Posted: | December 11, 2018 09:06 AM |
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From: | Senator Andrew E. Dinniman and Sen. Thomas H. Killion |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Pipelines Located Near Schools |
We will be reintroducing SB 1257 from last session. SB 1257 was introduced at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year, in response to numerous school administrators across our districts reporting they do not know how to respond to potential incidents from the pipelines carrying volatile materials that come within proximity to their buildings. Currently, pipeline operators are not required to provide this information to school officials. Specifically, this legislation will outline types of information that pipeline operators must provide to schools, if requested, that fall within 1000 ft of PUC-jurisdictional hazardous liquids and natural gas pipelines, including how to respond to a leak or product release. Similar statutes have been enacted in Texas, where growing pipeline infrastructure has increasingly encroached on school buildings and an explosion from a natural gas leak in the 1930s killed almost 300 students in the New London School District. Pennsylvania should act proactively to ensure that the expansion of pipeline infrastructure in the Commonwealth is as safe as possible for our schools. Co-sponsors of SB 1257 last session included Senators Rafferty, Killion, McGarrigle, Tartaglione, Schwank and Folmer. We hope you will join us in sponsoring this important piece of legislation that aims to protect our children and students. |
Introduced as SB260