Department of Transportation
Office of the Chief Information Officer
Supporting Statement
Pipeline Safety: Transportation of Hazardous Liquids by Pipeline: Recordkeeping and Accident Reporting
OMB Control No. 2137-0047
INTRODUCTION
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) requests approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an extension and amendment of a currently approved collection entitled “Pipeline Safety: Transportation of Hazardous Liquids by Pipeline: Recordkeeping and Accident Reporting” (OMB Control No. 2137-0047). The amendment of this information collection is necessary due to PHMSA actions that affect this information collection. The specific action is as follows:
Docket No.: PHMSA-2008-0211 Incident/Accident Information Collection Notice (Incident/Accident Notice)
Part A. Justification
1. Circumstances that make collection of information necessary.
Hazardous liquid pipeline operators must keep records to ensure that their pipelines are operated safely. Operators must also report accidents. The information collection promotes the U.S. DOT’s Safety and Environmental Strategic Goals by identifying areas which would benefit from targeted regulatory actions to decrease incidents involving hazardous liquid low-stress lines.
2. How, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used.
The information collection provides PHMSA with the information necessary to evaluate the risk posed by these lines. PHMSA will use the information provided in the reports to more accurately assess the risks to pipeline infrastructure, understand emerging safety related trends, and identify opportunities for improving the regulatory system for rural low-stress pipeline.
3. Extent of automated information collection.
PHMSA Forms 7000.1 Hazardous Liquid Accident Report may be submitted electronically on-line on the PHSMA website. PHMSA encourages the use of electronic technology. Safety-related condition information is submitted either by telephone or e-mail. PHMSA expects at least 75 percent of data collection and reporting to be completed electronically.
4. Efforts to identify duplication.
There is no duplication, as the information is unique to specific situations.
5. Efforts to minimize the burden on small businesses.
The burden has been made as simple as possible. PHMSA expects impacted operators to be large and small businesses. For PHMSA to be able to effectively carry out its legislative mandate and monitor natural gas pipeline safety, it is essential that both large and small operators of pipelines provide incident reports.
6. Impact of less frequent collection of information.
It is not possible to conduct the collection less frequently and still ensure the necessary level of safety to life and property inherent in transporting hazardous materials. PHMSA would not be able to adequately assess potential risks associated with these pipelines, which could potentially be detrimental to the pipeline safety and the protection of the environment. Therefore, less frequent information collection could compromise the safety of the U.S. pipeline system and the environment.
7. Special circumstances.
This collection of information is generally conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2). There are three anticipated potential special circumstance regarding information collection: (1) A special circumstance could occur if an operator has more than one low-stress pipeline incident or accident within an officially recognized business quarter; (2) An operator may have an accident or incident in the same quarter as their annual report is submitted; and (3) More than a single safety-related condition within a single business quarter is also possible. Operators’ safety measures and vigilance can avoid such circumstances. As such, PHMSA does not mandate information collection occur twice within a single quarter.
8. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.8.
We have issued several notices and rulemaking which affect this information collection. The Federal Register publication dates and citations for these notices/rulemakings are as follows:
9. Payments or gifts to respondents.
There is no payment or gift provided to respondents associated with this collection of information.
10. Assurance of confidentiality.
The recordkeeping requirements of this information collection do not include anything of a sensitive nature or of any matters considered private. Therefore, we do not foresee any need to assure confidentiality of the information to be collected.
11. Justification for collection of sensitive information.
The recordkeeping requirements of this information collection do not involve questions of a sensitive nature.
12. Estimate of burden hours for information requested.
Transportation of
Hazardous Liquids by Pipeline: Recordkeeping and Accident Reporting
(PHMSA Form 7000-1)
PHMSA estimates that the currently approved 200 respondents for this information collection should be revised to 300 respondents. This 100 respondent increase reflects the number of smaller entities that were previously unaccounted for due to the fact that they did not have to pay user fees and were not inspected by PHMSA. Therefore, this group became recognized after we began collecting annual reports in 2004.
