Hazmat 101 News Jan. 16, 2002

Hazmat 101 News - January 16, 2002

How to Find Out What the Bureaucrats Have in Store for You

By Prokopis A. Christou, PE

In the United States Federal agencies publish semiannual regulatory agendas describing regulatory actions they are developing or have recently completed. These agendas are published in the Federal Register, usually during April and October each year, as part of the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. (Don't hold your breath for any meaningful deregulatory actions.) The most recent agendas were published in the December 3, 2001 Federal Register. How can you use these agendas?

Here are some suggestions:

Review the listings of agencies that regulate or affect your business, your operations, or your work.
Did these agencies promulgate any rules (referred to as final actions) that affect the way you conduct your business or your work? Did you miss the boat on any of them? If you did, don't panic. The agenda listings have enough information you can use to do your research and bring you up to speed. And make sure you learn of any important deadlines quickly.
Similarly, are these agencies developing any new rules or revising existing ones? If the rules are important to you or your business, make a note of them so that you can track them when they will appear in various phases in the Federal Register. You will have the opportunity to influence the development of these rules by submitting your own comments during the proposed phase of these rules.

To find out about transportation related actions, you need to check the listings for the various agencies of the Department of Transportation (DOT). The primary DOT agency for the hazardous material regulations is the Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA). Sometimes, the DOT modal administrations also get in on the action. These agencies are the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the US Coast Guard. These modal agencies regulate or enforce other modal issues besides hazardous materials.

So how do you get your hands on the most recent agenda?

Perhaps you don't need to. Many organizations have a staff person or a consultant who tracks regulations for them. Here are some options anyway:

If you subscribe to the Federal Register, you automatically get the agendas in special issues of he Federal Register.
Major libraries subscribe to the Federal Register. Visit one near you.
The Government Printing Office makes all Federal Registers (including the agendas) available through its web site. Here's how to locate the most recent agendas for the DOT agencies.
Go to http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces002.html
Select the Unified Agenda 2001 and search for "Transportation regulatory agenda". In the search results web page, check the summaries and identify the document for the December 3, 2001 agenda. You can download the PDF (Portable Document File) version of the agenda for offline reading and printing. Just be aware that this document is quite large because it includes the agendas for all DOT agencies.
If you only want RSPA's agenda, you can find a PDF version at Lion Technology, Inc.'s web site at:
http://www.lion.com/News-info/Whats%20New.htm .

Now that you know how to use the regulatory agenda, let me save you some time. Below is a partial list of regulatory actions about hazardous materials transportation issues that (RSPA) is working on or has completed. Some target dates have been missed.

Clarify requirements for retention of shipping papers. Actions: Propose 9/25/01.

Clarify applicability of Federal hazardous materials regulations to loading, unloading and storage. Actions: Advance Notice 7/29/96, Supplemental Notice 4/27/99, Proposed 6/14/01.

Revise standards for infectious substances. Actions: Advance Notice 9/2/98, Proposed 1/22/01, Final 1/02.

Consolidate requirements for shipping by rail and highway. Actions: Withdrawn 8/6/01.

Update requirements for incident reporting. Actions: Advance Notice 3/23/99, Proposed 7/3/01, Final 4/02.

Revise hazard communication requirement to improve safety (shipping papers, marking, labeling, placarding). Actions: Propose 12/01.

Re-write the DOT Exemption procedures. Actions: Propose 10/02.

Update hazardous manifest requirements to accommodate changes proposed by US EPA. Actions: Proposed 8/8/01.

Clarify current inspection requirements for frangible discs (rupture discs) in pressure relief devises on rail tank cars. Actions: Propose 8/02.

Reduce registration fees for shippers and carriers and make other revisions. Actions: Proposed 12/7/00, Final 12/01.

Re-write the HM procedural regulations (Parts 106 and 107) in question and answer format to make them easier to understand. Actions: Proposed 12/11/98, Final 12/01.

How about other Federal agencies?

In addition to the DOT, other agencies develop rules that can affect hazardous materials and emergency response issues. The primary Federal agencies are the U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA), and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), an agency of the Department of Labor. You only need to review those listings that are relevant to you.

Some final words

The regulatory agendas can tell you how the agencies are working for you. It's up to you to find out.

About the Author
Prokopis Christou, P.E. has 14 years of diverse experience in managerial, technical, and teaching responsibilities in environmental, safety, transportation, regulatory, and engineering matters. Email: prokopis@hotmail.com