Colorado gas pipeline operators will have to disclose more data on leaks and the location of their lines, and could face increased fines of up to $200,000 for violations under regulations approved Wednesday.
The rules adopted by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission were mandated by Senate Bill 108, legislation passed in 2021 over concerns about the risk of pipeline accidents.
Between 2018 and 2022 there were nine cases of gas pipeline accidents that led to two deaths, nine people injured, including four hospitalized, and more than $1 million in property damage, according to a report by the Colorado State Auditor.
The audit also found that the PUC’s Pipeline Safety Program was in disarray, and agency officials on Wednesday updated the commission on steps being taken to address the problems.
The new rules will require operators to file an annual leak report, detailing the total number of leaks, the number of hazardous leaks, the number of leaks repaired and the location and date of each leak.
Oil and gas industry trade groups and gas utilities had urged the requirement for these reports be delayed until a federal pipeline safety rulemaking, which got underway last May, is completed. The commission rejected the request.
Operators also must provide detailed maps of the location of their pipelines. These maps were a point of contention during the rulemaking.
Utilities, led by Xcel Energy, voiced security concerns about making these maps public for fear they could provide terrorist targets. They said even getting maps as detailed as required by the proposed rule could be “near impossible.”
The public disclosure of the location of pipelines was championed by Mark and Julie Nygren, Johnstown farmers, who lost their home and most of their belongings as a result of pollution from a leaking pipeline.
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The Nygrens had also pressed for the requirement for the annual leak reporting in the face of industry objections.
The commission adopted a recommendation from an administrative law judge who oversaw the rulemaking, that the operators provide the details “to the extent available.”
The Nygrens in a filing had challenged the judge’s recommendation, saying it would create a “loophole” for companies.
“We don’t want to see a loophole,” Commissioner Megan Gilman said, but she and her fellow commissioners agreed to the recommendation for the sake of efficiency, so that operators would begin filing data.
“We expect and hope that the amount of information will improve,” Gilman said.
The commission rejected industry requests that the maps be less detailed than the regulations require but agreed that there could be a confidential version, needed by regulators, and a less detailed public version.
The Nygrens had also pressed for a requirement that operators install advanced leak detection systems — as required by Senate Bill 108.
Not waiting for feds to take action
The oil and gas trade groups — the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and the American Petroleum Institute-Colorado — and Xcel Energy wanted the state to wait until the federal rulemaking was completed before requiring the leak detection systems.
The commission delayed the requirement, but did not rule out adopting regulations before the federal rulemaking is in place.
The commission is set to begin stakeholder meetings — with operators, local governments and environmental groups — over advance leak detection standards.
Erin McLauthlin, the assistant state attorney general advising the commission, said that after the stakeholder process is complete the commission can decide whether to go ahead with adding a leak detection rule.
“The commission will make a determination when best to bring that rulemaking,” McLauthlin said, “but not necessarily wait for the completion” of the federal process.
The new rules also doubled the maximum civil penalty per violation to $200,000 from $100,000.
“We are happy there is the same concern we have out there,” Mark Nygren said, “that there are some steps being taken to make things safer.”
The state audit of the pipeline safety program found that in six years it had issued 23 penalties and collected only four for $208,000. It had issued written noncompliance actions in only 6% of the instances where concerns and noncompliance were recorded.
In 2023, the pipeline safety program issued 19 warnings and three notices of probable violation, Casey Hensley, manager of the PUC pipeline safety program, told the commission. The violation notices come with $1.7 million in fines.
Between 2017 and 2022, the audit found the program did not inspect pipeline operators as required or had no records to show that they did. Inspectors were also not adequately trained.
The audit set out 39 recommendations for overhauling and upgrading the pipeline safety program.
“We agreed with 38 and a half of those, and have been since moving forward to fully implement the audit,” PUC Director Rebecca White told the commission.
Henley said 19 of the recommendations have been completed. “This puts us well ahead of the schedule on implementing all of the recommendations,” she said.
When it comes to the stakeholders meetings for advanced leak detection, Julie Nygren said “we will be there. We’ll just keep plugging away.”