Notice2024-12844
Hazardous Materials: Information Collection Activities
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
June 12, 2024
Issuing agencies
Transportation DepartmentPipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
Abstract
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces that PHMSA is publishing a 60-day notice and providing an opportunity for public comment on its development of general investigative questions that may be used by PHMSA's Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (OHMS) field operations personnel when investigating potential general safety issues. These questions are intended to facilitate fact-gathering efforts during general investigations related to PHMSA's safety oversight responsibilities. The use of these questions would not impose any new reporting or recordkeeping requirements on regulated entities. Rather, the goal is to develop a pool of commonly used questions that can be tailored as appropriate based on the specific circumstances of a given investigation.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 114 (Wednesday, June 12, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 114 (Wednesday, June 12, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50045-50046]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-12844]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
[Docket No. PHMSA-2024-0041 (Notice No. 2024-09)]
Hazardous Materials: Information Collection Activities
AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA),
DOT.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this
notice announces that PHMSA is publishing a 60-day notice and providing
an opportunity for public comment on its development of general
investigative questions that may be used by PHMSA's Office of Hazardous
Materials Safety (OHMS) field operations personnel when investigating
potential general safety issues. These questions are intended to
facilitate fact-gathering efforts during general investigations related
to PHMSA's safety oversight responsibilities. The use of these
questions would not impose any new reporting or recordkeeping
requirements on regulated entities. Rather, the goal is to develop a
pool of commonly used questions that can be tailored as appropriate
based on the specific circumstances of a given investigation.
DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before
August 12, 2024.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by the Docket Number
PHMSA-2024-0041 (Notice No. 2024-09) by any of the following methods:
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
<bullet> Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
<bullet> Mail: Docket Management System; U.S. Department of
Transportation, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Routing
Symbol M-30, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590.
<bullet> Hand Delivery: To the Docket Management System; Room W12-
140 on the ground floor of the West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue
SE, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays.
Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and
Docket Number (PHMSA-2024-0041) for this notice at the beginning of the
comment. To avoid duplication, please use only one of these four
methods. All comments received will be posted without change to the
Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) and will include any personal
information you provide.
Requests for a copy of an information collection should be directed
to Steven Andrews or Nina Vore, Standards and Rulemaking Division,
(202) 366-8553, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#ee8186839d9e9c8fae8a819ac0898198"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="46292e2b353634270622293268212930">[email protected]</span></a>, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New
Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Docket: For access to the dockets to read background documents or
comments received, go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a> or DOT's Docket
Operations Office (see ADDRESSES).
Privacy Act: In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits
comments from the public to better inform its rulemaking process. DOT
posts these comments, without edit, including any personal information
the commenter provides, to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>, as described in the
system of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at
<a href="http://www.dot.gov/privacy">www.dot.gov/privacy</a>.
Confidential Business Information: Confidential Business
Information (CBI) is commercial or financial information that is both
customarily and actually treated as private by its owner. Under the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552), CBI is exempt from
public disclosure. If your comments responsive to this notice contain
commercial or financial information that is customarily treated as
private, that you actually treat as private, and that is relevant or
responsive to this notice, it is important that you clearly designate
the submitted comments as CBI. Please mark each page of your submission
containing CBI as ``PROPIN.'' PHMSA will treat such marked submissions
as confidential under the FOIA, and they will not be placed in the
public docket of this notice. Submissions containing CBI should be sent
to Steven Andrews or Nina Vore, Standards and Rulemaking Division and
addressed to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001 or <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#87e8efeaf4f7f5e6c7e3e8f3a9e0e8f1"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="204f484d5350524160444f540e474f56">[email protected]</span></a>. Any commentary
that PHMSA receives which is not specifically designated as CBI will be
placed in the public docket for this notice.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven Andrews or Nina Vore, Standards
and Rulemaking Division, (202) 366-8553, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#244b4c495754564564404b500a434b52"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="eb848386989b998aab8f849fc58c849d">[email protected]</span></a>, Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) requires federal agencies to
minimize paperwork burden on regulated entities and receive approval
from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for any information
collection requirements. The development of these general investigation
questions does not directly impose any new information collection
requirements on the regulated community. PHMSA is seeking comments on
the information collection burden of proposed general questions that
agency investigators may use during general safety investigations.
These questions would be designed to gather information about potential
safety issues or violations without imposing significant new
information collection burdens on the public.
The use of such general investigative questions would allow the
agency to carry out its statutory responsibilities to protect public
safety while minimizing the paperwork burden on regulated entities.
