Department of Transportation
Office of the Chief Information Officer
Supporting Statement
Gas and Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Program Certifications
INTRODUCTION
This is to request the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) renewed three-year approved clearance for the information collection entitled, “Gas and Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Program Certifications” under OMB Control No. 2137-0584. This information collection is currently due to expire on July 31, 2014.
Part A. Justification
1. Circumstances that make collection of information necessary.
Chapter 601, Title 49, United States Code (49 U.S.C.) authorizes the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to regulate pipeline transportation. While DOT is primarily responsible for developing, issuing, and enforcing minimum pipeline safety regulations, Chapter 601, 49 U.S.C., provides for state assumption of all or part of the regulatory and enforcement responsibility for intrastate pipelines.
Section 60105 of 49 U.S.C. sets forth specific requirements a state must meet to qualify for certification status to assume regulatory and enforcement responsibility for intrastate pipelines, i.e., state adoption of minimum federal safety standards, state inspection of pipeline operators to determine compliance with the standards, and state provision for enforcement sanctions substantially the same as those authorized by Chapter 601, 49 U.S.C. A participating state must annually submit a Section 60105(a) Gas Pipeline Safety Program Certification and/or a Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Program Certification to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) signifying compliance with the terms of the certification.
This information collection request supports DOT’s safety performance goal of reducing total incidents for gas and hazardous liquid pipelines which directly supports the DOT’s safety strategic objective of enhancing public health and safety by working toward the elimination of transportation-related deaths and injuries.
2. How, by whom, and for what purpose is the information used.
The information provided by a state annually on the certification/agreement instruments is used by OPS for the following purposes:
As confirmation that the state wishes to continue to participate in the pipeline safety program for another year.
As a source of information for preparation and submission of the Annual Report on Pipeline Safety due to Congress August 15 each year as mandated in Chapter 601, 49 U.S.C. These sections require that the annual report include a compilation of the certifications/agreements in effect during the year, along with information on the number and qualifications of state pipeline safety inspectors, pipeline accidents, research activities, judicial actions, and information dissemination efforts.
As a measure of state program performance that can be used to calculate the state grant allocation each year. (The certification/agreement attachments are used primarily to determine the State agency’s compliance with program requirements (e.g., extent of jurisdiction, inspector qualifications, number of inspectors, number of inspection person-days, adoption of applicable Federal regulations and attendance at Federal/State meetings). A State agency’s performance is the major factor considered in allocating grant-in-aid funds each year.)
As a means of demonstrating to Congress the value of the cooperative Federal/state pipeline safety program and of justifying the appropriation of funds for pipeline safety grants.
If this information were not collected on the certification/agreement instruments, there would be no way of systematically knowing if a state intends to continue its participation in the pipeline safety program. Additionally, a major source of information for preparation of the annual report to Congress would not be available. Information indicating state program performance for calculating state grant allocations would be limited. And finally, there would be no readily available basis for estimating appropriation levels for grant funding.
3. Extent of automated information collection.
States are required to complete the application for certification via FedSTAR - an online tool. All applications must be certified by signature prior to submission. Although PHMSA is capable of receiving digital signatures, not all states delegate signature authority to the person completing the application. PHMSA estimates that 10 respondents will completely submit electronically.
4. Efforts to identify duplication.
OPS is not aware of any other entity or effort to collect this information.
5. Efforts to minimize the burden on small businesses.
Because this information collection applies only to states and not individual businesses, this question is not applicable.
6. Impact of less frequent collection of information.
If this information was collected less frequently, information used to calculate the annual state grant allocations would not be timely or accurate, possibly resulting in an inequitable distribution of funds.
7. Special circumstances.
This collection of information is generally conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2). No special circumstances apply.
8. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.8.
A notice and request for comments was published in the Federal Register on January 29, 2014 under Docket No. PHMSA-2014-0005 (79 FR 4809) inviting public comment on the renewal of this information collection. The comment period closed on March 31, 2014. No comments were received for this information collection during this time.
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.
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.
An estimate of the burden for the collection of information on the certificates follows:
(1) Gas Pipeline Safety Program Certification/Agreement (w/attachments):
51 respondents x 58.5 hours = 2,983.5 hours.
(2) Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Program Certification/Agreement (w/attachments):
16 respondents x 58.5 hours = 936 hours.
Total burden estimate: 67 Respondents (51 Gas Respondents +16 HazLiquid Respondents) and Approx. 3920 Burden hours (2,983 hours +936 hours)
3920 burden hours x an average hourly wage of $30.00/hr. = $117,600.00 total burden costs.
13. Estimate of total annual costs to respondents.
There is no cost burden to respondents except those identified in item 12 above.
14. Estimate of cost to the Federal Government.
The cost to run the program (including preparation, reviewing state submissions for accuracy and completeness; extracting information from certification/agreement attachments for use in allocation grants and post-reporting analysis) is $51,750.
The cost to maintain the FedSTAR system (updates, modifications, repairs, etc.) is $15,000.
Total Estimate of Annualized Federal Cost: $66,750. ($51,750 + $15,000)
15. Explanation of program changes or adjustments.
This is a renewal of the currently approved collection with no change.
16. Publication of results of data collection.
The information will not be published for statistical purposes.
17. Approval for not displaying the expiration date for OMB approval.
OPS is not seeking approval to not display the expiration date.
18. Exceptions to certification
There is no exception.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | Supporting Statement |
| Author | pchandle |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-27 |