NTTC President Balks at Wetlines Proposal

This story appears in the June 22 print edition of Transport Topics.

A requirement that tank trucks carrying gasoline and other flammable materials be retrofitted with equipment to purge wetlines would kill and injure far more repair shop workers than it would save motorists lives, the head of a tank truck carriers industry group told Congress.

John Conley, president of Nat-ional Tank Truck Carriers, sent a letter June 8 to a House subcommittee’s leadership after the panel’s hearing last month in which some members criticized federal officials for failing to closely monitor mishaps caused by the piping carried below cargo tanks and used to load and unload product.

Conley stated that since 2001 there has been only one possible wetlines-related death and no injuries reported on incident forms submitted to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

He disputed the panel’s contention that there have been more than 100 wetlines mishaps since 2000, saying only half that number were actually wetlines-related.

Conley also said that of the five incidents in which product was released, in only two cases did fire spread to the cargo tank.

“There has been no demand from industry for such a system, since no significant safety issue has been demonstrated,” Conley wrote. “If there were truly a safety issue, the cargo tank industry and its suppliers would have solved it years ago when bottom-loading of cargo tanks was introduced to help reduce air emissions at oil company loading facilities.”

Despite the apparent lack of serious wetline mishaps in recent years, committee members said they were considering adding a provision to the transportation highway reauthorization bill.

The proposed hazmat provision would force PHMSA to create and enforce new regulations requiring carriers to retrofit the estimated 25,000 tank trucks carrying gasoline and other flammable products with devices that would purge those products from the tubing located under the trucks, Conley said.

As much as 50 gallons of flammable fluid could be stored in a tanker’s wetlines.

The most common type of retrofit uses pressure to push the product back up into the truck’s tank and could cost up to $5,000 for a new truck and $10,000 for an old truck, Conley said.

“I have met with committee staff, both on the Republican and Democratic side, and we’re simply told that the language has not been drafted yet, but that they do expect to take action on the whole hazmat reauthorization by the end of June,” Conley told Transport Topics.

“I wish there were language that we could react to, but at this point we have been working under the assumption that it would be a ban on wetlines on cargo tanks that would be used to haul flammable materials after a certain date,” he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated two fatal wetlines incidents in the late 1990s, said that in rare accidents wetlines can be sheared off, causing the release of flammable material.

At NTSB’s recommendation, PHMSA proposed a wetlines rule in 2006 but withdrew it after the agency concluded it was not justified on a cost-benefit basis.

Conley said there are extreme dangers involved with the retrofitting process because petroleum vapors can escape while workers are welding. Since 1998, there have been at least 19 deaths in cargo tank facilities as a result of workers performing welding or other services, he said.

At a hearing on May 14 of the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, a member of NTSB chided PHMSA officials for failing to issue a rule requiring flammable product to be purged from tanker wetlines.

Cynthia Douglass, PHMSA acting deputy administrator, told the committee that the agency has been studying the issue, but no fatalities or serious injuries have occurred with wetlines in the past seven years.

Conley said he believes the number of serious wetlines incidents reported has declined in part because of a federal requirement that reflective tape be installed on the back and sides of tankers.

But NTSB member, Deborah Hersman, said a demonstration by NTSB revealed that a dozen passenger vehicles tested were low enough to fit under a tanker and strike wetlines.

“We know that the likelihood of an incident is very low, but if it does happen it’s catastrophic,” Hersman said.

Hersman, who earlier this month was nominated by President Obama to head NTSB, said Sunoco Inc. has installed retrofits on all its tankers as a safety precaution.

“They told us it was a business decision for them — that if they had one incident of rupturing of wetlines, that it would pay for the retrofitting of the entire fleet,” Hersman said.

A Sunoco spokesman did not return a voice message.