114 ◾ Risk Assessment and Security
than other types of pipelines, PHMSA does not collect comprehensive data on
safety risks associated with gathering pipelines (GAO 2012). Operators of unregu-
lated gathering pipelines are not required by federal law to report information on
such risk factors (GAO 2012). PHMSA is currently not able to determine the per-
formance and safety of these gathering pipelines because it does not collect the
necessary pipeline operator data (GAO 2012). e absence of information sharing
resources focused on federally unregulated gathering pipelines means that both
states and PHMSA could miss opportunities to share lessons learned and successful
practices for helping to ensure pipeline safety (GAO 2012).
Most commonly repor ...