On September 27, APGA’s President, Bert Kalisch, and Vice President of Operations, John Erickson, spoke to over 70 state pipeline safety regulators during the national meeting of the National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives (NAPSR) in Indianapolis. Steve Allen of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission currently chairs NAPSR.
Bert briefed the regulators on some of the major issues APGA is following in Washington, D.C., including the recent supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking on furnace efficiency, the mandate for fossil fuel-free government buildings and other federal actions that inhibit or outright ban the direct-use of natural gas. With all the benefits of natural gas (e.g., clean, domestically-produced and economical), the government should be promoting natural gas, not limiting its use, he said. Bert described the APGA System Operational Achievement Recognition (SOAR) program and recognized the 21 systems that earned SOAR in 2014, eight more in 2015, and 12 additional in 2016. He also described the APGA Gas Overall Awareness Level (GOAL) program for public awareness program effectiveness assessment and the benchmarking program.
John covered the activities of the APGA Security and Integrity Foundation (SIF). Many state regulators are active on the SIF Board and on SIF advisory groups. He discussed recent and pending improvements to the Simple, Handy, Risk-based Integrity Management Plan (SHRIMP) program, including adding the ability to track and analyze performance measures within SHRIMP. By the end of 2016, the SIF will have similar programs to help utilities write operations and maintenance manuals, public awareness plans, anti-drug and alcohol plans, operator qualification plans and all other required plans and procedures. In addition, the SIF is developing applications for smartphones and tablets to record all inspection, maintenance and construction data while in the field. The SIF aims to offer a full menu of programs to assist small operators to safely and efficiently operate natural gas distribution systems.
For questions on this article, please contact John Erickson of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-0834 or by email at jerickson@apga.org.