How safe are all the old oil and gas pipelines that crisscross the U.S., and does it make sense to pressure-test most of them? The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration is developing a verification process that may subject to hydrostatic pressure testing as much as 95%, or 182,000 miles, of the U.S. pipelines that transport crude oil, gasoline and other liquids. Up-to-date records also would be required.
Evan Vokes, a pipeline safety consultant for Tar Sands Blockade, a coalition of grassroots opponents to the Keystone XL pipeline, sees much sense in the initiative, but oil and gas companies already are questioning the program's legality. In a Feb. 20 joint letter from the American Petroleum Institute and the Association of Oil Pipelines, pipeline operators submitted their first official response to PHMSA's proposal. The groups argued that Congress had not given PHMSA the authority to develop an integrity verification process.