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Bulletin 2007-09

April 19, 2007

Deferral of Implementation of Revised Directive 071: Emergency Response Requirements for the Petroleum Industry

Directive 071: Emergency Response Requirements for the Petroleum Industry (formerly Guide 71) was initially published in June 2003. It consolidated and updated all of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board’s (EUB’s) emergency response requirements into a single document. Bulletin 2006-46 announced that the next major revision to the directive had been released for stakeholder review and comment on December 19, 2006, with a projected implementation date in April 2007.

Despite having engaged in broad stakeholder involvement over the past three years, the EUB has received a significant and unanticipated volume of feedback on the revised draft directive. To ensure that this valuable feedback is appropriately addressed, the EUB is deferring implementation of the revised Directive 071 until the fall of 2007.

Revised Requirements for Calculating Emergency Planning Zones—EUBH2S

A significant change incorporated into the draft directive is a new computer software program, EUBH2S, required for calculating emergency planning zones (EPZs) for sour wells, pipelines, and facilities. This change is in response to recommendations of the Provincial Advisory Committee on Public Safety and Sour Gas.

The EUB has received a significant number of comments and queries on the new EUBH2S computer software program and is also delaying implementation of it in order to fully address this feedback.

To ensure a smooth transition for applying the revised Directive 071 and the new EUBH2S computer software, the EUB is concurrently developing an implementation plan that will account for any changes to Directive 071 and the EUBH2S model made as a result of the comments received from stakeholders.

<original signed by>

Dwayne Waisman
Executive Manager
Public Safety/Field Surveillance Branch