U.S. House of Representatives: Committee on Energy and Commerce, RepublicansPrepared Witness Testimony: Kipp, Robert R.

Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality
March 19, 2002
2:00 PM
2318 Rayburn House Office Building

The Common Ground Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to shared responsibility in the damage prevention of underground facilities. The CGA works to prevent damage to the underground infrastructure by:

fostering a sense of shared responsibility for the protection of underground facilities;
supporting research;
developing and conducting public awareness and education programs;
identifying and disseminating the stakeholder best practices such as those embodied in the Common Ground Study; and
serving as a clearinghouse for damage data collection, analysis and dissemination.

The CGA now counts more than 700 individuals representing 15 stakeholder groups and over 120 member organizations. Each of the 15 stakeholder groups has one seat on the CGA Board of Directors, regardless of membership representation or financial participation. CGA members populate the organization's five working committees: Best Practices, Research & Development, Educational Programs, Data Reporting & Evaluation, and Marketing, Membership, & Communications.

Though all of the work is done voluntarily through the members, the Office of Pipeline Safety has been instrumental in funding start - up costs associated with getting the CGA up and running. The CGA is currently negotiating a cooperative agreement with the Office of Pipeline Safety to enable the CGA to pay for support, materials, and external services required to accomplish its ambitious mandate.

More than 110 associations, municipalities and companies, including 22 Corporate Sponsors provide the large majority of the CGA's funding.

Testimony of Robert Kipp, Executive Director of the Common Ground Alliance to the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee. My name is Robert Kipp and I am the Executive Director of the Common Ground Alliance (CGA). I am pleased to appear before you today to represent the CGA.

Background:

The Common Ground Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to shared responsibility in the damage prevention of underground facilities. The Common Ground Alliance was created just over two years ago at the completion of the "Common Ground Study of One-Call Systems and Damage Prevention Best Practices." This landmark study, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Pipeline Safety, was completed in 1999 by 161 experts from the damage prevention stakeholder community.

The "Common Ground Study" began with a public meeting in Arlington, VA in August 1998. The study was prepared in accordance with, and at the direction and authorization of the Transport Equity Act for the 21^st Century signed into law June 9, 1998 that authorized the Department of Transportation to undertake a study of damage prevention practices associated with existing one-call notification systems. Participants in the study represented the following stakeholder groups: oil; gas; telecommunications; railroads; utilities; cable TV; one-call systems and centers; excavation; locators; equipment manufacturers; design engineers; regulators; federal, state, and local government. The Common Ground Study concluded on June 30, 1999 with the publication of the "Common Ground Study of One-Call Systems and Damage Prevention Best Practices."

At the conclusion of the study, the Damage Prevention Path Forward initiative led to the development of the nonprofit organization now recognized as the Common Ground Alliance (CGA). Building on the spirit of shared responsibility resulting from the Common Ground Study, the purpose of the CGA is to ensure public safety, environmental protection, and the integrity of services by promoting effective damage prevention practices. The CGA works to prevent damage to the underground infrastructure by:

fostering a sense of shared responsibility for the protection of underground facilities;
supporting research;
developing and conducting public awareness and education programs;
identifying and disseminating the stakeholder best practices such as those embodied in the Common Ground Study; and
serving as a clearinghouse for damage data collection, analysis and dissemination.

WORKING COMMITTEES

The CGA working committee guidelines include:

· All stakeholders are welcomed and encouraged to participate in the Committees' work efforts.

· Committee members represent the knowledge, concerns and interests of their constituents.

· A "primary" member is identified within each Committee for each particular stakeholder group as the spokesperson for consensus decisions.

A. Best Practices Committee

It is important that all stakeholders implement the damage prevention Best Practices. The Best Practices Committee:

· Identifies Best Practices appropriate for each stakeholder group to minimize the possibility of damages;

· Gauges current levels of implementation and use of Best Practices in each industry;

· Encourages and promotes increased implementation;

· Updates Best Practices to incorporate recent developments in damage prevention processes, procedures, practices, and technology.

