Pipeline Safety and Security: Improved Workforce Planning and Communication Needed

摘要

The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), within the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), is implementing a new approach to overseeing the safety of a 2.2-million-mile network of pipelines in the United States that transports potentially dangerous materials, including hazardous liquids, such as oil, and natural gas. You asked us to examine what OPS has done and plans to do to implement this new approach, which differs significantly from OPS's traditional oversight activities. Accordingly, we examined OPS's (1) steps to implement the integrity management approach, (2) challenges in implementing this approach, (3) plans for obtaining the resources and expertise needed to oversee pipeline safety under integrity management, and (4) major initiatives to improve the quality of its data on pipeline incidents.