Underground Construction - January 2018 - 8

WASHINGTONWATCH

By Stephen Barlas, Washington Editor

EPA Examining Further Changes
To Methane Leak Rule

The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is taking a second
look at its requirement for natural
gas pipelines to repair compressor leaks as part of the methane
emissions final rule the agency
published in 2016. That rule - a
new source performance standard
(NSPS) regulating methane and volatile organic compound emissions
from new and modified sources in
the oil and gas industry (known
as NSPS OOOOa) - affected numerous emission sites at pipelines
and wells, and prescribed control
requirements and timelines.
The agency in June 2017 had
already extended from six months
to two years the period of time a
transmission or oil company could
take to repair a leak that was infeasible or unsafe to repair during
operation of the unit at the time
the leak was discovered.
The EPA made that extension
in part because it had received
numerous "petitions for reconsideration" at the st art of 2017
covering a number of aspects of
the final rule, all submitted when
the Trump administration took
office. President Trump issued an
order requiring all federal agencies
to examine final rules issued by the
Obama administration and make
any necessary changes. Hence the
changes the EPA proposed in June.
In that June 2017 proposed
rule, besides extending the leak repair deadline, the EPA also carved
out an exception to the two-year
deadline in the event a compressor
suffered "an unscheduled or emergency vent blowdown, compressor
station shutdown, well shutdown,
or well shut-in during the delay
of repair period." If that were the
case, the leak would have to be
fixed at that time.
In an Aug. 9, 2017 response to
that proposed rule, Sandra Snyder,
regulatory attorney for Envi-

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ronment & Personnel Safety at
INGAA, objected to both the twoyear timetable and the "immediate
fix" because of emergency situations exception. She argued the
delay of repair provision "is problematic for compressor stations
for several reasons." For example,
she noted that blowdowns are not
always scheduled activities during
which planned maintenance occurs. Therefore, the occurrence of
a blowdown should not be tied to
when repairs must be made.
Also, the delay of repair provision does not take into consideration that unscheduled and
emergency shutdowns occur from
time to time, and service can often be returned shortly after the
interruption. In addition, when a
leak is discovered shortly before
a planned shutdown, there is not
enough time to fabricate, deliver,
test and install the new part, or
make other logistical arrangements for the repair during the
upcoming planned downtime.
With its second proposed rule
issued in November 2017, the EPA
committed to assess the complaints of INGAA and other industry groups. The American Petroleum Institute, for example, added
that other federal and state leak
detection and repair regulations do
not require that repairs be made
immediately during emergency or
unscheduled shutdowns.
The EPA is now reconsidering any number of issues INGAA,
API and others have raised about
both the final rule of 2016 and
the changes offered by the agency
in June 2017. In November the
agency noted: "In particular, stakeholder feedback suggests that compliance with this provision could
result in prolonged shutdowns
impacting natural gas supply if
necessary parts and skilled labor
are unavailable, and avoidable

blowdowns resulting in greater
emissions than the leaking component."

PHMSA Reassessing
Enforceability Of RPS On
Underground Gas
Four natural gas industry groups
asked the Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Administration
(PHMSA) to make changes to its
underground storage interim final
rule published in December 2016.
At issue is what appears to be the
decision to consider non-mandatory aspects of two API recommended practices (RP) as enforceable
under federal law. The American
Gas Association, the American
Petroleum Institute, the American
Public Gas Association, and the
Interstate Natural Gas Association
of America are trying to convince
PHMSA to reverse that decision,
and give companies more time to
implement the risk-based inspection and mitigation practices described by the two RPs.
The December 2016 rule
stemmed from the leak from
Southern California Gas Company's (SoCal Gas) Aliso Canyon Well
SS25 in October 2015. As a result
of that leak, and concerns from
PHMSA that other similar, older
wells could spring leaks, in December 2016 PHMSA finalized an interim final rule that essentially put
into federal regulations Recommended Practices. Those included
API RP 1170. The two RPs outline
a process for maintaining functional integrity of underground
natural gas storage facilities
through design, construction, operation, monitoring, maintenance
and documentation practices.
The PHMSA rule meant that
any of the elements of either RP
would be considered going forward
by PHMSA as mandatory actions,
even though the API standard is

voluntary. Four gas associations
then submitted comments on
Nov. 20, 2017, essentially reiterating their previous positions, the
most important of which is that
the non-mandatory elements of
the two API RPs such as "should,"
"may" or "can" should not become
required under federal law, and
thus enforceable and open to penalties for noncompliance.

House Passage Of Energy
Bill Imminent
The House appears to be on the
cusp of passing an onshore/offshore energy regulatory relief bill
after the House Natural Resources
Committee passed the SECURE
American Energy Act (H.R. 4239)
Nov. 8, on a party-line vote with
no Democratic support. The lack of
Democratic support won't hurt the
bill's chances for passage on the
House floor. However, its chances
in the Senate are remote given
that a bill needs 60 votes to pass
and the Republicans have only 52
seats.
The House bill was co-sponsored
by a couple of Texas Democrats
and that could translate into some
Democratic support in the Senate,
if in fact the bill comes up at all.
With regard to long-standing
pipeline industry complaints about
the length of time it takes to get
federal approval for construction
on public lands, the bill enables
states with established regulatory programs to manage certain
federal permitting and regulatory responsibilities for oil and gas
development on federal lands
within their borders. States with
approved regulatory programs
would receive the full 50 percent
of mineral revenues, eliminating
the two percent administrative fee
charged by the Department of the
Interior.
Underground Construction January 2018

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Underground Construction - January 2018

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