Perspectives
Publisher’s Perspective: Volume 4, Issue 3
Recently while speaking to a group of stakeholders concerning protecting our vital underground infrastructure, the topic of amending the current “dig law” to include fair and effective enforcement was discussed. While listening to this discussion, I was reminded of a John Saxe poem from days long since passed. It was six men of Indostan to [...]
Safety Connects Us All
by John A. Jacobi, PE Community Assistance/Technical Services Manager PHMSA Southwest Region PHMSA is the primary federal regulatory agency responsible for ensuring the safety of America’s energy pipelines. We develop and implement pipeline safety regulations at the federal level, and we share regulatory responsibility with the states to provide oversight to more than two million [...]
PHMSA Potpourri – Fall 2010
by John A. Jacobi, PE Community Assistance/Technical Services Manager PHMSA Southwest Region Pipeline and Informed Planning Alliance (PIPA) – PIPA is an initiative organized by PHMSA to encourage the development and use of risk-informed land use guidelines relating to new development near existing transmission pipelines. PIPA kicked off with a meeting of over 100 stakeholders [...]
The myth of the abandoned line
A perspective by Gary Sloman, Executive Director, New Mexico One Call One definition I especially like of the word myth is “an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a common ideology”. Abandoned lines means many things to many people. Regulators, accountants, lawyers, and operating personnel all have their own interpretation of [...]
Publisher’s Perspective, Volume 3, Issue 2
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. These familiar words [...]
From the desk of Lee Marrs, Volume 3, Issue 2
Achievement in the damage prevention business is measured by the things that don’t happen: the jobs that aren’t delayed, the lines that don’t get cut, and the repairs that don’t need to be made. As in air travel, our marker for success is nothing noteworthy happening. There are times when we remember why we got [...]
Me and Dillard, Volume 3, Issue 1
“I don’t have a chance!” I loudly exclaimed to my friend Dillard. I was only halfway through my second year in school, but I had already decided that wasn’t where I wanted to be. Oh, it wasn’t so much the school work, although I must admit, it seemed like a colossal waste of time to [...]
Do you need a gardener?
The pharmacist looked up to see the little boy standing at the drug counter in front of him. He wasn’t dressed very well but wore a big smile. “How can I help you, son?” the pharmacist asked. “May I use your phone?” the boy inquired. He didn’t recognize the boy as being from the neighborhood. [...]
Cooperation and Damage Prevention in Texas
HMSA Southwest Region The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Office of Pipeline Safety’s (PHMSA’s) focus is on pipelines – but damage prevention for ALL utilities is damage prevention for pipelines. ALL STAKEHOLDERS MUST BE INVOLVED. That is why OPS sponsored the Common Ground Study that ultimately resulted in the establishment of the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) June 15, 2000. The CGA’s purpose is to prevent damage to underground infrastructure and its motto was and is “Damage Prevention is a Shared Responsibility.”
From the Desk of Lee Marrs, Volume 3, Issue 1
The 1st Annual Texas811 Damage Prevention Summit – what a great event. Just a couple of weeks before the Summit opened, we were looking at the registrations and hoping that the event would come together. Even the Friday before the opening, we weren’t sure we’d be able to pull it off. Then on the opening [...]