A new federal regulation requires higher safety standards for pipelines carrying oil and other hazardous liquids through the Great Lakes region, marine coastal waters and beaches, officials said Thursday.

The rule issued by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration designates those locations as “high consequence” zones where pipeline operators must step up inspections, repairs and other measures to avoid spills.

The agency estimated that 2,905 additional miles (4,675 kilometers) of hazardous liquid pipelines will be covered under the new rule, primarily in states along the Gulf of Mexico.

“The Great Lakes and our coastal waters are natural treasures that deserve our most stringent protections,” said Tristan Brown, the agency’s deputy administrator. “This rule strengthens and expands pipeline safety efforts.”

Congress ordered the pipeline safety agency last year to include the Great Lakes, coastal beaches and coastal waters among “unusually sensitive areas” meriting extra attention.

The natural gas and oil industry “is committed to the safe and environmentally responsible operation of U.S. energy infrastructure, and pipelines remain one of the safest ways to deliver affordable, reliable energy,” said Robin Rorick, a vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association. “As our industry works to protect the environment and communities where we live and work, this rule provides the opportunity to further that commitment.”

Large oil releases would severely damage shoreline and underwater environments, fisheries, human health and coastal community economies, the regulation says.

The 53-page document acknowledges there’s no way to know how many disasters the new requirements will prevent. But it offers several previous examples of damaging spills in the designated areas.

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