Where Mega Rule and Pipelines meet
Over the past decade, there have been several high-profile incidents involving high-pressure, unregulated pipelines. July of 2010 saw one of the largest in-land spills in history affecting 35 miles of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. This was quickly followed in September of 2010 with the San Bruno, California explosion where 8 people perished. The Yellow Stone River in Montana suffered major oil spills twice, both in 2011 and 2015. Though it has been a decade in the making, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has issued the third installment of a set of compliance measures known as the Mega Rule. The Mega Rule sets out to bring an estimated 400,000 miles of unregulated pipelines into compliance with new safety regulations, bridging gaps between operator responsibilities and accountability. The Mega Rule has been rolled out in three stages, with the third stage currently being implemented.