Pipeline Safety: OPS Response Plan Review and Exercise Programs

In 1990, the United States Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) (33 U.S.C. 2701 et seq.), to improve the nation's ability to respond to and limit the economic and environmental impact from, marine spills of oil and other pollutants. Section 4202 of the OPA modifies the planning and response system created under the authority of Section 311(j) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (also known as the Clean Water Act). OPA required response plans for vessels and facilities that produce, store, transport, refine, and market oil. Just as oil tankers are required to submit oil spill response plans to the Coast Guard and refineries are required to submit such plans to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), oil pipelines are required to submit their facility response plans to OPS for review and approval. To date, more than 1300 facility response plans have been submitted to OPS. They represent some 200 oil pipeline operators, and lines that vary in size from 3-inch gathering systems to 36-inch product lines to the 48-inch Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. OPS conducts a thorough review of the plans, with particular emphasis on the adequacy of the pipeline operator's response resources, incident command system, and ability to protect environmentally sensitive areas from harm. OPS also makes sure that the plans are consistent with both the National Contingency Plan and the local Area Contingency Plan, which are developed by Coast Guard and EPA. In addition to reviewing operators' plans, OPS conducts exercises to test pipeline operators' ability to implement their facility response plans. To date, OPS has conducted sixty-nine Tabletop Exercises, scenario-driven discussions in which operators explain how they would implement their plans to respond to a worst-case spill. OPS has also

conducted nine full-scale Area Exercises with pipeline operators in which they deploy people and equipment to the field in response to a simulated spill. In both Tabletop and Area Exercises, OPS makes every effort to have other Federal, State, and local environmental and emergency response agencies participate. Their participation makes exercises more realistic, and builds relationships between industry and public sector responders that make the response to real spills go more smoothly. OPS prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) to examine the environmental impacts of the Response Plan Review and Exercise Program (64 FR 47228). The EA concisely described OPS's recent review of the program's effectiveness, its proposed action to continue implementing the current program, the alternative programmatic approaches considered, the environment affected by this action, the consequences to the environment of the alternatives considered, and a list of the agencies and organizations consulted. In the EA, OPS preliminarily concluded that continuing the current program would not have significant environmental impacts. This conclusion was based on the fact that the program is now mature, and the proposed action to continue the current program will not have any significant environmental impact. OPS received one public comment on the EA, which came from an environmental organization in Alaska. The commenter claimed that, (1) the EA inadequately addressed the threats to the environment from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) and should not be considered a sufficient environmental analysis for the TAPS lease renewal, (2) the EA failed to mention specific pipelines and unique problems associated with specific pipelines, and (3) OPS did not consider an alternative that would be more protective of the environment, and should prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) which more fully considers environmental effects of its program. These points will be addressed in order. (1) The TAPS lease agreement is between Alyeska Pipeline Service Company (the seven company consortium that owns and operates the TAPS), the State of Alaska, and the Bureau of Land Management in the Department of the Interior. Working through the Joint Pipeline Office, OPS expects to participate in the TAPS lease renewal EIS process as a cooperating agency. However, OPS is not a party to the lease agreement and does not have authority to approve or disapprove the lease renewal. That decision rests solely with the State of Alaska and the Department of the Interior. (2) The EA was a programmatic document, and as such was not intended to address issues associated with the TAPS or any other specific pipeline. Rather, the EA was meant to assess the impact of our program, which involves over 200 oil pipeline operators nationwide. (3) The EA described the statutory basis for the program, its requirements, and its benefits in improved response capability on the part of oil pipeline operators nationwide. OPS believes that the EA provides sufficient information to allow a comprehensive evaluation of our Response Plan Review and Exercise Program. The EA was intended to address the overall program and not the issues associated with a specific pipeline. As for question of whether another alternative more protective of the environment was considered, OPS may consider, on a case by case basis, more stringent spill response requirements for a particular operator on the basis of the operator's spill history or other risk factors. Such individual cases are, however, outside the scope of this programmatic EA. Based on the analysis and conclusions reached in the EA, OPS has found that there are no significant impacts on the environment associated with this action. The EA and the documents are incorporated by reference into this FONSI. To summarize, the reason that the program will not have a significant effect on the human environment is that the program is designed to improve pipeline operators' ability to respond effectively to oil spills, and the national trends in accident data support that conclusion. While there was a marked improvement in spill response preparedness and environmental protection shortly after implementing the Response Plan Review and Exercise Program in 1993, the program is now mature. Hence, the proposed action to continue the current program will not have any significant environmental impact. This rationale is further discussed in the EA referenced above.

Issued in Washington, DC on October 20, 1999. Richard B. Felder, Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety. [FR Doc. 99-27825 Filed 10-25-99; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910-60-P