regulations

Integrity Management Expansion Stirs Controversy In Congress
November 2011, Vol. 66 No. 11

Two House committees are attempting to combine slightly different pipeline safety bills while Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is preventing a Senate vote on a bill passed by the Commerce Committee last May. All three bills are moderate, and make changes around the edges of current law, both with regard to natural gas and oil pipelines.

NTSB Recommendations On San Bruno Put Pressure On Congress, Administration; Keystone XL Decision Coming
October 2011, Vol. 66 No. 10

The pipeline safety recommendations issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Aug. 30 puts significant pressure on both Congress and the Obama administration to respond to the problems discovered as part of the NTSB investigation of the PG&E San Bruno explosion in December 2010.

Atlanta gets A1 rating on water/wastewater bonds
September 2011, Vol. 66 No. 9

Moody's Investors Service, one of the world’s leading credit rating agencies, affirmed in July Atlanta, GA’s A1 rating on the city’s $3.2 billion water and wastewater revenue bonds.

Jefferson County seeks better deal to settle debt
September 2011, Vol. 66 No. 9

In an effort to avoid filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, officials in Alabama’s Jefferson County extended until mid-September talks with creditors holding $3.14 billion in debt incurred after officials borrowed money to fix their troubled sewer system and then entered into a number of complicated and corruption-laced refinancing deals that backfired in 2007 with the mortgage lending crisis. Those schemes also resulted in the conviction of a number of local officials and businessmen.

New OSHA Web site explains recordkeeping rules
August 2011, Vol. 66 No. 8

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently unveiled a new interactive web tool to help users determine whether injuries and illnesses are work-related and recordable under the OSHA Recordkeeping rules.

Hydrofracking changes water wells
July 2011, Vol. 66 No. 7

A study by Duke University researchers has found high levels of leaked methane in well water collected near shale-gas drilling and hydrofracking sites.

Federal Fracking Initiatives Starting To Gel; PHMSA Reforms Uncertain; DOE Allowing More LNG Exports
July 2011, Vol. 66 No. 7

The fracking debate is moving forward on two separate stages in Washington. The Department of Energy's natural gas subcommittee is expected to make recommendations on fracking liquid disclosure in August.

New Underground Construction Standards Imminent From OSHA; Pipeline Bill In Congress; Wetland Gas Repairs
June 2011 Vol. 66 No. 6

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) appears ready to propose a new standard on silica exposure which would have a major impact on underground construction companies.

Dubuque to settle violations of Clean Water Act
June 2011 Vol. 66 No. 6

The city of Dubuque, IA, has agreed to pay a $205,000 civil penalty and spend an additional $3 million on improvements to its water pollution control plant and sewer collection system over the next three years to settle a series of alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

CIPP Industry Defends Styrene Use
Jeff Griffin, Senior Editor
May 2011, Vol. 66 No. 5

Organizations in the cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP) industry are seriously concerned about a recommendation before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to designate styrene as a “reasonably anticipated carcinogen,” implying that it could be a cause of cancer in humans.

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