Third Party Excavator Enforcement Proposed Rule Declared a "Significant Rulemaking" by OMB

AGC has been meeting regularly with the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) and other industry stakeholders concerning an upcoming rulemaking on federal enforcement for 3rd party excavation damage where state damage prevention programs are deemed inadequate. On December 14, 2009, AGC of America submitted comments on the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for this rule. The purpose of the ANPRM was to solicit comments in order to assess the adequacy of State's damage prevention enforcement regimes for oil, gas and other hazardous material pipelines.  PHMSA will use this information to develop criteria for federal enforcement of damage prevention laws in states that are deemed to have inadequate enforcement of damage prevention laws for excavators, utility/facility owners, one-call centers and professional locaters as mandated by the 2006 PIPES Act. PHMSA has finished drafting a proposed rule based on its review of industry comments, but the rule has now been declared a significant rulemaking by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), unofficially citing wide stakeholder interest and degree and nature of the comments received. This means that before the proposed rule can be released it must now go through approval from the Office of the Secretary of Transportation as well as the OMB. This adds approximately six months to the approval process and puts the timeframe for release at mid-2011 at the earliest.