The Colorado Public Utilities Commission Should Reconsider its Inadequate Pipeline Leak Repair Standards  

• Colorado has 80,000 miles of natural gas pipelines that need to be monitored regularly for leaks, and last year the Colorado Public Utilities Commission was directed to set enhanced monitoring standards for the majority of the state’s pipelines.
• Unfortunately, the Commission missed the mark, and EDF is seeking reconsideration of the Commission’s order to make sure it includes effective technology standards and considers environmental protections.

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (“PUC”) issued a disappointing decision last month, failing to adopt commonsense technology standards to find and fix dangerous leaks from pipelines and ensure strong requirements to protect our environment.  

Better oversight is long overdue and critically needed. In the last ten years, operators in Colorado have reported 56 pipeline incidents, costing over $16 million in property damages and emergency resources. EDF is continuing to fight for improved rules to protect communities from the harms associated with leaking pipelines, seeking reconsideration of the Commission’s order. 

Gas pipeline leaks are bad for Colorado communities  

Colorado is home to over 80,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, with neighborhoods and towns hosting distribution, transmission, and gathering pipelines. Natural gas pipeline losses are harmful to the environment and human health, pose a safety risk to the nearby public, and result in economic waste that is costly to customers. Natural gas is primarily composed of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, which is driving rising temperatures, continuing reductions in snowpack, more frequent and intense droughts, and more and larger wildfires for Coloradans.  

The best way to prevent pipeline incidents and address the public health and environmental risks associated with natural gas infrastructure is to find and fix leaks quickly. Methane detection technologies have become more commercially available and cost-effective, with the ability to locate more pipeline leaks and quantify leak flow rates. Strong leak management standards can help Colorado meet its climate goals, while improving public safety. 

Last year, the Colorado Legislature directed the Public Utilities Commission to adopt statewide advanced leak detection technology standards for gas pipelines, to improve public safety and environmental protection.  

The Commission failed to uphold its legal mandate 

After months of stakeholder input—during which EDF presented evidence-based recommendations to improve leak management on gas pipelines—the PUC on January 29 issued a final decision containing significant deficiencies that betray its statutory obligation to issue rules that “meet the need for pipeline safety and protection of the environment.” 

EDF is formally requesting that the Commission reconsider and modify its decision. The Commission should (1) strengthen the definition of “advanced leak detection technology” to ensure that qualifying equipment is capable of detecting most leaks on each pipeline type, including distribution lines, and (2) require operators to mitigate environmental harm—not just safety risks—when prioritizing leaks for repair, by incorporating consideration of environmental impacts into the leak grading standards. 

The Final Rules are Inadequate for the Following Reasons: 

• Ineffective technology standards: The leak detection technology standard determines the size of the smallest leak that the technology must be capable of detecting. The final standards include one technology standard for surveys conducted on all distribution, transmission, and gathering pipelines, which ignores their varied physical properties and operational purposes. For distribution pipelines, the Commission’s definition of advanced leak detection technologies is so lax that it would miss the vast majority of leaks on the approximately 59,000 miles of distribution pipelines under the Commission’s jurisdiction, even though there is commercially available technology to detect these leaks. Tailoring the available technology and methodology to the appropriate type of pipeline, and adopting strong standards for each of those classifications, will ensure that more leaks are found and fixed quickly and safely. 

• No consideration for environmental protection: Contrary to the express direction of the Legislature, the Commission’s prioritization of leaks for repair considers only safety and not the need for both safety and environmental protection. Leak classifications (or “leak grades”) determine which leaks operators will prioritize for repair, and which will go unrepaired for as long as five years. By removing consideration of environmental impacts from leak grading standards, the Decision allows leaks that present significant risks to the environment to go unrepaired for years. Operators should be required to quickly fix pipeline leaks that pose safety and environmental harms to communities.  

With strong, comprehensive advanced leak detection and repair standards for gas pipelines, the PUC can protect communities from dangerous health risks, reduce the threat of pipeline incidents, and drive climate progress by cutting methane emissions. The Commission should reconsider its decision and issue improved standards to ensure meaningful improvements to gas pipeline operations and oversight.