The cover/transmittal letter collects basic information (metadata) about the submission from the operator such as the Operator ID (OPID), type of submission, type of change that occurred, primary and technical contacts, and projection information. The cover letter must be included with the submission. PHMSA has developed a template cover/transmittal letter for breakout tank data submissions to assist you in fulfilling this requirement.

For breakout tank OPIDs, there are two contacts – primary and technical – that are associated with the OPID. Generally, the technical contact is who NPMS staff will reach out to when clarification or re-submission is needed, while the primary contact receives general questions about the OPID after the submission is incorporated. The primary contact must be directly employed by the operating company; however, the technical contact may be directly employed by the operating company or a designated representative from the consultant/subcontractor.

The primary and technical contacts are submitted each year through the breakout tank data submission, but may be updated, as needed, at any time throughout the year. If changes are needed to only the contact information, an email should be sent to NPMS staff stating the OPID, which contact (i.e. primary, technical, or both) is being updated, and the new contact’s name, job title, company name, work mailing address, work phone number, and work email address.

Unlike pipeline submissions, there is no public contact associated with breakout tanks.

The projection of the geospatial data must be included in the cover letter. If the geospatial data is submitted in a mapping/GIS format with the projection undefined or if coordinate points are submitted, NPMS staff will use the projection information provided in the cover letter to define the projection so that the breakout tank data will fall at the correct location on the earth. If the geospatial data is submitted in a mapping/GIS format that does have the projection defined, NPMS staff will use the projection information in the cover letter as part of the quality control review workflow.

Refer to Section 2.2 Cover/Transmittal Letter Requirement of the NPMS Operator Standards for additional information.

NPMS geospatial data captures the physical location of your breakout tank on the earth’s surface. The geospatial data may be submitted in several different formats; the operator should select the format that best fits their capabilities and resources.

In some cases, like the GIS Esri shapefile and CAD formats, the breakout tank is represented as a point feature. For operators who do not have a mapping/GIS environment, the location of the breakout tank may be submitted as a coordinate pair (in Geographic Latitude Longitude Decimal Degrees format). There is only one coordinate pair per plant. NPMS staff will convert the coordinate pair(s) to a GIS point feature on your behalf.

Refer to Section 4 Geospatial Data in the NPMS Operator Standards and Section 4 Submitting Your Geospatial and Attribute Data and Section 9 Tips for CAD Drawing Submissions of the NPMS Operator Submission Supplemental Instructions for additional details.

Attribute data captures descriptive information about your breakout tanks, such as operator name, plant name, and status. The specific attributes that are required for the NPMS breakout tank submission are described in detail in Section 3 Attributes of the NPMS Operator Standards. The attributes may be incorporated with the geospatial data, like in the case of the Esri shapefile. However, not all geospatial formats, like the coordinate format, integrate these two types of data. In this case, the operator must submit the attribute data as a separate component, such as a tab or comma delimited text format or Microsoft Excel format (preferred). When the geospatial and attribute data are submitted as separate items, the OPER_LINK value allows NPMS staff to correctly connect the breakout tank feature to its corresponding attributes.

The specific attributes that are required for the NPMS breakout tank submission are described in detail in Section 3 Attributes of the NPMS Operator Standards. Specifically, Appendix A.2 of the NPMS Operator Standards lists required field names, field types and acceptable values. For users working with a GIS software system, templates of the required attributes in Esri shapefile and geodatabase file formats have been developed for your convenience. These templates contain the NPMS breakout tank attributes with the proper field names, field types, and field length definition. The templates have a defined projection of Geographic Latitude Longitude NAD 83 Decimal Degrees; if your data is not in this projection, you MUST re-project the downloaded template before adding data. For operators who will submit the breakout tank attributes in Microsoft Excel format, a template of the breakout tank attribute fields was developed to ease the process. Various sections of the NPMS Operator Submission Supplemental Instructions provide detailed information about the submission component combinations, how to populate the attributes and example scenarios; refer to the Table of Contents to identify the sections applicable to your situation.