Current Activities:

· Resulting from the NTSB report, "Natural Gas Pipeline Rupture and Subsequent Explosion, St. Cloud, Minnesota, December 11, 1998" -- a review of safety recommendations regarding the use of E-911 when excavation damage occurs for inclusion to CGA Best Practices. As a result of this report, the Office of Pipeline Safety requested that the CGA review the existing Best Practice and determine if the NTSB recommendation P-00-1 should be included as a "New Best Practice".

The recommendation from the NTSB report read: "To advise excavators to call "911" if the damage to the pipeline results in a release of gas or other hazardous substance or potentially endangers life, health or property."

Prior to the Recommendation the Best Practice on this issue left it to the excavator to determine if the release of gas or hazardous substance posed a danger, and if so, to determine if 911 should be called.

The CGA Best Practices Committee reviewed the recommendation and unanimously approved a change to the Best Practice to reflect the following:

Practice Statement (Best Practices Committee Approved by Consensus 11/27/01)

"If the damage results in the escape of any flammable, toxic, or corrosive gas or liquid or endangers life, health, or property, the excavator responsible immediately notifies 911 and the facility owner/operator."

The CGA Board of Directors subsequently unanimously approved the change to this practice. The Executive Director wrote Ms. Stacey Gerard of the Office of Pipeline Safety earlier this year informing her of this change.

· Resulting from the NTSB report, "Natural Gas Explosion and Fire in South Riding, Virginia, July 7, 1998" -- a review of July 1, 2001 Virginia State legislation regarding minimum separation of utilities located in common trenches;

The Office of Pipeline Safety wrote the CGA regarding the NTSB recommendation P-01-1 on the separation of gas and electric utilities in common trenches. It is expected that our Best Practices committee will soon approve a change to the existing practice increasing the distance in radial separation of the gas and electric in common trenches, similar to what has been recommended by the NTSB, and consistent with the National Electric Safety Code.

· The review of the HDD Consortium Horizontal Directional Drilling, (HDD) Good Practices Guidelines, for potential endorsement by the CGA;

· The review of NULCA and APWA "Address Marking, Color Codes and Marking Paint" ;

· Condensing language of current Best Practices document.

· The Best Practices Committee has begun an in-depth review of Security Practices across the stakeholder groups. Once assembled, these practices will be reviewed, and if appropriate, either integrated into the existing Best Practices, or implemented as a separate section in the Common Ground Alliance Best Practices document.

· Though all of the work is done voluntarily through the members, the Office of Pipeline Safety has been instrumental in funding start - up costs associated with getting the CGA up and running. The CGA is currently negotiating a cooperative agreement with the Office of Pipeline Safety to enable the CGA to pay for support, materials, and external services required to accomplish its ambitious mandate.

It is important to note that any changes to the Best Practices have unanimous approval from the 14 industry groups represented on the committee, and subsequent approval of a minimum of 10 of the14 Board members.

B. Research and Development Committee

The CGA promotes damage prevention R&D and serves as a clearing house for information on damage prevention technologies and practices. The Research and Development Committee's mandate is to:

· Seek to identify new and existing technologies that can be adapted to improve damage prevention efforts;

· Encourage the sharing of non-proprietary information concerning technologies;

· Search for opportunities, including sponsoring conferences, for the CGA to promote damage prevention R&D.

Current Activities:

· Standardized National Mapping

Standardized mapping technologies are being reviewed. Vendors are being invited to make presentations to the committee. Existing mapping technologies in railroads and pipelines are being studied.

· One-Call Center 3-digit dialing - review and recommendation

Three digit-dialing (or 4 digits such as #DIG) is of great interest to our industry. It is generally accepted by infrastructure owners that between 33% and 60% of third party damages are caused by individuals who did not call prior to excavating (digging). There are numerous reasons people do not call before digging. Included in the various reasons is the lack of knowledge or awareness of the need to call or the number to call. The CGA believes that a single nation-wide, 3 or 4 digit number, would increase awareness and consequently increase calls to the various One-Call Centers resulting in fewer instances of third- party damage. A number of wireless companies have programmed some of their switches to direct #DIG (#344) to the appropriate One-Call Centers served by these various switches. We believe that the extension of this program to all wireline and wireless switches in the country would be a major step in the direction of damage prevention to the infrastructure. The CGA also realizes that such a program would be costly to the various Telecom providers and hope that a solution to this potential issue and deployment of the truncated universal number can soon be implemented.

