Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 2011: school and hospital notification of nonemergency excavation or construction of gas pipelines.

(1) Existing federal law requires the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) within the United States Department of Transportation, to adopt minimum safety standards for pipeline transportation and for pipeline facilities, including an interstate gas pipeline facility and intrastate gas pipeline facility, as defined. Existing law authorizes the United States Secretary of Transportation to prescribe or enforce safety standards and practices for an intrastate pipeline facility or intrastate pipeline transportation to the extent that the safety standards and practices are regulated by a state authority that submits to the secretary annually a certification for the facilities and transportation. Existing law authorizes a state authority that has submitted a current certification to adopt additional or more stringent safety standards for intrastate pipeline facilities and intrastate pipeline transportation only if those standards are compatible with the minimum standards prescribed by the PHMSA. The Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 2011, within the Public Utilities Act, designates the Public Utilities Commission as the state authority responsible for regulating and enforcing intrastate gas pipeline transportation and pipeline facilities pursuant to federal law, including the development, submission, and administration of a state pipeline safety program certification for natural gas pipelines. The act requires the commission, by July 1, 2012, to open an appropriate proceeding or expand the scope of an existing proceeding to establish compatible emergency response standards that owners or operators of certain commission-regulated gas pipeline facilities would be required to follow. The standards require owners or operators of intrastate transmission and distribution lines to implement emergency response plans that are compatible with PHMSA's regulations concerning emergency plans. This bill would require a gas corporation to provide not less than 3 working days' notice, as specified, to the administration of a school or hospital prior to undertaking nonemergency excavation or construction of a gas pipeline when the work is located within 500 feet of the school or hospital. The bill would require the gas corporation to maintain a record of the date and time of any notification provided to the administration of a school or hospital prior to undertaking nonemergency excavation or construction of a gas pipeline and any subsequent contacts with the administration of a school or hospital relative to the excavation or construction and the actions taken, if any, in response to those subsequent contacts, and would require the records to be maintained and available for inspection for no less than 5 years from that date of notification. (2) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the requirements of this bill are within the act, a violation of these requirements would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.