PLAN: Stakeholder Identification

Stakeholder identification (Section 4.6) is the most important element of a public awareness program. An operator may have well-crafted messages and well-planned delivery, but that doesn’t matter if the stakeholder identification process is flawed. And it becomes really difficult to measure program effectiveness.

The Third Edition includes a minimum requirement for operators to have a method to identify stakeholder audiences for their program. The method(s) used, and stakeholder audiences identified should also be documented.

If you’re new to pipeline public awareness programs, there are four primary audiences:

  • Affected Public
    • People who live within the baseline coverage area of transmission pipelines, gathering pipelines, or major facilities
    • People who live, work, or congregate within the coverage area of a local distribution system
    • Places where people congregate or regularly work within the coverage area of transmission pipelines, gathering pipelines, or major facilities
  • Excavators:
    • Companies and government agencies that are engaged in earth moving, ground disturbing, or digging activities in the pipeline system’s operating area.
  • Emergency Officials:
    • Local, city, municipal, county, state, tribal, or regional officials, agencies and organizations with the role and responsibility of emergency preparedness and response, having jurisdiction in the pipeline’s operating area.
  • Public Officials:
    • Local, city, municipal, county, state, tribal, or regional officials, agencies and organizations with the role and responsibility of planning, land use, environmental protection, or street management, having jurisdiction in the pipeline’s operating area.

Different operators will use different methods for stakeholder identification and building stakeholder contact lists. Some examples include, but are not limited to:

  • North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), used to identify businesses
  • Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, used to identify industries
  • Privately developed lists, whether internally (e.g., ROW line lists) or externally developed
  • Rooftop count analysis using GIS data and software
  • Walking or driving a pipeline route to collect addresses (done randomly, this can also be a method of validating information on stakeholder contact lists)
  • Online research, websites, phone calls to all (or a random sample of contacts for validation purposes)