· Compendium of Locating Technologies under review

The committee is reviewing and compiling all available Locating Technologies and locating products. The committee working in concert with NULCA ( National Utility Locating Contractors Association), hope to make available on both websites and available to the stakeholders of all industries involved, a complete library of all products and technologies. We are working with OPS and the NTSB in order to attempt to satisfy NTSB recommendations P-97-16, P-97-17, and P-97-18 addressing the Certification of Locating Technologies. Again, we are working closely with the OPS on a cooperative agreement to help defray external costs associated with this initiative.

· Root Cause of Damage

The R&D Committee requests that the Data Reporting and Evaluation Committee have begun to initiate collection of comprehensive data on the root cause of underground utility damage. The R&D committee suggests that each stakeholder group encourage their members to use the form developed in Best Practices (figure 9.1 of the Common Ground Best Practices Study) to report root cause data. The 2 committees will now negotiate the work to be done. If successful, the CGA will have the first comprehensive database of the causes of damage to our underground infrastructure across all industries.

· Encroachment Monitoring

· Uniform One Call Laws

The task team is working on a survey to be used to interact with one-call centers to gather information on uniformity in one-call laws. They are looking for 100% participation and some of the data will include answers to the following questions: What type of software do One-Call centers use? Who will use the results after the information is gathered? Which Best Practices are being used by the One-Call center? These answers will facilitate the decision-making regarding the development of a nation-wide mechanized database of calls to the One-Call Centers.

C. Educational Programs Committee and Dig Safely Sub-committee

One of the purposes of the CGA is to develop and conduct public awareness and education programs to promote damage prevention. The Educational Programs Committee:

· Identifies existing programs for opportunities where the CGA can have significant impact in furthering their reach and effectiveness;

· Evaluates aspects of existing programs for areas where additional emphasis is needed; and

· Continues to promote Dig Safely and develop other educational programs to reduce damage to underground facilities

Current Activities:

· Create 8 Best Practices brochures summarizing best practices from Common Ground Study:

LOCATING AND MARKING BEST PRACTICES

MAPPING BEST PRACTICES

ONE-CALL CENTER BEST PRACTICES

PLANNING AND DESIGN BEST PRACTICES

PUBLIC EDUCATION AND AWARENESS BEST PRACTICES

REPORTING AND EVALUATION BEST PRACTICE

COMPLIANCE BEST PRACTICES

EXCAVATION BEST PRACTICES

· Dig Safely video - "Get the Dirt"

· Public Dig Safely Awareness Survey

· Working with M&MC to coordinate participation at various shows and conventions

· Best Practices on CD Rom

· Public Dig Safely Awareness Survey

· Work with MM&C to coordinate participation at various shows and conventions

· Review of Corporate Dig Safely Programs

· Damage Prevention State Laws

· Develop materials to target specific stakeholder groups, in addition to the current materials that reflect the best practices in general;

· Review and evaluate homeland and evaluate homeland and infrastructure security as an underlying benefit/purpose for damage prevention education;

· Develop videos, DVDs and other media depicting each individual best practice "in action";

· Develop the "Locate Accurately" educational program;

· Develop materials for priority audiences

· Seek data on damage causes (note the R&D and Data Reporting Committees' efforts);

· Establish graphics standards for the CGA and Dig Safely logos;

· Analyze the results of the latest public Dig Safely survey and develop and implement appropriate recommendations;

· Finalize criteria for the CGA endorsement or "seal of approval" for 2nd party materials;

· Resolve and begin the production and distribution of a CGA newsletter; and

· Evolve/improve the distribution process for CGA materials

· In summary, this large committee has an extremely ambitious program. We are working closely with OPS on funding issues associated with the dissemination of educational information.