These questions would not require entities to provide specific reports
or maintain additional records but would simply facilitate the
gathering of relevant facts during investigations. The agency intends
to develop a pool of commonly used questions that could be tailored as
needed based on the specific circumstances of each investigation.
Examples may include questions about operating procedures, training
practices, incident reporting, hazard analysis, and other safety-
related topics. No new data collection instruments or generalized
surveys are proposed at this time.
[[Page 50046]]
This notice outlines PHMSA's intent to develop general, commonly
used investigative questions focused on safety that can be tailored as
needed. It clarifies that no new reporting requirements or
recordkeeping burdens are being imposed through this process. The
notice demonstrates how this effort is meant to facilitate the agency's
enforcement responsibilities while minimizing paperwork impacts, which
can support compliance with the PRA.
Section 1320.8(d), title 5, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
requires PHMSA to provide interested members of the public and affected
agencies an opportunity to comment on information collection and
recordkeeping requests. This notice identifies an information
collection request PHMSA will be submitting to OMB.
II. Questions
Listed below are the general investigation questions that PHMSA
plans to submit to OMB for approval:
1. Introduction Questions
a. What are your typical operations? Can you provide a general
overview?
b. To the best of your knowledge, was a hazardous material involved
in your operations?
c. If yes, please provide the proper shipping name.
2. General Hazardous Materials (Hazmat) Information
a. Can you describe the hazardous materials in transportation you
normally see?
i. How often do you see them?
ii. Are you shipping them?
iii. Are you storing them?
b. Are there any specific requirements for the condition of the
hazardous material that must be followed before the identified material
is transported?
c. Have these conditions been verified? If so, what was the method
used?
d. Are there modal-specific (rail/air/vessel/highway) requirements
for this hazardous material that you follow? If so, what are they?
e. Do the locations accepting your hazardous material have any
concerns/special accommodations when receiving your hazardous material?
f. Do shipping agents (e.g., insurance companies, shippers) have
specific requirements when accepting your hazardous material?
g. Which hazard class(es) of hazardous materials in transportation
do you routinely see?
3. Hazardous Material Training
a. Which employees/departments are trained to be able to handle
this hazardous material? Who conducts this training?
b. When was the last time training was provided?
c. How do you determine who needs training?
4. Safety
a. What have you or your industry done to mitigate risk around this
hazardous material?
b. What solutions have been found to be helpful during hazardous
materials incidents?
c. How would you handle a hazardous material found to be damaged or
not properly packaged?
d. Are there any special requirements in place or instructions when
hazardous materials are present?
5. Emergencies/Incidents
a. Do you have the means to contain the hazardous material if there
is an accident or an incident?
b. What remediation companies are potentially contracted at this
location or by this company?
c. Are you familiar with security plan requirements?
6. Industry Process/SOPs
a. Can you identify other companies involved in the transportation
of this hazardous material? Can you share their contact information?
b. What are the locations of your hazardous materials operations?
c. Can you share the Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) for the
handling of hazardous materials at your company?
d. Are you familiar with registration requirements?
e. Who signs and prepares shipping papers?
f. Do you transport any hazardous materials in compliance with an
approval or special permit?
g. Do you have any type of validation process for hazardous
material shipping?
7. Carriers/Shippers/Testers/Manufacturers
a. Do you manufacture any hazardous material packaging?
b. Are any other entities involved with the preparation, handling,
or transportation of hazardous materials?
8. Packaging
a. Where do you purchase hazardous materials packaging?
b. Is the product loaded at any specific temperature/pressure?
c. What types of packaging do you routinely see/use for hazardous
materials transportation? Including bulk, non-bulk, and/or cylinders.
d. At what interval are you having the package tested? Who performs
this function? Are there records?
e. How are you closing the packages? Which tools or other equipment
are used?
III. Data
The estimated reporting burdens associated with this information
collection are as follows:
OMB Control Number: None.
Form Number: None.
Type of Review: Regular submission.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 1,000.
Estimated Number or Responses: 1,000.
Estimated Time per Response: 30 minutes. Information will be
collected on a voluntary basis to address potential safety issues
identified by PHMSA investigators.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 500.
Estimated Burden Cost: $0.
IV. Request for Comments
Comments are invited on: (1) whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical
utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information;
(3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and (4) ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on respondents, including through the use of
automated collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of this information
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.
Issued in Washington, DC, on June 7, 2024, under authority
delegated in 49 CFR 1.97.
Steven W. Andrews Jr.,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Review and Reinvention Branch, Office of
Hazardous Materials Safety, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration.
[FR Doc. 2024-12844 Filed 6-11-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P
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