[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 183 (Thursday, September 21, 1995)] [Notices] [Pages 49040-49042] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 95-23350] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT [Docket No. PS-142; Notice 1] Risk Management and the Pipeline Industry, Notice of Public Conference SUMMARY: Pipeline regulators, pipeline operators, and the public are invited to a conference, Risk Management and the Pipeline Industry, on November 6, 1995 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on Nov. 7 from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. at the McLean Hilton at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia. Sponsoring the conference are the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), RSPA, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT); the American Gas Association (A.G.A.); the American Petroleum Institute (API); the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA); the Gas Research Institute (GRI); the American Public Gas Association (APGA); and the Association of Oil Pipe Lines (AOPL). DATES: The conference will be held on November 6 through 9 at the McLean Hilton at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia. To register for the conference, please call up the Walcoff and Associates home page on the Internet, htpp://www.walcoff.com/ or fax, mail, or use the Internet to e-mail the registration printed at the end of this notice to Ms. Debra Banks, Walcoff and Associates, 12015 Lee Jackson Highway, Suite 500, Fairfax, Virginia, 22033, office: (703) 218-1449, fax: (703) 934-9866, Internet e-mail address: [email protected]. The charge for the conference lunch on November 7 is $25. Checks should be made payable to and mailed to Walcoff and Associates. Walcoff also accepts MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. Sponsors will have background material for participants to read before the conference. Background reading includes the Oil and Gas Risk Assessment Quality Team reports, the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Risk Analysis' Reform of Risk Regulation: Achieving More Protection at Less Cost, and the Gas Research Institute's Natural Gas Pipeline Risk Management Reports, Volumes One through Four. To discuss the conference or to order reading material, please contact one of the sponsors: INGAA, Terry Boss, [email protected], (202) 626-3234; API, Krista Mutch, (202) 682-8188; A.G.A., John Erickson, (703) 841-8450, [email protected]; GRI, Tina Thomas, (202) 662-8937, [email protected]; APGA, Bob Cave, (703) 352-3890; AOPL, Michele Joy, (202) 408-7970; or OPS, Melanie Barber, (202) 366-4560, [email protected]. [[Page 49041]] ADDRESSES: The conference will be held at the McLean Hilton at Tysons Corner Hotel, 7920 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, Virginia, 22102, phone: (703) 847-5000. Send two copies of written comments on the eight questions to be discussed in the November 7 break-out sessions that are listed in the next to last paragraph of this notice to the Dockets Unit, Room 8421, Research and Special Programs Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., 20590-0001. Identify the docket and notice numbers in the heading of this notice. All comments and docketed material will be available for inspection and copying in Room 8421 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. each business day. A summary of the conference will be available from the Dockets Unit about two months after the conference. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The conference will focus on openly discussing how Government and pipeline industries may use risk management, learning how risk management may be used to invest resources more wisely in pipeline safety and environmental protection, and addressing how Government can oversee pipeline operations while allowing industry more latitude in choosing safety options. Conference participants are encouraged to take part in the follow- on activities. On the morning of November 8, INGAA, GRI, and the Pipeline Research Committee are sponsoring a seminar on preventing, inspecting, identifying, and responding to third party damage to pipelines. Conferees are also invited to the Technical Pipeline Safety Advisory Committee meetings on November 8 and 9 at the McLean Hilton. The Technical Advisory Committee meeting agendas will be published in the Federal Register at least thirty days before the November 8 and 9 meetings. The conference will begin with a risk management primer on methods and tools for practitioners on November 6 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Gas Research Institute, Hartford Steam Boiler, and Chevron representatives will lead the primer. The November 7 session will start with an introduction to risk management principles and the value risk management brings to Government and industry. Keynote speakers will be Joe Martinelli, President, Chevron Pipe Line Company; John Riordon, President and CEO, MidCon Corporation; Robert Catell, President and CEO, Brooklyn Union Gas Company; Bruce Ellsworth, New Hampshire Public Utility Commissioner; and Richard Felder, Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety, OPS, RSPA, DOT. After risk management is explained, key risk management initiatives being developed will be explained. Government/Industry Oil and Gas Risk Assessment Quality Team (RAQT) members will discuss making the transition from prescriptive regulations to pipeline company specific risk management plans. Conferees will hear presentations from and ask questions of Federal, State, and Local Government officials and gas and liquid industry representatives expressing views and raising concerns about implementing risk management programs. Among featured speakers on November 7 are William Burnett, Senior Vice President, GRI; Bernie Selig, Vice President, Hartford Steam Boiler; Don Stursma, Iowa Commerce Department; Ruth Kretschmer, Illinois Commerce Commission; Andy Drake, Panhandle Eastern; Mike Neuhard, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department; and Jim Thomas, OPS Southwestern Regional Director. Following the perspective presentations and questions and answers, conferees will meet in break-out sessions to address issues raised in the presentations and the participants' concerns, including: (1) How can industry use resources more effectively to improve pipeline safety? (2) How can one determine if risk management equals or improves the current safety level? (3) Why is risk management good for a company? (4) How much flexibility will a company gain by developing an approved risk management program? (5) How much information are industry and Government comfortable sharing? (6) What are good benchmarks to judge the risk management demonstration projects? (7) How will standards be created and applied? (8) What roles do State and local agencies play? After the break-out sessions, all participants will return to the main meeting room. The break-out session leaders will summarize each break-out group's concerns and issues for all conferees to discuss. The conference is designed (1) for all pipeline stakeholders to share concerns about and discuss issues inherent to implementing risk management and (2) for government and industry to respond to these concerns and issues with strong action. Issued in Washington, D.C. on September 14, 1995. Richard B. Felder, Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety. BILLING CODE 4910-60-P [[Page 49042]] [GRAPHIC][TIFF OMITTED]TN21SE95.005 [FR Doc. 95-23350 Filed 9-20-95; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910-60-C