D. Data Reporting and Evaluation Committee

The Common Ground Study determined that consistent & meaningful damage data is needed. The Data and Reporting Evaluation Committee looks at available data, data gaps, and how data can best be gathered and disseminated. Reporting and evaluation of damage data is important to:

· Measure effectiveness of damage prevention programs;

· Assess the risks and benefits of different damage prevention practices being implemented by various stakeholders;

· Assess the needs and benefits of education and training programs.

Current Activities:

· Survey on available damage data and reporting

· Studying requirements for funding to establish mechanized database for damage reporting - NTSB Recommendations P-97-22, P-97-23, and P-97-24

o It is essential that data gathering on a mechanized objective basis, and a substantial nation-wide report on the analysis of all damages be developed. The CGA, in concert with and through a co-operative agreement from OPS have begun the work necessary to determine the parameters and feasibility of such a report or series of report. An RFP will be issued in March/April to companies specializing in data gathering. Once the responses have been received we will evaluate the submissions and determine our next course of action.

o Our intent is to work with OPS in an effort to respond to NTSB Recommendations P-97-22, P-97-23, and P-97-24. These recommendations deal with the development of a method to gather damage data, consistently gather the data, and utilize the data to periodically assess the effectiveness of various excavation damage prevention programs.

E. Marketing, Membership, & Communication Committee

The Committee:

· Identifies opportunities and needs for promoting the organization to increase sponsorship and membership;

· Identifies opportunities for obtaining outside funding such as grants to promote the development of the organization;

· Evaluates communication opportunities and methods to ensure the CGA is effectively communicating with its members, sponsors, and all other stakeholders.

Current Activities:

· Ongoing booth presence and presentations at trade shows

o This year the CGA will make presentations to more than 50 companies, municipalities, associations, trade-show attendees and conventioneers.

· Regional CGA effort

· Partner with existing DP entities.

· Disseminate CGA information.

· Collect local information.

· Strengthen cooperation amongst stakeholders.

· Create opportunities for stakeholder involvement.

· Establish new councils where none exist.

· Find new members.

· Purpose is NOT to absorb or control any existing Damage Prevention organization!

· Support in recruiting new sponsors and members

· Development of booth theme and promotional materials

· Development and distribution of press releases

· Publication of a bi-monthly CGA newsletter

· Website monitoring and development

H.R. 3609 - Pipeline Infrastructure Protection to Enhance Security and Safety Act

In December of 2001, Mr. Young as well as Mr. Petri, Mr. Tauzin, and Mr. Barton tabled H.R. 3609, the Pipeline Infrastructure Protection to Enhance Security and Safety Act.

The CGA supports this Bill. In addition to recognizing the Best Practices developed by the 161 volunteer experts across the stakeholder groups, it also encourages States through financial incentives, to implement these Best Practices. The Bill also recognizes the work of the CGA and encourages continued funding of the CGA from 2002 through 2005.

We encourage the committee to delete reference to "construction-related" damages, as our goal is to reduce all damages regardless of the circumstances. Lastly, we recommend that the final version of the Bill include language encouraging the implementation of a nation-wide 3 or 4 digit number to call before digging.

SUMMARY

The Common Ground Alliance is a true member-driven organization. Members from the 15 stakeholder groups work together to determine direction and problem-solve, making the CGA a truly unique forum. We would not exist without the immense dedication and effort of our members as well as the financial and logistical support of Ellen Engleman and Stacey Gerard of RSPA and OPS.

Our greatest strengths can be summarized as follows:

When the CGA proposes a policy, solution or response to a government or corporate body, the wording of such a proposal has been agreed to by primary members representing every stakeholder group within the CGA. The receiving body of a CGA proposal knows that no one industry has a vested interest, and that all stakeholder groups agree with the content and wording of such a proposal.

In addition, the CGA has brought together industry leaders on a National basis to work together and help fund the Alliance in its effort to reduce damage to our nation's underground infrastructure.

Lastly, in addition to all of the wonderful accomplishments in education, best practice development, data gathering, and research and development, the CGA is now reaching for and succeeding in bringing together stakeholders at a local effort. We believe to be successful, we must continue to encourage and promote communication, problem resolution, and the following of the Best Practices at a local level.

Thank you.

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Reauthorization of the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act and the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act