58:10-48. Study on feasibility and necessity of certain actions

Within 36 months of the effective date of this act, the department shall complete a study on the feasibility and necessity, if any, of the following actions:

a. Adopting the pipeline facility safety standards regulations adopted by the United States Department of Transportation pursuant to the federal act, and of applying to the Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation for certification pursuant to the federal act for the regulation of intrastate pipeline facilities;

b. Adopting additional standards for accident and safety reporting, design requirements, construction standards, hydrostatic testing, operation and maintenance, and other standards more stringent than those adopted pursuant to the federal act, if otherwise compatible with the standards in the federal act;

c. Requiring the retrofitting of pipelines with leak detection systems based upon best available technology, industry standards, or federal requirements, whichever may be most stringent;

d. Requiring standards for the pressure, flow, or other applicable variances at which leak detection systems detect and indicate leaks, and maintenance, repair, and operational requirements for leak detection systems;

e. Requiring the removal or environmentally sound closure of abandoned pipeline facilities;

f. Requiring periodic practice drills of emergency leak response procedures and the submittal of reports thereon;

g. Requiring replacement pipeline facilities to be constructed, to the extent practicable, in a manner so as to accommodate the passage through those pipeline facilities of instrumented internal inspection devices commonly referred to as "smart pigs"; and

h. Requiring secondary containment for all underwater pipeline facilities.

L.1990,c.77,s.3.