Transportation – Pipeline Safety

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Pipeline Safety

Jason Montoya, Pipeline Safety Bureau Chief
(505) 946-8314
JasonN.Montoya@prc.nm.gov

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Pipeline Safety Bureau:

  • Enforces federal and state pipeline safety regulations in order to provide for the safe operation of natural gas and hazardous liquid facilities;
  • investigates intrastate pipeline incidents and accidents that take place in New Mexico;
  • enforces the State Excavation Damage Prevention Law; and
  • is responsible for licensing crude oil, natural gas, and oil and gas product pipelines.

Through its 60105 Agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Pipeline Safety Bureau is responsible for conducting safety compliance inspections and enforcing state and federal pipeline safety regulations for intrastate gas, hazardous liquid, and CO2 pipeline facilities. These include private and municipal gas distribution systems, master meter gas systems, LPG systems, transmission systems, and jurisdictional gathering lines. The U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Administration (PHMSA) conducts annual program evaluations used primarily to determine performance (e.g., operating practices, quality of State agency inspections, investigations, compliance actions and adequacy of recordkeeping). The Pipeline Safety Bureau performance is the major factor considered in allocation grant-in-aid funds from the federal government each year.

Emergency/After Hours Number:
(505) 490-2375

Non-Emergency number, please call (505) 629-9603 or use the staff list below for individual contact information.

Damage Prevention

New Mexico One Call

New Mexico state law requires anyone involved in an excavation to provide at least two working days’ notice to underground facility owners/operators (UFOs). This notification is accomplished by contacting the one-call center prior to beginning your excavation. The UFOs are then required to mark the horizontal locations of their underground lines within the two working days.

When to contact NM811

If you plan on digging, excavating, blasting or moving earth in any way, contact New Mexico 811 and all non-members two working days prior to the start of the excavation. Non-members include homeowners, master meter systems, and non-jurisdictional members (i.e. Native American reservations and federal facilities). New Mexico 811 is open from 7 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, except on holidays.

Contacting NM811

When requesting line locates, NM811’s preference is for you to call by telephone or enter your requests at nm811.org. Calls to New Mexico 811 (NM811) are free.

NM811 can be reached:

Toll free from anywhere in New Mexico by calling: 811

Toll free from anywhere in the United States by calling: 1-800-321-2537

Damage to an underground facility

If an underground facility is damaged during excavation, you must stop the excavation, call 911 if appropriate, notify the UFO immediately, and call 811 to report the damage. Damage may include nicks, dents, gouges, cuts, scrapes or scratches to the coating, insulating jacket or tracer wire.

Utilities affected by damage

If your utilities are affected when a damage occurs, you will need to submit a 3rd party damage report.

New Mexico Excavation Law Classes (NMEL)

We recommend anybody involved with the design, planning, or conducting excavation projects is the appropriate audience. It’s good knowledge to have. The training includes a post test and attendees must score an 80% or better to be considered successful.

To attend an NMEL class to satisfy the requirements of a Notice of Probable Violation please visit https://nmprc.dpa.training/ to register.

To attend an NMEL class for information purposes only, please send the email request to pipeline.safety@prc.nm.gov. Please include the name of the attendee(s); physical mailing address; and contact phone number in the request.

Please include Name of attendees; physical mailing address; contact phone number; and case number, if you are attending the class to fulfill the requirements of a notice of probable violation from the Pipeline Safety Bureau.

 

Review the July 2022 Positive Response Report

July 2022 Positive Response Report

Informational Videos

Part 1:
What is natural gas?

Part 2:
How Gas is Delivered

Part 3: How are Pipelines Regulated?

NM 811 – Call Before You Dig Commercial

National Pipeline Mapping System

The Pipeline Safety Bureau does not maintain pipeline maps; however, the public has access through the National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS).

Contact Us

Mailing Address
Public Regulation Commission
Pipeline Safety Bureau
P.O. Box 1269
Santa Fe, NM 87504
(505) 629-9603

Emergency/After Hours Number:
(505) 490-2375

This number is for emergency/after hours phone calls only and is not monitored for text messages.

To contact the Pipeline Safety Bureau with non-emergency information, please call (505) 629-9603 or use the staff list on this page for individual contact information.

Staff/Email Title Phone
Jason Montoya Bureau Chief (505) 946-8314
Tina Cigliano-Sisneros Management Analyst (505) 670-3149
Gabriel Cassell Administrative Assistant (505) 629-9603
James Stanovcak Pipeline Safety Supervisor (505) 490-2135
David Gates Pipeline Safety Inspector (505) 490-2958
Antonio Archuleta Pipeline Safety Inspector (505) 490-0567
David Walters Pipeline Safety Inspector (505) 629-3561
Chris Gutierrez Pipeline Safety Inspector (505) 699-8693
Margaret Doyle
Pipeline Safety Inspector (505) 699-2680
Zane Ward Pipeline Safety Inspector (505) 470-7854
Kevin Duke Pipeline Safety Inspector (505) 470-0042
Joe Lopez Damage Prevention Inspector, NM – South (505) 231-5204
Ricardo Herrera Damage Prevention Inspector, NM – Central (505) 629-3564
Joaquin Pineda Damage Prevention Supervisor/Inspector, NM – North (505) 795-0969
Master Meter Program
New Mexico Excavation Law Classes
Pipeline Safety Manuals and Forms
Rules

Title 18: Transportation and Highways

Chapter 60: Pipeline Construction and Maintenance

Related Links