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Ohio Administrative Code (Last Updated: January 12, 2021) |
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4901:1 Utilities |
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Chapter4901:1-16. Gas Pipeline Safety |
4901:1-16-01. Definitions
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As used in this chapter:
(A) "Chief" means the chief of the gas pipeline safety section of the commission or his/her designee.
(B) "Commission" means the public utilities commission of Ohio.
(C) "Contiguous property" includes, but is not limited to, a manufactured home park as defined in section 3733.01 of the Revised Code; a public or publicly subsidized housing project; an apartment complex; a condominium complex; a college or university; an office complex; a shopping center; a hotel; an industrial park; and a race track.
(D) "Gas" means natural gas, flammable gas, or gas which is toxic or corrosive.
(E) "Gas gathering pipeline" means a gathering line that is not regulated under the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act, but includes a pipeline used to collect and transport raw natural gas or transmission quality gas to the inlet of a gas processing plant, the inlet of a distribution system, or to a transmission line.
(F) "Gas gathering/processing plant pipeline operator" means any person that owns, operates, manages, controls, or leases, a gas gathering pipeline or a processing plant gas stub pipeline. A gas gathering/processing plant pipeline operator is not an operator as defined in paragraph (P) of this rule, but a person may be both an operator and a gas gathering/processing plant pipeline operator.
(G) "Gas pipeline safety (GPS) proceeding" means a commission-ordered investigation of any incident, violation, or possible noncompliance with the pipeline safety code.
(H) "Gas processing plant" means a plant that processes raw natural gas into merchantable products, including transmission quality gas or natural gas liquids, and also may include a plant that treats raw natural gas to remove impurities such as carbon dioxide, helium, nitrogen, or water.
(I) "Gathering line" and "gathering of gas" have the same meaning as in the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act.
(J) "Horizontal well" means a well that is drilled for the production of oil or gas in which the wellbore reaches a horizontal or near horizontal position in the Point Pleasant, Utica, or Marcellus formation and the well is stimulated.
(K) "Incident" means an event that involves a release of gas from an intrastate gas pipeline facility and results in any of the following:
(1) A death.
(2) Personal injury requiring inpatient hospitalization.
(3) Unintentional estimated gas loss of three million cubic feet or more.
(4) Estimated property damage of fifty thousand dollars or more, excluding the cost of gas lost, which is the sum of:
(a) The estimated cost of repairing and/or replacing the physical damage to the pipeline facility.
(b) The cost of material, labor, and equipment to repair the leak, including meter turn-off, meter turn-on, and light up.
(c) The estimated cost of repairing and/or replacing other damaged property of the operator or others, or both.
(L) "Intrastate gas pipeline facility" includes any new and existing pipelines, rights-of-way, and any equipment, facility, or building used in the transportation of gas either wholly or partly within this state or from an interstate gas pipeline in Ohio to a direct sales customer in Ohio buying gas for its own consumption.
(M) "MAOP" means the maximum pressure at which a pipeline or segment of a pipeline may be operated under the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act or under sections 4905.90 to 4905.96 of the Revised Code.
(N) "Master meter system" means a pipeline system that distributes gas within a contiguous property for which the system operator purchases gas for resale to consumers, including tenants. Such pipeline system supplies consumers who purchase the gas directly through a meter, or by paying rent, or by other means. The term includes a master meter system as defined in 49 C.F.R. 191.3, as effective on the date referenced in paragraph (D) of rule 4901:1-16-02 of the Administrative Code. The term excludes a pipeline within a manufactured home, mobile home, or a building.
(O) "Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act" means the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, 82 Stat. 720, 49 U.S.C.A. App. 1671 et. seq., as amended, and the rules adopted by the United States department of transportation pursuant to the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, including 49 C.F.R. 40, 191, 192, and 199 as effective on the date referenced in paragraph (D) of rule 4901:1-16-02 of the Administrative Code.
(P) "Operator" means:
(1) A gas company as defined by division (A)(4) of section 4905.03 of the Revised Code.
(2) A natural gas company, including a producer of gas which does business as a natural gas company pursuant to division (A)(5) of section 4905.03 of the Revised Code.
(3) A pipeline company, when engaged in the business of transporting gas by pipeline as defined by division (A)(6) of section 4905.03 of the Revised Code.
(4) A public utility that is excepted from the definition of "public utility" under division (B) or (C) of section 4905.02 of the Revised Code, when engaged in supplying or transporting gas by pipeline within this state.
(5) Any person who owns, operates, manages, controls, leases, or maintains an intrastate gas pipeline facility or who engages in the transportation of gas. This includes, but is not limited to, a person who owns, operates, manages, controls, leases, or maintains a master meter system within this state.
"Operator" does not include an ultimate consumer who owns a service line on the real property of that ultimate consumer and does not include a gas gathering/processing plant pipeline operator as defined in paragraph (F) of this rule or any person that owns, operates, manages, controls, or leases a gas gathering pipeline as defined in paragraph (E) of this rule.
(Q) "Person" means any individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, firm, joint venture, or municipal corporation and includes any trustee, receiver, assignee, or personal representative thereof.
(R) "Pipeline" means all parts of those physical facilities through which gas moves in transportation, including pipe, valves, and other appurtenance attached to pipe, compressor units, metering stations, regulator stations, delivery stations, holders, and fabricated assemblies.
(S) "Pipeline safety code" means 49 C.F.R 40, 191, 192, and 199 as effective on the date referenced in paragraph (D) of rule 4901:1-16-02 of the Administrative Code; sections 4905.90 to 4905.96 of the Revised Code; this chapter; and commission orders issued thereunder.
(T) "Processing plant gas stub pipeline" means a gas pipeline that transports transmission quality gas from the tailgate of a gas processing plant to the inlet of an interstate or intrastate transmission line and that is considered an extension of the gas processing plant, is not for public use, and is not regulated under the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act.
(U) "Raw natural gas" means hydrocarbons that are produced in a gaseous state from gas wells and that generally include methane, ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes, hexanes, heptanes, octanes, nonanes, and decanes, as well as other naturally occurring impurities like water, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen, oxygen, and helium.
(V) "Raw natural gas liquids" means naturally occurring hydrocarbons contained in raw natural gas that are extracted in a gas processing plant and liquefied and generally include mixtures of ethane, propane, butanes, and natural gasoline.
(W) "Safety audit" is defined as set forth in section 4905.90 of the Revised Code.
(X) "Safety inspection" includes the following inspections, surveys, and testing of a master meter system which are authorized by the pipeline safety code, and includes mapping, if accurate maps are not available from the operator, and pipe locating, if the operator could not locate pipelines in its system.
(1) Testing of cathodic protection of metallic pipelines.
(2) Sampling of combustible gas to determine the proper concentration of odorant in distribution pipelines, unless records of the natural gas company performing the safety inspection show that the concentration of odorant in the gas transported to or near the master meter system conforms with the pipeline safety code.
(3) Gas leak surveys.
(4) Inspection and servicing of pressure regulating devices.
(5) Testing or calculation of required capacity of pressure relief devices.
(6) Inspection and servicing of critical valves.
(7) Inspection of underground vaults housing pressure regulating/limiting equipment and ventilating equipment.
(Y) "Staff" means the commission employees to whom responsibility has been delegated for enforcing and administering the gas pipeline safety requirements contained in this chapter and the Revised Code.
(Z) "Synthetic Natural Gas" means gas formed from feedstocks other than natural gas, including coal, oil, or naptha.
(AA) "Transportation of gas" means the gathering, transmission, or distribution of gas by pipeline, or the storage of gas within this state.