[Federal Register: June 23, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 120)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 36363]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr23jn05-23]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
33 CFR Chapter I
[USCG-2004-19615]
Exclusion Zones for Marine LNG Spills
AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS.
ACTION: Reopening of comment period.
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SUMMARY: In response to a request from the public, the Coast Guard is
once again reopening the public comment period on a petition from the
City of Fall River, Massachusetts. Fall River's petition asks the Coast
Guard to promulgate regulations establishing thermal and vapor
dispersion exclusion zones for marine spills of liquefied natural gas,
similar to Department of Transportation regulations for such spills on
land.
DATES: Comments and related material must reach the Docket Management
Facility on or before August 22, 2005.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Coast Guard docket
number USCG-2004-19615 to the Docket Management Facility at the U.S.
Department of Transportation. To avoid duplication, please use only one
of the following methods:
(1) Web site: http://dms.dot.gov.
(2) Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001.
(3) Fax: 202-493-2251.
(4) Delivery: Room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif
Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone
number is 202-366-9329.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this notice,
call Commander John Cushing at 202-267-1043 or e-mail
JCushing@comdt.uscg.mil. If you have questions on viewing or submitting
material to the docket, call Andrea M. Jenkins, Program Manager, Docket
Operations, telephone 202-366-0271.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Public Participation and Request for Comments
We encourage you to submit comments and related material on the
petition for rulemaking. All comments received will be posted, without
change, to http://dms.dot.gov and will include any personal information
you have provided. We have an agreement with the Department of
Transportation (DOT) to use the Docket Management Facility. Please see
DOT's ``Privacy Act'' paragraph below.
Submitting comments: If you submit a comment, please include your
name and address, identify the docket number for this notice (USCG-
2004-19615), and give the reason for each comment. You may submit your
comments and material by electronic means, mail, fax, or delivery to
the Docket Management Facility at the address under ADDRESSES; but
please submit your comments and material by only one means. If you
submit them by mail or delivery, submit them in an unbound format, no
larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, suitable for copying and electronic
filing. If you submit them by mail and would like to know that they
reached the Facility, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard
or envelope. We will consider all comments and material received during
the comment period.
Viewing the comments: To view the comments, go to http://dms.dot.gov
at any time and conduct a simple search using the docket
number. You may also visit the Docket Management Facility in room PL-
401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW.,
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
Privacy Act: Anyone can search the electronic form of all comments
received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review the
Department of Transportation's Privacy Act Statement in the Federal
Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or you may visit
http://dms.dot.gov.
Background and Purpose
As we stated in the original notice and request for public comments
(69 FR 63979, Nov. 3, 2004), the City of Fall River, Massachusetts, has
petitioned the Coast Guard to promulgate regulations establishing
thermal and vapor dispersion exclusion zone requirements for liquefied
natural gas (LNG) spills on water. The City asks that these regulations
be similar to Department of Transportation regulations for LNG spills
on land, contained in 49 CFR 193.2057 (Thermal radiation protection)
and 193.2059 (Flammable vapor-gas dispersion protection).
In our original notice, we provided a public comment period that
ended February 1, 2005. Near the end of that comment period, we
received a letter from the Attorney General of Rhode Island that read
in part: ``* * * I wish to emphasize that my office is waiting for the
completion of a Threat Analysis * * *. I am formally requesting that
the public comment period in this docket remain open for an additional
sixty (60) days to allow for consideration of [that] report.'' In
response to that request, on March 10, 2005, the Coast Guard published
the notice reopening the comment period (70 FR 11912).
The Coast Guard has since been informed that the report, ``LNG
Facilities in Urban Areas'' was not released until May 9, 2005--the day
the docket was scheduled to close. On May 24, 2005, the report was
filed in the docket: Clark Report, Item 76 in docket USCG-2005-19615.
The Coast Guard was requested to reopen the comment period again,
so that the report may be reviewed and comments on it may be submitted
to the docket. In response to this request, the Coast Guard is
reopening the comment period.
The public is invited to review the referenced report and other
material contained in the docket and to submit relevant comments by
August 22, 2005. The Coast Guard will consider the City's petition, any
comments received from the public, and other information to determine
whether or not to initiate the requested rulemaking.
Dated: June 13, 2005.
Howard L. Hime,
Acting Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security & Environmental
Protection.
[FR Doc. 05-12399 Filed 6-22-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-P