The NPMS — A decision support tool
Regulatory Requirement
The Accountable Pipeline Safety and Partnership Act states that OPS must adopt rules
requiring a pipeline operator to create and maintain accurate maps that identify the
location of the operator’s natural gas transmission, significant distribution, and major
hazardous liquid pipeline facilities in the state; a description of the characteristics of the
operator’s pipelines in the state; a description of the products transported through the
operator’s pipelines; and any other information that OPS considers useful to inform a
state of the presence of pipeline facilities and operations in the state. In addition, this
information is to be made available by the operators to OPS and appropriate state
officials upon request.
To meet the intent of the mandate, OPS is requesting that operators voluntarily submit
reasonably accurate location data on natural gas transmission pipelines, hazardous liquid
trunklines, and LNG facilities operating in the United States. It is requested that the data
have a minimal positional accuracy of within 500 feet of its known geographic location.
Research indicates that most operators can easily achieve 500-foot accuracy with current
in-house data records. The success of this voluntary initiative is dependent upon operator
participation.
A Decision Support Tool
Ensuring the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound operation of the nation’s pipeline
transportation system is the mission of OPS. This mission can only be achieved if
pipeline operators and regulators know where pipelines exist in relation to people and
resources. The NPMS will assist OPS and pipeline operators in safely managing pipeline and LNG facilities. Having the ability to view pipelines in relation to high consequence
areas (including populated areas, navigable waterways, and unusually sensitive areas), as
well as environmental hazards to pipelines and other data layers, will assist OPS in
effectively carrying out its mission. The NPMS will help OPS to provide a more
comprehensive national picture of the nation’s pipelines and LNG facilities, focus
inspection resources, plan for emergencies and natural disasters, decide if and where
extra safety and environmental precautions are needed, and exchange geographic data
among government agencies and pipeline operators in a common format.
The NPMS brings the safe operation of pipelines into focus through the use of GIS and
Internet-based mapping applications. OPS has developed an Intranet-based mapping
application that allows headquarters and regional staff access to the NPMS data. Using
the NPMS, inspectors and regulators are better able to understand how pipelines relate to
the environments they traverse. In addition, OPS can better utilize resources in the
inspection planning process by prioritizing inspections for at-risk pipelines or for
pipelines which pose a greater risk to the community and the environment. The system
can also be used to better respond to release situations and to better respond to inquiries
pertaining to pipelines. Local officials will be able to use the NPMS to make better
planning and emergency response decisions. Finally, OPS and pipeline operators can use
the NPMS to communicate using common terminology.
The NPMS Model
The NPMS National Repository and nine state repositories were selected in the fall of
1998. Three more state repositories were selected in the summer of 1999. OPS has set
up cooperative agreements with state repositories located in Alabama, California,
Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma,
Pennsylvania, and Texas. In a third round of selecting state repositories, OPS published a
Commerce Business Daily (CBD) announcement in February of 2000 requesting
proposals from state agencies interested in representing the remaining states. Those
proposals have been reviewed and contract staff should announce the selected state
agencies in the fall of 2000. For those state agencies that were unable to submit a
proposal this year, another CBD announcement will be published for state repositories in
January of 2001.
There are two NPMS standards documents: the Operator Standards describe how an
operator can participate in the NPMS and the Repository Standards describe the
operations of the NPMS state and National repositories. The National Repository has also
developed metadata and attribute data software templates. These templates are
downloadable at the NPMS Web page (http://www.npms.rspa.dot.gov).
The state repositories are responsible for processing the pipeline and LNG facility data
within their state boundaries. The National Repository is primarily responsible for
processing the information for all other areas. The National Repository serves as the
final processing and storage facility for all pipeline data. The National Repository also collects data from participating state repositories to create a seamless national pipeline
and LNG database.
National Repository Tasks
The National Repository has developed an NPMS homepage. The URL for the page is
http://www.npms.rspa.dot.gov. The page includes background information on the
NPMS, repository and OPS contacts, downloadable attribute and metadata templates,
updates to the standards for the NPMS, regularly updated submission statistics, and
downloadable geospatial data used in the OPS GIS. Also included on the homepage is a
list server that allows the user to register online. This will enable the registered users to
be included in future e-mail update notifications and topical discussion from the National
Repository.
OPS has chosen U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Digital Raster Graphics (DRG) as the
basemap for the NPMS. The DRG’s are scanned USGS topographic quadrangles at
scales of 1:250,000, 1:100,000, and 1:24,000. The DRG’s were purchased from a third-party
vendor and copyright restrictions limit the distribution of the data.
The National Repository is also investigating various options in providing check plot data
back to the operators. Currently, hardcopy check plots are produced (based on random
sampling) and mailed for review by the operator. The National Repository is considering
developing an Internet application, accessible only by pipeline operators, that gives the
operators the opportunity to view their submitted data with accurate basemap data.
