One of the Pipeline Safety Trust’s main goals is to collect existing pipeline statistics and make them easily accessible for all who want them. We used to develop more of our own analysis because the data available was difficult to understand in the format provided. If you are still interested in accessing that old analysis, you can do so here (also includes some pipelines vs. rail information). The Trust still maintains a few of our own charts and graphs:
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has greatly improved the format of the information they provide to the public, but it can still be very difficult to find. Below are direct links to a number of webpages within PHMSA that provide different types of data and analysis. Please remember that many pipeline safety experts have voiced concerns about the quality and completeness of much of the pipeline data that is collected in this country. We also have a Briefing Paper entitled Access to Pipeline Statistics and Data which walks through more detailed information about the PHMSA data.
- Pipeline incidents and mileage reports. As of October 2014, PHMSA has transitioned to a new Oracle-based reporting system for much of their data. The old Stakeholder site no longer is maintaining this information.
- Incident information. Most of the incident links on this page open up the Oracle database. We recommend starting with “significant incidents.” Once on the Oracle page, the user can filter the information by state or pipeline system, and drill down to cause-specific and other data. Figures listed in blue can be clicked on to drill down to the more detailed information.
- Summary mileage by pipeline system type is available here. The tabs allow for switching between various system types (i.e. hazardous liquid, gas transmission, etc.).
- Pipeline data by state
- Pipeline data by operator
- Click “show all available operators” and then click on an operator for more detail
- Gas Transmission pipelines: integrity management
- Gas Distribution pipelines
- Information on gas distribution pipeline replacement (iron & bare steel)
- Gas distribution integrity management: performance measures
- Note the embedded links within the page that lead to various charts and graphs, including information on leaks and incidents.
- Hazardous Liquid pipelines: integrity management
- Downloadable raw annual data by pipeline type
- Downloadable raw accident and incident data by pipeline type
We also have posted a variety of studies that have looked at the safety of pipelines versus rail transport of fuels
EPA Pipeline Consent Decrees – From time to time the U.S. EPA gets involved with cases related to pipelines, normally under their Clean Water Act authority. Here is a list of their resent consent decrees.