Accident Prevention

Preventing Damage from Digging

One of the pipeline industry's major safety initiatives in recent years has been the prevention of spills caused by third parties-i.e., people who damage pipes digging into them.  Third parties can include landowners (farmers, homeowners, tenants); road construction crews; residentials commercial developers; or one-call partners (pipelines and other underground utilities that pay for "call before you dig" systems).  While third party damage incidents represents only 7% of incidents overall, they are the highest consequence because 90% of the incidents occur on the right-of-way.  Between 1999-2007, 41% of these incidents have resulted in release of 50 barrels or more on the right-of-way. 

When they happen, these excavation accidents often severely damage the pipe resulting in larger spills than other types of accidents. They are also a type of accident that has been proven to be especially preventable through education of excavators, communities and pipeline right-of-way neighbors. For this reason, the industry and federal regulators have made prevention of damage from excavation a top priority. Tell me more about how to prevent digging accidents.

The first line of defense against third-party damage is the national network of call centers, routed by 811. These centers help excavators such as construction companies, farmers, and public utility employees, to locate precisely the pipelines so they can avoid damaging them.   When a stakeholder dials 811, the call is routed to a state clearinghouse, where the request is processed.  The local operator gathers location information and passes it along to the utility companies.  Companies that may be affected by the project then send out representatives to mark their rights-of-way.   It is a common myth that pipelines can be precisely located by their right-of-way signs. Tell me more about this myth.

One Call programs are organized and operated at the state level. They are typically funded by the underground facilities - petroleum and natural gas pipelines, utility and telecommunications cables, as well as water, sewer and electric utilities. Show me a reference list of One Call numbers.

A national education campaign - called Dig Safely - was launched in 1999. Excavators need to know about One Call centers so they will take advantage of their pipeline location services. This is so fundamental to prevention efforts that the industry and the U.S. Department of Transportation pilot tested and have now formally launched the nationwide public education and awareness campaign, Dig Safely.

Another important measure to prevent excavation accidents is to provide for land use planning that will help protect both pipes and people. In many cases around the country, communities have grown in population and have expanded into formerly undeveloped areas. In doing so, the communities have absorbed land that contains pipeline rights-of-way: the industry, therefore, has begun urging the implementation of land use policies that would set up buffers to prevent urban encroachment on pipeline rights-of-way.

Corrosion Prevention

Corrosion prevention is a high priority for the industry.  The industry's integrity managment cycle of assessment, in-line inspection, and repair has reduced the number of releases 70%. The pipeline industry has developed a range of technologies to eliminate or reduce corrosion.

• Cathodic protection is required on all interstate pipelines, and has been for decades. (This technique uses a constant low voltage electrical current run through the pipeline to counteract corrosion.)
• Recent improvements in pipeline coating materials also help reduce the risk of a corrosion-related failure.
• The U.S. Department of Transportation is revising the pipeline safety regulations to incorporate more stringent corrosion prevention rules - a change supported by the oil pipeline industry.

Pigs and Smart Pigs

Pigs are cylinder shaped plugs of the same diameter as a particular pipeline. Two important accident prevention purposes of pigs include:

• Detecting potential leaks before they can happen. Smart pigs are fitted with sophisticated electronic sensors that can help locate some pipeline wall weaknesses before they can progress to the point of causing a leak.
• Scraping build-up off the interior wall of the pipeline to help prevent interior corrosion.

Central Coordination and Control

Pipeline systems are operated from highly computerized control centers which coordinate operations throughout the system - everything from rate of flow, to pressure, to opening and closing valves. The control centers also monitor devices that can alert operators to abrupt changes in operating parameters, providing a detection mechanism for fast response to emergency conditions. Satellite and telecommunications links connect control centers with facilities along pipelines to assure rapid response and constant monitoring of pipeline conditions.

Training

Pipeline companies constantly train control room operators and maintenance personnel for their specific pipeline systems. Each pipeline is unique, custom built to match the specific terrain, products and other factors that are peculiar to a system's operations. Safety drills are conducted so that operators and emergency response personnel know the details of their unique system.

This training and safety drilling is designed to protect against the human factors that can either cause accidents or make them worse once they happen. A new set of even more stringent qualification procedures has been adopted following a joint safety improvement effort between pipeline companies and the federal Office of Pipeline Safety.