Mike Kemper - Comment

I am writing to comment on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Pipeline Safety: Pipeline Damage Prevention Programs. The danger of cross bores posed by unmarked utility lines, especially unmarked sewer lines, is a compelling, national public safety issue. “Cross bores” refer to an unintended intersection of an existing underground utility or underground structure by a second utility resulting in compromising the integrity of either utility line. The Cross Bore Safety Association (CBSA) states that cross bores of natural gas distribution lines and sewer lines have been found to occur two to three times for every mile of gas main line. The failure to locate and mark all underground facilities has resulted in life threatening injuries, catastrophic property damage, and hundreds of millions of dollars. Many natural gas, electric, telephone and cable distribution companies have adopted programs to minimize cross bores, but certain issues are outside their control. For example, it should not be a gas, electric, telephone or cable distribution company’s (or their contractor’s) responsibility to locate underground sewer lines, nor can they do it as well as the owner/operator of the sewer lines. The owners/operators of the sewer lines should be made responsible for their own lines, as are the owners/operators of all the other underground lines. In 2006 both the Distribution Contractors Association (DCA) and the National Utilities Contractors Association (NUCA) published position papers that support the enforcement of damage prevention laws requiring all owners/operators of underground facilities to locate and mark all underground lines including sewer lines. Therefore, as PHMSA considers criteria for determining the adequacy of state damage enforcement programs, I strongly urge PHMSA to include as criteria whether states require sewer system owners/operators to locate their sewers and sewer laterals, and whether states enforce this requirement. Those states that fail to do either should be found to have inadequate state damage enforcement programs and should, among other things, be barred from federal grant funding.