System Approach for Monitoring and Risk Assessment for Natural Force Damage to Gas Pipelines

2024020550

California Energy Commission

NOE - Notice of Exemption

2/15/2024

2/15/2024

Sean Anayah

California Energy Commission

ECSI

Lead/Public Agency

719 P St.
Sacramento, CA 95814

(916) 931-5044

sean.anayah@energy.ca.gov

94550

Stockton 95219, Milpitas 95035, Irvine 92697

Categorical Exemption

Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15301 ; Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15306

California. Code Regs., tit 14, section 15301 provides that projects which consist of the operation, repair, maintenance, permitting, leasing, licensing, or minor alteration of existing public or private structures, facilities, mechanical equipment, or topographical features, and which involve negligible or no expansion of existing or former use, are categorically exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act. This project will collect data using technologies that are divided into two groups: direct measurements (technologies measuring Authority cited: Sections 21083 and 21110, Public Resources Code. Reference: Sections 21108, 21152, and 21152.1, Public Resources Code. University of California, Los Angeles CEQA Notice of Exemption Page 2 of 2 PIR-23-004 pipe strain) and indirect measurements (technologies measuring ground displacement). For this project, four sites have been identified. Multi-year satellite images will be collected at a site in Livermore that has been subjected to recent landslide movements. Two more sites are located at existing PG&E facilities where real-time ground motion sensors will be installed to measure ground movements in real-time. The last site is at UC Irvine, where controlled field calibration will evaluate measurement accuracy. These minor modifications will not result in expanding the capacity or use of the facility. This project is also exempt under California Code Regs., tit 14, section 15306 which provides that projects which consist of basic data collection, research, experimental management, and resource evaluation activities which do not result in a serious or major disturbance to an environmental resource are categorically exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act. This project will collect data within the field in real-time, for at least 12 months. Remote and embedded sensing approaches to data collection will facilitate monitoring of geohazard impacts under any natural hazard ground motion scenario (i.e., earthquake, landslide, subsidence, and liquefaction). The instruments will be accessed remotely to obtain the data recorded. With the data, a pipeline fragility (or capacity) model will then be employed to combine both direct and indirect measurements to provide a prediction of the gas pipeline probability of failure. Finally, the data processing algorithms and fragility model will be incorporated into a user-friendly, free, and open-source software package for gas pipeline operator decision making. These activities will not result in a serious or major disturbance to an environmental resource. For these reasons, the proposed work will not have any significant effect on the environment and falls under the exemptions in sections 15301 and 15306. This project does not involve impacts on any particularly sensitive environment; does not involve any cumulative impacts of successive projects of the same type in the same place that might be considered significant; does not involve unusual circumstances that might have a significant effect on the environment; will not result in damage to scenic resources within a highway officially designated as a state scenic highway; the project site is not included on any list compiled pursuant to Government Code section 65962.5; and the project will not cause a substantial adverse change in the significance of a historical resource. Therefore, none of the exceptions to categorical exemptions listed in CEQA Guidelines section 15300.2 apply to this project and this project will not have a significant effect on the environment.