Good morning, hope all is having a good day.
I'm looking for some guidance on a waiver letter. To be more precise, I'm looking for I guess you could say the in depth correct verbiage. Give a quick run down on what im dealing with. I'm working a maintenance project for a paper mill all fairly simple gravy gig. So for the majority of work B31.3 will apply however due to pressure/temp some work may fall to B31.1. The owner has requested no hydro's in lieu of in-service test for Cat D service. B31.3 gives the owner the option to waive hydro for Cat. D. Actually 31.3 allows owner to pretty much waive any and all testing so long as they assume all responsibility. Which without getting into all the paragraphs of 31.3. It started with no hydro now has bleed over into no NDE at all on ANY b31.3 Cat systems and we'll notify you if any further testing is needed. Well I received a email (see below ) from owner which in this case is the maintenance manager. That email "waiver" leaves to much grey area and at minimum might cover us on the spoke of hydro's. Unfortunately, by his admission he has no knowledge on the subject matter. His decision is based on "when I was a welder in the maintenance dept. we never did testing" I'm ok with in service for Cat D. Now that being said, per IP spec it states any issues found during in-service the contractor will be liable for all rework and man hours. Cat D doesn't require RT of welds just VT. So you the client are waiving one of only two NDE process. One being the hydro which is intended to reveal any issues that would be found in a in-service test but still want the contractor to assume financial responsibility. That makes zero sense from a contractor view point. So its now went from no hydro on Cat. D to no NDE period across the board. If NDE is required we'll let you know. That doesn't site well with me because we just fabed up for example a seal water line 14 welds, and steam trap lines which was 94 SW joints. Both of those systems due to pressure falls under B31.1. That's the lack of knowledge I'm dealing with and up to this point there is no convincing them that an umbrella waiver of all NDE isn't a good idea. The maintenance manager is making this decision based on his budget and that's not my opinion but fact. Not to mention there is no quality rep for IP out here to bring concern to. So what I'm looking for is some guidance on writing a letter for client to sign. I don't want to present a letter containing basic everyday verbiage. My vocabulary is what id like to think is pretty articulate. I'm obviously no attorney, however Id like to present them with a letter with somewhat of a legal tone, and with verbiage that encompasses all liability they will be responsible for by them choosing to make such a decision as to signing waiver. I'm hoping to word it to where after he's completed reading. It will cause him to pause and rethink his decision to waive ALL NDE.. Below in yellow is the email our current PM send prior to my arrival to project. In red is the reply he received back. Hoping we have some lets say "wordsmiths" in here or someone who has written a waiver covering broad scope.

Thanks in advance for any help that may be given!!



I know that we had discussed the process for NDE on site previously, but I wanted to confirm that there will not be a requirement on site for Bilfinger. We will continue performing “In Service” test when needed.

Please confirm so that I can align our team and our QC department.

Thank you,



Correct. If there is something that would need NDE we would notify you and we would bring in an outside group to do that testing.