The NPMS -A decision support and community education tool
The role of the NPMS at OPS
OPS is moving toward risk-based regulatory practices. A rulemaking entitled “Pipeline
Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas [Hazardous Liquid Operators with
500 or More Miles]” (Integrity Management Program or IMP) was published in
December 2001. The objective of the rule is to improve pipeline safety through new
requirements for periodic testing, integrated evaluation of risk information, improved
federal/state oversight of operator integrity management programs and plans, and
enhanced communication to communities. The initial rule applies to operators with 500
or more miles of hazardous liquid pipelines jurisdictional to 49 CFR Part 195. A similar
rule for operators of smaller, jurisdictional hazardous liquid pipeline systems will follow
shortly. OPS also intends to issue an integrity management rule for natural gas
transmission operators, as well as requirements to improve community awareness and
address “public right to know” concerns in 2001.
A key feature of IMP is that it provides protection for OPS-defined High Consequence
Areas (HCA’s). Instead of a simple plan for inspections, IMP requires that operators
focus resources to ensure the integrity of pipeline facilities in geographic areas (HCA’s)
where the consequences of a pipeline release would be most adverse. HCA’s were
defined with the help of GIS technology and readily available data. Populated areas,
environmentally sensitive areas, and waterways were identified in the early development
of the rule as areas in need of protection. GIS and the NPMS played integral parts in
characterizing these geographic areas and in developing final definitions for HCA’s.
HCA’s are defined as:
- environmentally unusually sensitive areas (USA’s), including both ecological and
drinking water USA’s (defined in 49 CFR Part 195.6),
- high population areas (HPA’s) and other populated areas (OPA’s) as delineated by
the U.S. Census Bureau, and
- commercially navigable waterways (CNW’s), which are derived from a data set
produced on behalf of several federal agencies responsible for navigable waterway
delineation, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Under this rulemaking, operators are required to develop a written Integrity Management
Program. As part of this integrity management program, operators must identify all
pipeline segments that could affect an HCA. The NPMS is an invaluable resource for
this task. With the exception of USA’s, all HCA’s are currently delineated and are
available in digital format to the pipeline industry through the NPMS website. USA’s are
partially complete at present, and are to be completed by the end of calendar year 2001.
Approximately 86% of the hazardous liquid pipeline mileage jurisdictional to 49 CFR
Part 195 resides in the NPMS as of June 27, 2001. Using GIS and the data as provided
by the NPMS, operators can identify pipeline segments with the potential to affect high
consequence areas. In addition, hardcopy maps submitted to the NPMS have been
digitized, and operators can access this digital data through the NPMS website. Finally,
the NPMS provides a common data set as reference for both operators and regulators to
aid in achieving the requirement of identifying pipeline segments that can affect HCA’s.
HCA boundaries will change over time due to population expansion, the addition of
environmental data, etc. New HCA’s will be made available to the industry via the
Internet. Any new HCA’s must be incorporated into operators’ integrity management
plans within one year of the identification of the new areas. Integrity assessments of
segments that could affect these new HCA’s must be completed within five years of their
identification.
Access to the NPMS
A homepage for the NPMS is available on the Internet at
www.npms.rspa.dot.gov. The
site provides general information regarding the NPMS, the ability to download standards,
software, and data and metadata, statistics regarding NPMS participants and their
submissions, and contact information for the NPMS repositories and management. Also
available at the site is a link to an ESRI Internet Map Server (IMS) application. The
application allows users to view pipelines that have been incorporated into the NPMS in
relation to high consequence areas and other geographic features. The application also
allows users to view pipelines in their communities; either by selecting a ZIP code,
state/county name, or zooming into the geographic area of interest.
All high consequence areas that have been delineated are available for viewing and
querying on the IMS application. With the exception of ecological unusually sensitive
areas, all high consequence areas are also available for download from the NPMS Web
site. Due to data licensing restrictions, the ecological USA data is available only to
hazardous liquid pipeline operators and must be requested from OPS (instructions for
making data requests are available on the NPMS Web site). Several other data layers
have been collected from other Federal agencies and either are or will be available on the
Internet mapping application and for download from the NPMS Web site. These layers
include:
- earthquake, hurricane, flood, and landslide hazard indexes,
- state and county boundaries,
- the U.S. DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ National Transportation
Atlas Data
- USGS’s National Hydrography Dataset,
- U.S. Postal Service ZIP codes, and
- Congressional districts.
National security has been a recurring issue associated with the collection of NPMS data.
The Chief Infrastructure Assurance Officer and other security personnel at the U.S. DOT
have determined that NPMS data poses no threat to national security due to the inability
of “worst-case scenarios” to be derived from the use of these data. Due to the fact that
attributes such as throughput and operating pressure are not part of the NPMS, and that
pipeline diameter is an optional attribute, the NPMS is not considered a risk to national
security.
Timeline
The original goal of the NPMS was to collect 70% of all pipeline mileage jurisdictional
to OPS by the end of calendar year 2000. OPS met its goal of collecting 70% of the
hazardous liquid pipelines but fell far short in collecting the natural gas transmission
pipelines. As of June 27, 2001, the NPMS contained approximately 55% of all pipeline
mileage jurisdictional to OPS. OPS continues working with the trade associations and
pipeline operators in requesting pipeline data and updates to previous submissions.
Partial and piecemeal submissions are encouraged in order to expedite population of the
database. OPS encourages pipeline operators and other interested parties to contact OPS
and NPMS representatives with questions or comments about the program, standards, and
the Internet-based mapping application.
In June of 2001, a Commerce Business Daily announcement was published requesting
proposals from state agencies to serve as NPMS state repositories. It is anticipated by the
fall of 2001, several additional state repositories will be added to the NPMS program.
Refer to the NPMS Web page for additions to the NPMS state repository program.
