The U.S. Transportation Department doesn’t plan to change regulations to better protect underground pipelines from riverbed erosion, a year after Congress ordered it to evaluate its policies in the wake of pipeline breaks that spilled hazardous liquids into waterways. The department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said its review found that over the past two decades, riverbed erosion contributed to just one in every 200 significant hazardous-liquid incidents involving pipelines. The agency, which oversees pipeline safety, said in a recent letter to Congress that its “existing legislative authority is adequate to address the risks of hazardous liquid pipeline failures at major river crossings.” The agency said that after its review, it sees no need to change existing regulations. The letter could spell the end of efforts by pipeline-safety advocates to enhance protections against “scouring,” in which flooding or rapid currents strip away layers of earth from a river’s […]