Oberstar ‘Troubled’ by Wetlines Warning

This story appears in the July 27 print edition of Transport Topics.

House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) said he was “deeply troubled” over a claim by truck safety inspectors that proposed legislation requiring the purging of flammable materials from tanker wetlines would be “difficult, if not impossible,” to enforce.

Oberstar’s committee is considering legislation to prohibit the transportation of flammable liquids in the lines that are used to offload them from the tank trucks. The bill also would ban all hazmat transport in external piping.

But Stephen Campbell, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, which represents state roadside commercial vehicle inspectors, wrote in a letter to the committee that the regulation probably would go unenforced because inspectors cannot see into the piping and would be required to open valves.

For their own safety, inspectors are trained not to open or operate valves, manholes or other product containment devices, Campbell said.

Inspectors “would be forced to jeopardize safety for the sake of enforcement,” he wrote in the letter. “This is an untenable situation.”

Oberstar, responding on July 17, said he was “troubled” that Campbell seemed unaware of the potential dangers that wetlines filled with flammable product posed to motorists in a crash.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has “thus far identified 183 incidents since 2000” in a review of tanker incidents, Oberstar wrote. “Just one week ago, a fatal accident involving wetlines occurred in Upper Pittsgrove, N.J.”

Oberstar was referring to an incident in which a car hit the side of a tanker that resulted in the release of hazardous material.

“The tanker burst into flames and killed the driver of the car,” Oberstar said. “The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating the incident, and its preliminary findings indicate that if gasoline had not been in the product piping, the explosion and fire which ultimately resulted in the loss of life would not have occurred.”

After Campbell sent the letter, he was summoned to a private meeting by Jennifer Esposito, majority staff director of the House Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials subcommittee, according to a subcommittee source. The panel is examining the draft legislation, which could be included in the 2009 highway reauthorization bill.

Esposito declined comment, but the subcommittee source — who asked not to be identified — said Esposito was “shocked” that CVSA raised the issue so late in the legislative process.

Campbell also would not comment on the meeting nor on how CVSA wants to change the proposed legislation to make it enforceable.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss this while it’s still a work in progress,” Campbell told Transport Topics. “The committee staff wouldn’t appreciate me talking about what we’re doing right now.”

Since 1998, the NTSB repeatedly has asked PHMSA to ban transporting hazmat from wetlines. However, the pipeline agency has said that a purging requirement would not be cost-effective because wetlines incidents since 2001 have caused few injuries and no fatalities.

At a committee hearing in May, some members of the House subcommittee harshly criticized PHMSA for failing to set a wetlines regulation.

American Trucking Associations and the National Tank Truck Carriers oppose the legislation under consideration in the House. Both groups have said the regulations aren’t needed because statistics show that wetlines do not constitute a serious safety threat and retrofits would be costly.

“There’s really no safety issue here that would justify the cost and disruption,” John Conley, NTTC president, told TT.

Richard Moskowitz, ATA’s vice president and regulatory counsel, said, “The chance of being struck by lightning is an order of magnitude greater than the chance of being injured in a wetlines incident. Maybe Congress needs to regulate lightning.”

Oberstar also said he was concerned about Campbell’s questioning whether CVSA could enforce wetlines regulations for gasoline and ethanol because officials have been required to enforce requirements for other poisonous or corrosive liquid materials in wetlines for the past 20 years.

“Given the issues outlined in your letter, I am concerned that your members may not be enforcing the current regulations today,” Oberstar said.

But Conley said that hazmat products such as propane and hydrous ammonia are transported in specialty trailers.

“You don’t haul those products in [Department of Transportation] gasoline trailers,” Conley said. “What we’re supposed to be talking about here is flammable liquids, gasoline and ethanol.”

Despite the protests, Jim Berard, a House Transportation Committee spokesman, said the committee is determined to include the wetlines provision in the reauthorization bill.

“There may be some ways of getting the same result from a different direction,” Berard said. “We’re certainly willing to talk to [CVSA] about it and see what’s on their minds.”