Initially this information collection applied to all operators of rural on-shore low-stress pipelines must comply with the reporting requirements of 49 CFR 195 Subpart B to the submission of annual reports on their low-stress pipeline. Upon further review, this information collection is accounted for under OMB Collection # 2137-0614 entitled “Pipeline Safety: New Reporting Requirements for Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Operators: Hazardous Liquid Annual Report.” This reduces the overall burden hours by 5,364 estimated hours. Therefore, the result of the burden hours relative to this and the proposed actions specified above is detailed as follows:
Estimated Annual Burden Hours:
51,011 hours (Currently Approved)
- 5,364 hours (Annual Report Covered in 2137-0614)
45,647 hours Subtotal
+3,000 hours (Incident Accident Notice)
48,647 hours New Total Annual Burden hours
Accident Reporting (Incident/Accident Notice)
Currently, PHMSA estimates that 400 accident reports (responses) are submitted each year and that 200 responses take 6 hours to complete and that the additional 200 responses take one hour to complete. This results in a burden hour estimate of 1,400 hours ((200 * 6)+(200*1)).
PHMSA estimates that 400 accident reports are submitted each year. This estimate is based on accident reporting data that PHMSA has collected over the past seven years (2002 – 2008). PHMSA estimates that the proposed form changes relative to the “Incident/Accident Notice” will result in a 4 hour increase in the amount of time necessary to complete 200 of the 400 responses. For the remaining 200 responses we estimate that it will take only 5 hour to complete the revised form (For accidents involving a “small release” (release between 5 gallons and 5 barrels), only certain parts of the revised form are required to be filled out. Of the total 400 accident forms submitted 200 are “small release” reports). This amendment will results in a burden hour estimate of 3,000 hours ((200 responses * (6+4)) + (200 * 5)).
Total Burden Hours
Once this information collection is approved, there would be decrease in the burden hour estimate specified in this information collection. This would result in a burden hour estimate of 48,647 hours based on the removal of burden hours associated with OMB Collection # 2137-0614 entitled “Pipeline Safety: New Reporting Requirements for Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Operators: Hazardous Liquid Annual Report” as specified above. Therefore, each operator would have an annual burden hour estimated of 163 hours (48,647 ÷ 300).
13. Estimate of total annual costs to respondents.
The expected costs associated with the burden hours are assumed to be filled out by a senior engineer whose fully-loaded hourly cost (i.e., salary plus overhead) is estimated to $64.75 x 48,647 hours = $3,149,894.
14. Estimate of cost to the Federal government.
No federal costs above and beyond salaries are anticipated.
15. Explanation of program changes or adjustments.
Incident/Accident Notice (30 day Notice)
PHMSA proposed revisions to the distribution and transmission incident forms specified in a notice that was originally published in the Federal register on September 4, 2008 (73 FR 51697 and followed by a comment period extension on October 30, 2008 (73 FR 64661). If approved, this would 1,600 burden hours to this information collection.
Review of Information Collection:
While reviewing this information collection, PHMSA has uncovered an action that needs to be corrected. This information collection initially included information collection activities associated with annual reports for Hazardous Liquids (HLs). This information collection is accounted for under OMB Collection # 2137-0614 entitled “Pipeline Safety: New Reporting Requirements for Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Operators: Hazardous Liquid Annual Report.” This will remove 5,364 burden hours from this information collection.
16. Publication of results of data collection.
The results of the accident, incident, and annual reports will be summarized and posted on PHMSA’s website.
17. Approval for not displaying the expiration date for OMB approval.
PHMSA is not seeking approval to not display the expiration date.
18. Exceptions to certification statement.
There is no exception to PHMSA’s certification of this request for information collection approval.
Attachments:
Attachment |
Description |
Comment Summary (30 day notice) |
Summary of comments and PHMSA response |
Clean Hazardous Liquid Accident Report (PHMSA F-7000-1) |
Finalized Proposed Form (FPF) and instructions |
Comparison Hazardous Liquid Accident (PHMSA F-7000-1) |
FPF with highlights to distinguish between currently approved form and FPF |
Part B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods.
This information collection does not employ statistical methods.
1. Describe potential respondent universe and any sampling selection method to be used.
There is no potential respondent universe or any sampling selection method being used.
2. Describe procedures for collecting information, including statistical methodology for stratification and sample selection, estimation procedures, degree of accuracy needed, and less than annual periodic data cycles.
There are no procedures for collecting information, including statistical methodology for stratification and sample selection, estimation procedures, degree of accuracy needed, and less than annual periodic data cycles.
3. Describe methods to maximize response rate.
There are no methods to maximize the response rate.
4. Describe tests of procedures or methods.
There are no tests of procedures or methods.
5. Provide name and telephone number of individuals who were consulted on statistical aspects of the information collection and who will actually collect and/or analyze the information.
There were no individuals consulted on statistical aspects of this information collection.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Paperwork Reduction Act |
| Author | Adam Klauber |
| Last Modified By | cameron.satt |
| File Modified | 2009-12-15 |
| File Created | 2009-12-15 |