On October 1, 2019, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published amendments to 49 CFR Parts 191 and 192 in the Federal Register, issuing Part 1 of the Gas Transmission Mega-Rule or “Mega-Rule 1”. In advance of Mega-Rule 1, SI developed field protocol and supported leading industry research institutes in validating in-situ Material Verification (MV) methodologies. SI has continued to provide MV consulting support to our clients in response to Mega-Rule 1, ranging from program development and implementation to in-situ field data collection and analysis.
Various sections of Mega-Rule 1 require operators of natural gas transmission pipelines to ensure adequate Traceable, Verifiable, and Complete (TV&C) material records or implement a MV Program to confirm specific pipeline attributes including diameter, wall thickness, seam type, and grade. Operators are now required to define sampling programs and perform destructive (laboratory) or non-destructive testing to capture this information and take additional actions when inconsistent results are identified until a confidence level of 95% is achieved. Opportunistic sampling per population is required until completion of testing of one excavation per mile (rounded up to the nearest whole number).
. . . To continue reading, please download the full issue.
