establish the location of underground facilities prior to digging.  The Act also requires excavators to heed locational information or markings provided by underground facility owners and directs all excavators to promptly report damaged pipelines to facility owners or the escape of hazardous substances to emergency responders.  The PIPES Act authorizes PHMSA to evaluate the effectiveness of state damage prevention programs, using the following nine criteria elements for successful programs:

1. Participation by operators, excavators, and other stakeholders in the development and implementation of methods for establishing and maintaining effective communications between stakeholders from receipt of an excavation notification until successful completion of the excavation, as appropriate.  [49 U.S.C. § 60134(b)(1)].
2. A process for fostering and ensuring the support and partnership of stakeholders, including excavators, operators, locators, designers, and local government in all phases of the program.  [49 U.S.C. § 60134(b)(2)].
3. A process for reviewing the adequacy of a pipeline operator’s internal performance measures regarding persons performing locating services and quality assurance programs.  [49 U.S.C. § 60134(b)(3)].
4. Participation by operators, excavators, and other stakeholders in the development and implementation of effective employee training programs to ensure that operators, the one-call center, the enforcing agency, and the excavators, have partnered to design and implement training for the employees of operators, excavators, and locators.  [49 U.S.C. § 60134(b)(4].
5. A process for fostering and ensuring active participation by all stakeholders in public education for damage prevention activities.  [49 U.S.C. § 60134(b)(5)].
6. A process for resolving disputes that defines the state authority’s role as a partner and facilitator to resolve issues.  [49 U.S.C. § 60134(b)(6)].
7. Enforcement of state damage prevention laws and regulations for all aspects of the damage prevention process, including public education, and the use of civil penalties for violations assessable by the appropriate state authority.  [49 U.S.C. § 60134(b)(7)].
8. A process for fostering and promoting the use, by all appropriate stakeholders, of improving technologies that may enhance communications, underground pipeline locating capability, and gathering and analyzing information about the accuracy and effectiveness of locating programs.  [49 U.S.C. § 60134(b)(8)].
9. A process for review and analysis of the effectiveness of each program element, including a means for implementing improvements identified by such program reviews.  [49 U.S.C. § 60134(b)(9)].

PHMSA issued a Final Order regarding the PIPES Act of 2006 in July 2015.⁵⁵   In the Final Order, PHMSA clarified the criteria under which it may find a state’s damage prevention program inadequate.  Guided by the nine elements identified in the PIPES Act, PHMSA established the following seven criteria for effective prevention programs:

1. 1. Does the state have the authority to enforce its state excavation damage prevention law using civil penalties and other appropriate sanctions for violations?  [49 CFR 198.55(a)(1)].
   2. Has the state designated a state agency or other body as the authority responsible for enforcement of the state excavation damage prevention law?  [49 CFR 198.55(a)(2)].
   3. Is the state assessing civil penalties and other appropriate sanctions for violations at levels sufficient to deter compliance and is the state making publicly available information that demonstrates the effectiveness of the state’s enforcement program?  [49 CFR 198.55(a)(3)].
   4. Does the enforcement authority (if one exists) have a reliable mechanism (e.g., mandatory reporting, complaint-driven reporting) for learning about excavation damage to underground facilities?  [49 CFR 198.55(a)(4)].
   5. Does the state employ excavation damage investigation practices that are adequate to determine the responsible party or parties when excavation damage to underground facilities occurs?  [49 CFR 198.55(a)(5)].
   6. At a minimum, do the state’s excavation damage prevention requirements include the following:
      
      1. Excavators may not engage in excavation activity without first using an available one-call notification system to establish the location of underground facilities in the excavation area.  [49 CFR 198.55(a)(6)(i)].
      2. Excavators may not engage in excavation activity in disregard of the marked location of a pipeline facility as established by a pipeline operator.  [49 CFR 198.55(a)(6)(ii)].⁵⁶
      3. An excavator who causes damage to a pipeline facility:
         
         1. Must report the damage to the operator of the facility at the earliest practical moment after discovery of the damage; and [49 CFR 198.55(a)(6)(iii)(a)].
         2. If the damage results in the escape of any PHMSA-regulated natural and other gas or hazardous liquid, must promptly report to other appropriate authorities by calling the 911 emergency telephone number or another emergency telephone number.[49 CFR 198.55(a)(6)(iii)(b)].
   7. Does the state limit exemptions for excavators from its excavation damage prevention law?  A state must provide to PHMSA a written justification for any exemptions for excavators from state damage prevention requirements.  PHMSA will make the written justifications available to the public.
      
      1. PHMSA may consider individual enforcement actions taken by a state in evaluating the effectiveness of a state’s damage prevention enforcement program.  [49 CFR 198.55(a)(7)(b)].

Based on an annual review process, if PHMSA determines from the above criteria that a state’s damage prevention program is inadequate, then it may immediately take action, if warranted, against excavators in the state for violations of the PIPES Act of 2006.  States are given five years from the date of the finding to establish a minimally adequate program.  Failure to establish an acceptable program within five years risks reduced federal grant funding as a result.⁵⁷

^53. Summary of Civil Penalty Requirements for All 50 States. Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. Docket 9300-PLI-108. Electronic Records Filing #403313. January 21, 2021.

^54. 49 U.S.C. § 60134 Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Enforcement, and Safety Act of 2006. https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/docs/technical-resources/pipeline/gas-distribution-integrity-management/61781/pipesact2006.pdf.

^55. 49 CFR Parts 196 and 198. Pipeline Safety: Pipeline Damage Prevention Programs. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Department of Transportation (DOT); 2015. 

^56. 49 CFR 198.55. Regulations for Grants to Aid in State Pipeline Safety Programs. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHSMA), Department of Transportation (DOT); 2015. https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=2e0ef242d15929abdaaaea7c668178ac&mc=true&node=se49.3.198_155&rgn=div8.

^57. 49 CFR 198.53. Regulations for Grants to Aid in State Pipeline Safety Programs. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHSMA), Department of Transportation (DOT); 2015. https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=2e0ef242d15929abdaaaea7c668178ac&mc=true&node=se49.3.198_153&rgn=div8.