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Kinder Morgan details aggressive damage‑prevention program, reports routine notices of unauthorized digs
Summary
Kinder Morgan described its public awareness, training, patrol and field‑meeting practices at the Sept. 8 meeting and said its personnel report unauthorized excavations to the Underground Safety Board; the company described a 48‑hour marking policy and frequent patrols beyond federal minima.
Brian Snead, damage prevention right‑of‑way specialist at Kinder Morgan, described the company's nationwide and California practices for preventing excavation damage during a Sept. 8 presentation to the California Underground Safety Board.
Why it matters: Kinder Morgan operates pipelines that carry multiple products through populated areas; its marking, field meeting and patrol practices influence contractor coordination and the visibility of subsurface installations during construction.
Snead summarized Kinder Morgan's program elements: public awareness and multi‑language outreach (mass mailings, brochures and an online resource center), training and operator qualification for locators, use of a company mapping and ticketing system, field meetings for marked tickets, photographic documentation of marks, regular ground and aerial patrols, and a practice to mark and inspect sites even when a ticket shows no conflict. "We will mark within 48 hours, weather permitting," Snead said, noting Kinder Morgan's internal policy is more stringent than the baseline government requirement for when the day of notification counts.
He described routine field meetings when work is proposed near Kinder Morgan facilities and said the company treats any encroachment within 50 feet of pipeline centerline as an item of interest; company practice also requires line‑rider presence for excavation within a tolerance zone and a variance process for use of mechanical equipment in close proximity to lines that requires director approval. Snead said the company's tolerance zone practice is strict: crews will be on site when excavations are within 10 feet of pipelines and the company will require documentation and site communication throughout the work.
On detection and monitoring, Snead said Kinder Morgan uses aerial flight‑scan technologies and GPS‑enabled marking tools (the presentation referred to a locator application) and that the company takes pictures of marks and maintains records for each ticket. He also described a robust patrol program: federal minimums require 26 patrols per year, but Snead reported the company performs many more patrols and that, for California year‑to‑date, the company had conducted hundreds of extra patrols.
When asked about reporting unauthorized excavations, Snead said patrol and right‑of‑way teams collect unauthorized excavation observations and compile reports for the Underground Safety Board; he said a small team handles California reporting. "We take the information from the line riders and right‑of‑way inspectors when they discover an unauthorized excavation, and we put it together and submit it to the board on their behalf," Snead said.
Snead also noted Kinder Morgan's inventory and scale: the company described roughly 83,000 miles of pipelines nationwide and about 3,200 miles in California, with multiple terminals and storage facilities; he used those figures to explain the scope of the company's damage‑prevention operations. He emphasized the company aims to go "above and beyond" baseline requirements in outreach, marking and patrols to reduce risk to the public and infrastructure.
No change in regulation or enforcement was adopted during the presentation; the session was a company briefing and a question‑and‑answer exchange with board members and staff.
