The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) “Commission” means the utilities and transportation commission.

(2) “Gas” means natural gas, flammable gas, or toxic or corrosive gas.

(3) “Gas pipeline” means all parts of a pipeline facility through which gas moves in transportation, including, but not limited to, line pipe, valves, and other appurtenances connected to line pipe, compressor units, metering stations, regulator stations, delivery stations, holders, and fabricated assemblies. “Gas pipeline” does not include any pipeline facilities, other than a master meter system, owned by a consumer or consumers of the gas, located exclusively on the consumer or consumers’ property, and none of the gas leaves that property through a pipeline.

(4) “Gas pipeline company” means a person or entity constructing, owning, or operating a gas pipeline for transporting gas. “Gas pipeline company” includes a person or entity owning or operating a master meter system. “Gas pipeline company” does not include excavation contractors or other contractors that contract with a gas pipeline company.

(5) “Hazardous liquid” means: (a) Petroleum, petroleum products, or anhydrous ammonia as those terms are defined in 49 C.F.R. part 195; and (b) carbon dioxide.

(6) “Hazardous liquid pipeline” means all parts of a pipeline facility through which a hazardous liquid moves in transportation including, but not limited to, line pipe, valves, and other appurtenances connected to line pipe, pumping units, fabricated assemblies associated with pumping units, metering and delivery stations and fabricated assemblies therein, and breakout tanks. “Hazardous liquid pipeline” does not include all parts of a pipeline facility through which a hazardous liquid moves in transportation through refining or manufacturing facilities or storage or in-plant piping systems associated with such facilities, a pipeline subject to safety regulations of the United States coast guard, or a pipeline that serves refining, manufacturing, or truck, rail, or vessel terminal facilities, if the pipeline is less than one mile long, measured outside facility grounds, and does not cross an offshore area or a waterway used for commercial navigation.

(7) “Hazardous liquid pipeline company” means a person or entity constructing, owning, or operating a hazardous liquid pipeline. “Hazardous liquid pipeline company” does not include excavation contractors or other contractors that contract with a hazardous liquid pipeline company.

(8) “Line pipe” means a tube, usually cylindrical, through which a hazardous liquid or gas is transported from one point to another.

(9) “Local government” means a political subdivision of the state.

(10) “Master meter system” means a pipeline system for distributing gas within, but not limited to, a definable area, such as a mobile home park, housing project, or apartment complex, where the operator purchases metered gas from an outside source for resale through a gas distribution pipeline system. The gas distribution pipeline system supplies the ultimate consumer who either purchases the gas directly through a meter or by any other means, such as by rents.

(11) “Person” means an individual, partnership, franchise holder, association, corporation, a state, a city, a town, a county, or any other political subdivision or instrumentality of a state, and its employees, agents, or legal representatives.

(12) “Pipeline company,” without further qualification, means a hazardous liquid pipeline company or a gas pipeline company.

Intent—Finding—Effective date—2001 c 238: See notes following RCW 80.24.060.