The United States is heavily dependent on transmission pipelines to distribute energy because they are the safest mode available for transporting energy fuels. Virtually all natural gas, which accounts for about 28 percent of energy consumed annually, and two-thirds of petroleum products are transported by transmission pipelines, which make up 20 percent of the 1.8 million total miles of pipelines in the United States. Energy demand has increased by about 35 percent in the last decade, and recent estimates indicate that the demand for energy fuels may increase by another 36 percent between 2002 and 2010. The nation’s projected demand for energy, particularly in new and fast-growing metropolitan areas, may require many additional miles of transmission pipelines. Increasing urbanization, which is accompanying the increasing demand, is resulting in more people living and working closer to pipelines. In many cases, development near pipelines is occurring in formerly rural, unincorporated areas long after pipelines have been constructed but before local agencies develop land use regulations that take into account the risks of allowing such development to occur. Given these projections and the fact that pipeline incidents occur almost daily in the United States, regulatory agencies at the national level view pipeline safety as an issue that needs to be addressed. In recent years major pipeline incidents have occurred, and public opposition to the construction of new pipeline rights-of-way has increased. These events have focused more attention on the need to assess carefully and rationally the actual risks associated with living and working in proximity to transmission pipelines and to consider land use controls near pipelines that will allow people and pipelines to coexist in a manner that does not pose undue risk to each other. In December 2002, Congress enacted the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002, which requires the Secretary of Transportation, in conjunction with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and in consultation with other relevant agencies, to conduct a study of population encroachment on rights-of-way. The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) in the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) requested the Transportation Research Board (TRB) to assist in meeting this legislative mandate. Specifically, TRB was asked to convene a committee to consider the feasibility of developing risk-informed guidance that could be used in making land use-related decisions as one means of minimizing or mitigating hazards and risks to the public, pipeline workers, and the environment near existing and future hazardous liquids and natural gas transmission pipelines. This is the report of this committee. (Author/publisher)
Abstract