RP1162 Public Awareness Programs

On December 17, 2002, Congress issued the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002. Section 5 of the Act called for operators of gas or hazardous liquid pipeline facilities to review their existing public education programs for effectiveness and modify the programs as necessary, by December 17, 2003. The final rule published on May, 2007 issued on RP 1162 is the industry standard for operator public education programs, and requires all pipeline operators to provide pipeline safety awareness materials to the affected public, emergency response agencies, local public officials and excavators. Natural Gas Services of Florida offers local distribution companies (LDC’s) a cost effective solution to meeting the requirements of the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act.

Natural Gas Services of Florida will review the LDC’s current Public Awareness program to ensure compliance with regulations and modify as needed, or develop a program with the LDC, if they do not have one. Natural Gas services of Florida will implement and administer the Public Awareness program with the cities ensuring that: target audiences are identified, appropriate messages are identified for each audience, appropriate message delivery periods are identified, messages are delivered as specified in plan, the effectiveness of the plan is periodically evaluated, and the plan is modified to reflect the findings of the effectiveness evaluation.