Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee

1

• Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee
• Pipeline Safety in Washington
• Oversight and Review of Washingtons Pipeline
  Safety Office
• Report Follow-up
• June 16, 2004
• Heather Moss, JLARC Staff

2
Overview

• Legislature mandated JLARC review
• 1999 Bellingham explosion
• WUTC delegated interstate oversight
• JLARC made recommendations in three areas
• Conducting Inspections
• Mapping Pipelines
• Assessing Fees
• WUTC has made progress in each area and plans
  additional efforts

3
Inspections

• 2003 findings Good job in developing program,
  but need to identify additional risk reduction
  strategies
• Rec. 1 Focus on risk
• Rec. 2 Integrate best practices
• In response UTC established a task force to
  improve excavation techniques, adopted new gas
  safety rules, will enhance risk assessment
  training for inspectors

4
Mapping

• 2003 findings Extensive emergency response
  network already exists the WUTC should identify
  how else it will use mapping information
• Rec. 3 Integrate mapping with related efforts
• In response UTC gradually developing GIS
  structure, next step is to identify specific
  local data needs not yet investigating
  additional uses of system

5
Fee Methodology

• 2003 finding Fees charged to pipeline operators
  did not reflect actual costs of inspections
• Rec. 4 Align fees with workload
• In Response UTC changed the fee methodology to
  align inspection costs with fees charged to each
  operator

6
One Year Later

• In response to JLARC recommendations, UTC has
  taken a number of actions to improve pipeline
  safety efforts
• Some future proposed activities hold promise
• Developing a risk reduction strategy
• Implementing enforcement policies
• Using mapping to support inspections