As a courtesy to our audience, Maritime Commons will provide a daily compilation of nationally-relevant Federal Register Notices. To provide comments for the public record, follow the Federal Register link for each individual notice. Please note, the Coast Guard cannot respond to comments on these notices outside of the Federal Register.
The Coast Guard announced in the Federal Register that it is withdrawing two notices of proposed rulemaking based on findings that the proposed rules are no longer appropriate to the current state of spill response in the chemical industry:
1. “Tank Vessel Response Plans for Hazardous Substances” was published March 22, 1999. The docket for this withdrawn rulemaking is available by searching docket number USCG-1998-4354 using the Federal portal at http://www.regulations.gov.
2. “Marine Transportation-Related Facility Response Plans for Hazardous Substances” was published March 31, 2000 and is available by searching docket number USCG-1999-5705 using the Federal portal at http://www.regulations.gov.
Following publication, the Coast Guard received feedback from concerned citizens, commercial entities, and trade associations regarding the proposed rulemakings. Since then, further analysis by the Coast Guard and the Chemical Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) has shown that implementation of the rules as laid out in the respective NPRMs would not significantly increase response effectiveness at this time. CTAC also identified many areas in which the NPRMs may overlap with existing local, state, and international regulatory schemes as well as current industry practice.
The Coast Guard is withdrawing the proposed rulemakings so as to better analyze the current spill response capabilities of the chemical industry before conducting any further rulemaking on hazardous substance response plans for certain tank vessels and marine transportation-related facilities. The Coast Guard remains committed to fulfilling its OPA 90 mandate, however believes the proposed rules are no longer appropriate as proposed.
Questions about either withdrawal may be directed to Mr. Christopher Friese, Commercial Vessel Safety Specialist, Office of Marine Environmental Response Policy, at 202-372-1227.
For full details, view the Federal Register notices:
“Tank Vessel Response Plans for Hazardous Substances”
“Marine Transportation-Related Facility Response Plans for Hazardous Substances”
This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.
