Excess Flow Valves (EFVs)

Excess Flow Valves (EFVs) are devices designed to be installed in natural gas service lines, the pipelines that carry gas from a distribution main to each individual customer. They automatically shut off the flow of natural gas in a service line when the line is ruptured. Proper operation of an EFV would minimize or eliminate safety consequences from fires and explosions caused by escaped gas in certain situations.

In 2001 the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended to the Office of Pipeline Safety that EFVs be made mandatory for all new and replaced service lines. In the years since the gas industry, valve manufacturers, fire fighters, and various pipeline experts have been debating the cost and operation of EFVs versus the benefit they would provide. In June of 2005 the Office of Pipeline Safety held a day long meeting in DC to try to gain better understanding of how to move forward on some sort of rule development for EFVs.

The Pipeline Safety Trust believed it was in the public’s interest if we commissioned an independent expert paper on EFVs that could provide easy to understand background and conclusions on the use of EFVs.

To download the study done by Richard Kuprewicz, President of Accufacts Inc. click here.

To download the National Transportation Safety Board’s Safety Recommendation on Excess Flow Valves go to: http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2001/p01_1_2.pdf

To see PHMSA’s rulemaking involving EFVs go to www.regulations.gov and type in “PHMSA-2011-0009” or read the federal register notice here.