that they were responsible equipment in the following sectors: oil and gas exploration and production, transmission in pipelines, petroleum refining, chemical/petrochemical/pharmaceutical production, gas distribution, drinking water and sewer systems, and electric utilities.

The questionnaire asked which forms of corrosion were of greatest importance or concern to the respondents. All forms of corrosion presented on the questionnaire as choices—general, pitting, crevice, microbially influenced corrosion, galvanic, erosion, and environmental cracking—were described as “sometimes an issue.” Pitting corrosion was most frequently described as “my biggest issues,” with general corrosion coming in second. Microbially influenced corrosion was most frequently described as “not an issue.”

The consequence that most concerned the respondents was safety. Loss of production, environmental issues, and loss of use of the equipment were roughly tied for second place. Legal consequences were less frequently cited. Of those who cited “other,” “cost” was most frequently identified as the primary consequence.

This section of the questionnaire explored the types of mitigation systems currently being used by respondents. The most frequently selected options are shown in Table B.1 (respondents were allowed to select more than one).

Respondents were also asked to say how frequently they used each technique. In other words, a respondent might have indicated that he or she used coupons (monitoring), external CP with coatings (electrochemical), and inhibitors such as those in water. In this question respondents were asked to say what percentage of their mitigation effort relied on a particular technique. Overall, external CP with coatings had the highest rate of use (35 percent), followed by materials selection based on environmental application (23 percent), organic barrier coatings (19 percent), corrosion inhibitors such as those used in water (19 percent), materials selection based on cost (18 percent), design of materials based on cost (16 percent), and sacrificial anodes (13 percent).

Seventy-two percent of respondents said that they spent more than $200,000 per year on corrosion mitigation. An additional 13.5 percent spent between $50,000 and $200,000 per year.