The chairman of the North Dakota Public Service Commission says the federal agency that oversees the PSC’s pipeline inspection program has just finished its yearly review.
The PSC inspects natural gas pipelines, as well as in-state oil pipelines in partnership with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
"We did very well in the inspection," said PSC chairman Brian Kalk. "But there's always things you can improve upon."
The North Dakota Public Service Commission will be asking the 2015 Legislature for more staff to do pipeline inspections. But Kalk says that comes with a challenge – first to recruit them, and then to retain them.
"I can think back to the last three inspectors we've had," said Kalk. "We had them for about 18 months. They get in, get their feet on the ground, and the first batch of training underneath them. And that's when we've been losing them."
Kalk says it takes a full three years to train a pipeline inspector.
"We've gone to the School of Science to talk to the people there about applying," said Kalk. "I've been to NDSU and UND and talked to their engineering departments about getting young men and women to apply for these positions. We're just not getting a lot of applications."
Kalk says the PSC has the ability to offer special retention bonuses. And he says this will also be a big topic during the 2015 Legislature.
Kalk says the state gets reimbursed from the federal government for pipeline inspections – and he says that will be a selling point for state lawmakers. He says the better the state does, the more the reimbursement increases.
