PHMSA To Increase Random Drug & Alcohol Testing for Calendar Year 2025

On Wednesday November 20, 2024, the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a notice explaining that for calendar year 2025 it is increasing from 25% to 50% the rate of random drug and alcohol testing for employees of operators and contractors engaged in operations, maintenance or emergency response for gas pipelines facilities, hazardous liquid pipeline facilities, carbon dioxide pipeline facilities, liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, and underground natural gas storage facilities. In the notice, PHMSA also clarifies how operators and contractors should report their drug and alcohol testing data.

Rate of Drug Testing Increasing from 25% to 50% 

PHMSA announced that the minimum random drug testing rate of employees of operators and contractors engaged in operations, maintenance or emergency response for gas pipelines facilities, hazardous liquid pipeline facilities, carbon dioxide pipeline facilities, liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, and underground natural gas storage facilities will increase to 50% in Calendar Year (CY) 2025.

This is a significant increase from the 25% testing rate during calendar years 2024 and 2023. But PHMSA explains that under the regulations at 49 CFR 199.105(c)(4), it is required to increase the rate of drug testing of the pipeline and gas workforce anytime the required random drug and alcohol testing for a calendar year (CY) results in a positive rate greater than one percent—which it did for CY 2023.

The testing rate cannot be lowered back to 25% until the positive rate is below one percent for two consecutive CYs.

Contractor and Pipeline Entry of Data into the Drug and Alcohol (D&A) Management Information System (DAMIS) Database

The notice also details the process for large and small pipeline operators and their contractors to have their drug-testing data entered into the DAMIS database. PHMSA explains that pipeline operators are no longer required to “accept” contractor reports. “Instead, an operator will simply list the contractor, and the contractor’s DAMIS report automatically becomes part of the operator’s report once the contractor has submitted its report to DAMIS.” Also, operators are “not able to view contractor data reports through DAMIS, but can get the report directly from the contractor, if they so desire.” 

For each contractor listed by a primary operator, DAMIS will show if a Login.gov invitation has been generated for the contractor. If no Login.gov invitation has been created for the contractor or if the Login.gov invitation was created for the wrong e-mail address, the primary operator can generate a new Login.gov invitation by entering a new e-mail address for the contractor. This e-mail address cannot already be in use to access DAMIS for a primary operator or a different contractor.

PHMSA uses a Business Tax Identification Number (BTIN) to track contractors in the DAMIS database. Each contractor must prepare a “single, complete, and accurate DAMIS report that includes all” its covered employees and is not repetitive. This is true even if it performs covered functions for multiple operators and whether it is local, regional, or nationwide operating from a single location or multiple locations.

A contractor does not prepare or submit a separate and distinct DAMIS report for each pipeline operator, or for a contractor’s separate offices or locations, unless those offices are distinct and separate under their own BTIN. Moreover, a contractor must not report the same covered employees and the same drug and alcohol tests under more than one BTIN.

If a contractor has more than one BTIN, the contractor must allocate individual employees and their drug and alcohol tests (D&A tests) results among the BTINs for which they actually worked or report all the contractor’s employees and test results under one BTIN.

PHMSA does not need or require a DAMIS report from each BTIN and also makes clear that it “does not want covered employees or D&A tests to be reported more than once.” PHMSA also makes clear that pipeline operators with an Operator ID in the DAMIS must never be listed as a contractor by any other pipeline operator in a DAMIS report.

This notice also explains how contractors can register for the required Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) necessary to enter D&A testing data directly into DAMIS if they do not already have it or have lost the credentials. Existing, confirmed e-mail addresses for contractors were loaded into DAMIS at the end of CY 2023. In early January 2024, DAMIS generated a one-time/one-use Login.gov invitation for the confirmed e-mail address. Contractors can request a new Login.gov invitation for a new e-mail address by sending a request to PHMSAPipelineDAMIS@dot.gov. Any primary operator can generate a new Login.gov invitation for a contractor by entering an e-mail address that is not already established with Login.gov access to DAMIS.