{"operation":"document","citation":"PI-95-009","title":"Memo: Internal — Pipeline Safety Interpretation","source_type":"guidance","agency":"Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration","status":"guidance","official":true,"published_on":"1995-03-16","effective_on":null,"summary":"PI-95-009 response to Memo: Internal concerning 195.2.","machine_formats":{"json":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-pi-95-009.json","markdown":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-pi-95-009.md"},"app_url":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-pi-95-009","source_url":"https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/Pipeline/1995/PI95009.pdf","body":"<<<PAGE 1>>>\n\nMemorandum\nMarch 16, 1995\nJurisdiction of Plains Terminal & Transfer\nBarbara Betsock\nJames C. Thomas\nYou have asked whether the tankage and related piping at the Plains Terminal and Transfer crude\noil terminal at Cushing, Oklahoma, is subject to the pipeline safety regulations. Based on the\ninformation you have provided, these facilities are pipeline facilities subject to the pipeline safety\nregulations applicable to hazardous liquid pipelines.\nYou have described the tankage in the terminal as meeting the definition of breakout tanks in 49\nC.F.R. § 195.2 based on use of the tanks as temporary storage for continued transportation by\npipeline. The crude oil in the terminal arrives and departs via numerous interstate and intrastate\npipelines which are unquestionably subject to the jurisdiction of 49 U.S.C § 60101 et seq. The\nterminal is not a production, manufacturing, or refining facility. Although the terminal is\nindependently owned and operated by Plains Terminal and Transfer Corporation rather than by\none or more of the operators of the various pipelines using the terminal, ownership is irrelevant to\nthe jurisdictional issue. The nature and use of the tankage as storage incidental to the movement\nof hazardous liquid by pipeline (and not otherwise excepted by the statute) dictates that the\nterminal is a pipeline facility subject to the jurisdiction of 49 U.S.C § 60101 et seq.\nThis does not answer the question of regulation under 49 C.F.R Part 195. You have asked\nwhether the fact that the terminal operates as less than 20% SMYS and is located in a rural area\nprovides an exception to regulation. The answer is no. The description provided of the\noperations in the terminal indicates that the breakout tanks, albeit storage, are an integral part of\nthe pipelines using the terminal. These pipelines are regulated pipelines operating at more than\n20% SMYS. Thus the associated breakout tanks are not excepted from regulation.\nThis view of “ the 20% SMYS exception” is not new. In a January 30, 1986 final order, OPS\nconsidered a defense that piping associated with breakout tanks in a terminal was excepted from\nregulation. In the Matter of Marathon Pipe Line Company, CPF No. 4516. Although the case\nwas dismissed on other grounds, OPS rejected the defense based on the 20% SMYS exception\nbecause the exception does not apply to segments of pipeline systems. In proposing the change in\nregulation that brings certain 20% SMYS pipelines into the regulation, we made it clear that\nbreakout tanks such as these have never been excluded from regulation:\ndal 195.2\n95-03-16\n\n<<<PAGE 2>>>\n\nSome operators expressed concern that piping within storage or terminal facilities would\nbecome regulated. Pipeline associated with breakout tanks at storage facilities of\nregulated hazardous liquid pipelines currently is regulated, regardless of operating stress, if\nthe liquids are reinjected and transported further by a pipeline system that is regulated.\n58 Fed. Reg. 12215 (Notice of proposed rulemaking, March 3, 1993).\ncc: Ed Ondak, Western Regional Director\nIvan Huntoon, Central Regional Director\nFred A. Joyner, Southern Regional Director\nBill Gute, Western Regional Director\nTom Fortner, Director, Compliance and Regulatory Program\ndal 195.2\n95-03-16","truncated":false,"body_characters":3283}