HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3122        FILED ON: 1/21/2011

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3053

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Lori A. Ehrlich

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to natural gas pipeline safety and transparency.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3122        FILED ON: 1/21/2011

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3053

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Eleven

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An Act relative to natural gas pipeline safety and transparency.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 164 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding after section 1J the following section:-

Section 1K. To promote transparency, oversight and enforcement within the natural gas distribution sector for the commonwealth the department of public utilities shall provide and make publicly available on the internet all data and reports of all oversight and enforcement actions taken by the department’s pipeline safety division or any person or agency acting on their behalf involving distribution gas pipeline companies in the commonwealth.

Said data shall include, but not be limited to the following: requested and approved waivers, operations and maintenance (O&M) manual modifications, pilot programs, interpretations, notice of probable violations (NOPV), fines, warnings, appeals, field inspection reports, all operator qualification (OQ) personnel qualified to perform work on any distribution pipeline in Massachusetts, annual 3rd party damage reports, gas leakage information including repairs, annual leak backlog totals, lost gas due to leakage and information on all repairs performed on leak grade types.

The Department shall update on its website postings to comply with this section within seven business days of any change and post the date on which the information was updated. A public utility may also post the information required to be posted but is not required to do so.

In the event an emergency, such as an earthquake, flood, fire or hurricane, severely disrupts the department’s normal business operations, the posting requirements in this part may be suspended. If the disruption lasts longer than 1 month, the department shall notify the Massachusetts General Court and may seek a further exemption from the posting requirements.

All website postings required by this Act must be sufficiently prominent as to be readily accessible.

If the department determines any of the information required by this section is or could be or used as a threat to the public and/or homeland security an industry secured database shall be created to allow only identified groups, organizations and labor unions access to said material. Rejection of access may only be redeemed by a proven threat or lack of credentials as a regular participant of department business.