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Public Awareness Roundtable

  • July 19-21, 2010

Hyatt Regency Downtown Hotel - Houston, Texas

Chairs - 2010

 

Part of the SGA Operating Conference

Click this link to register for the conference

 

Future locations:

  • Operating Conference - July 12-14, 2011: Jacksonville FL (Hyatt Hotel)
  • Operating Conference - July 2012: Ft. Worth TX (Omni Hotel)

 

The information below is from the 2009 program. More details for the 2010 program will be available here starting early 2010.

 

Handouts

 

Associate Member Participation:

This roundtable is open to associate members.

 

Chairs - 2009

Contribute to the Discussions:

This is your meeting! Weigh in with the Roundtable Chairs to offer additional topics for discussion.

2009  Agenda

Come early and attend one of the breakout sessions: Breakout Sessions

Monday, July 20

1:00 - 5:00 pm          Breakout Sessions

3:00 - 6:30 pm          Exhibits Open

Tuesday - July 21

7:00 - 8:00 am          Breakfast in Exhibit Hall

8:00 - 11:30 am        Public Awareness Roundtable Discussions

8:30 - 9:00 am         Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:00 - 9:30 am        PHMSA Report (John Jacobi - CATS - DOT/Pipeline Safety)

9:30 - 10:00 am      API Recommendations Update (Gina Greenslate)

10:00 - 10:15 am    Break

10:15 - 11:00 am    Best Practices - TPAA Lessons Learned (Jerry Gann - Centerpoint)

11:00 - 11:30 am    Roundtable and De-brief Morning Session

11:30 - 1:00 pm         Lunch

1:00 - 4:00 pm           Roundtable Discussion Continues:

    Topics:

      • Best Practices
      • Triggers
      • Audits - Lessons Learned
      • Clearinghouse - Process and Update
      • Measurement of Effectiveness
      • Public Awareness and Ingerity Management
      • Supplementals
      • Damage Prevention - Encroachment and Near Misses
      • Update on RP 1162
      • Pipelines and informed Planning Alliance (PIPA) Communications

      Efforts (PHMSA program)

7:00 pm                       Houston Astros vs St. Louis Cardinals

Everyone receives a ticket for registration for the SGA Operating Conference

Wednesday, July 22

7:00 - 8:00 am             Continental Breakfast

Sponsored by Miller Pipeline

8:30 - 11:30 am           Public Awareness Roundtable Discussions

8:30 - 8:45 am        Review of Previous Day and Prioritizing Remaining Time

8:45 - 9:30 am        Transmission Damage Prevention

9:30 - 10:15 am      Distribution Damage Prevention (Joe Berry - CenterPoint)

10:15 - 10:30 am    Break

10:30 - 11:30 am    Wrap up

    • Issues and Challenges Going Forward
    • Education and collaboration opportunities
    • Hand-off Chair to Letica
    • Select a Co-Chair
    • Adjourn

Notes for Additional Topics Under Consideration for 2009

Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Enforcement, and Safety (PIPES) Act

The law, among other things, authorized substantial funding for the Common Ground Alliance (CGA), authorized grant money for projects to enhance locating technologies and directly addressed the issue of state damage prevention laws and enforcement practices. The act also prescribed nine elements of an effective damage prevention law, authorized federal money for states to improve their damage prevention laws and allowed for a potential federal role in enforcing those laws in cases where states were not doing enough to enforce them. The enforcement provisions are being evaluated by key stakeholder groups working collectively to assist the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) in the implementation of those provisions.

Nine Elements

The PIPES Act provides nine elements of an effective law — elements that were agreed to by virtually all stakeholders during the legislative process. The elements are as follows:

(1) Participation by operators, excavators, and other stakeholders in the development and implementation of methods for establishing and maintaining effective communications between stakeholders from receipt of an excavation notification until successful completion of the excavation, as appropriate.

(2) A process for fostering and ensuring the support and partnership of stakeholders, including excavators, operators, locators, designers, and local government in all

phases of the program.

(3) A process for reviewing the adequacy of a pipeline operator’s internal performance measures regarding persons performing locating services and quality assurance programs.

(4) Participation by operators, excavators, and other stakeholders in the development and implementation of effective employee training programs to ensure that operators, the one-call center, the enforcing agency, and the excavators have partnered to design and implement training for the employees of operators, excavators and locators.

(5) A process for fostering and ensuring active participation by all stakeholders in public education for damage prevention activities.

(6) A process for resolving disputes that defines the State authority’s role as a partner and facilitator to resolve issues.

(7) Enforcement of State damage prevention laws and regulations for all aspects of the damage prevention process, including public education, and the use of

civil penalties for violations assessable by the appropriate State authority.

(8) A process for fostering and promoting the use, by all appropriate stakeholders, of improving technologies that may enhance communications, underground

pipeline locating capability, and gathering and analyzing information about the accuracy and effectiveness of locating programs.

(9) A process for review and analysis of the effectiveness of each program element, including a means for implementing improvements identified by such program reviews.

 

 

Click this link to listen to the 2008 session's Co-Chairs de-brief and summarize their 2008 session:

De-Brief Web Conference

 

Handouts - 2008

Roster

Agenda

Revisions to API RP-1162 - Gina Greenslate

Common Ground Alliance

Food4Thought-Karen Butler

Related Links:

Community Events and Technical Services

Public Awareness Programs

Public Awareness Interest Group Web Page

Damage Information Reporting Too

Common Ground Alliance

811

Questions?

Randy Randolph

Southern Gas Association

rrandolph@southerngas.org

 

This page updated: August 5, 2009