Pipeline Emergency Response Grant (PERG)

Any State, county, and local government, which can provide direct or web-based training to individuals with statutory responsibility to respond to pipeline incidents or accidents in HCAs, is eligible. Governments must train emergency responders to protect nearby persons, property, and the environment from the effects of accidents or incidents involving gas or hazardous liquid pipelines under existing regulations. Examples of eligible activities include: 

• Pipeline emergency response planning, training, and exercises. Training that does not have a pipeline emergency response component (e.g., HAZMAT certification or refresher courses) is an ineligible activity.
• PHMSA’s Pipeline Emergency Responder Initiative (PERI) program development and training.
• Pipeline leak recognition and release evacuation training.
• Development and maintenance of pipeline emergency response training curriculum. 
• Training props, equipment, and supplies specifically for pipeline emergency response training. Equipment and/or supplies that are not specific to pipeline emergency response training are ineligible activities.   

HCAs are defined in 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §§ 192.903 and 195.450 and may include:

• A commercially navigable waterway, which means a waterway where a substantial likelihood of commercial navigation exists.
• A high-population area, which means an urbanized area, as defined and delineated by the Census Bureau, that contains 50,000 or more people and has a population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile.
• Another populated area, which means a place, as defined and delineated by the Census Bureau, that contains a concentrated population, such as an incorporated or unincorporated city, town, village, or other designated residential or commercial area.
• An unusually sensitive area, as defined in 49 CFR § 195.6.