PHMSA to Establish FAQs for HMR
Today, DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a notice in the Federal Register (87 FR 16308-16310) requesting comments on “Hazardous Materials: Frequently Asked Questions--Applicability of the Hazardous Material Regulations.” It announces the intention of PHMSA to establish “an initiative to convert historical letters of interpretation (LOI) applicable to the Hazardous Materials Regulations that have been issued to specific stakeholders into broadly applicable frequently asked questions on its website.”
Background
PHMSA has established the Hazardous Material Regulations (HMR, essentially 49 CFR, Parts 100 through 185) to fulfill its statutory responsibilities to regulate the transportation of hazardous materials. As with any regulation, the published wording of a regulation is not always clear to the regulated community and in many cases must be applied to situations not specifically spelled out in the regulations.
In order to supply increased regulatory clarity, PHMSA’s Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (OHMS) publishes Letters of Interpretation (LOI) in response to specific requests for clarification from the regulated community. OHMS has prepared thousands of LOI over the years, many of which are still applicable to the situations described by the petitioners. Many of those LOI are fairly limited in the scope of their application, but others are duplicative and apply to a wide variety of situations.
Expanding Access
PHMSA has tried to make these LOI more accessible to the regulated community through their PHMSA's Online CFR Tool. That tool provides links to a variety of content associated with specific portions of the HMR. That content includes:
Appendices
Interpretations
Rulemakings
Approvals
Special Permits
Petitions
Authorities
Outreach and Training
In this Notice, PHMSA is announcing its attention to produce a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) that would provide LOI level information applicable to a wide variety of entities in the regulated community. The questions would be drawn from questions submitted to OHMS that have been modified to assure their wide applicability. Publishing these FAQs in the Federal Register and subsequently on the oCFR Tool would allow some petitioners to avoid having to send LOI requests to PHMSA and thus allow OHMS to more efficiently apply its resources to subjects of narrower interest.
Initial FAQs
In this Notice, PHMSA is proposing to publish the following FAQs related to 49 CFR 171.1, Applicability of Hazardous Materials Regulations to Persons and Functions (the responses follow the question in the Notice):
(1) Question: Is a Federal, state, or local government agency subject to the HMR?
(2) Question: Are state universities subject to the HMR when transporting hazardous materials?
(3) Question: Is a hazardous material transported on private roads subject to the HMR?
(4) Question: Is a hazardous material subject to the HMR that only crosses a public road?
(5) Question: Are hazardous materials installed or used in or on a motor vehicle ( e.g., gasoline in the motor vehicle's fuel tank) subject to the HMR?
(6) Question: Is the filling of a package with a hazardous material subject to the HMR if it is not being offered for transportation in commerce?
(7) Question: Are stationary (storage) tanks containing a hazardous material such as propane subject to the HMR?
(8) Question: Are hazardous materials being transported for personal use subject to the HMR?
(9) Question: Are privately-owned SCUBA tanks that are used for diving and marked as DOT specification cylinders subject to the HMR?
(10) Question: Are government-owned hazardous materials transported for government purposes by contractor personnel subject to the HMR?
(11) Question: Are gasoline cans transported by a landscaping company by motor vehicle subject to the HMR?
(12) Question: Are household hazardous wastes that are transported by a private person to a county drop-off facility subject to the HMR?
Solicitation of Public Comments
PHMSA is soliciting public comments on this initiative. They are looking for comments on potential benefits that could be seen as a result of this program, and suggestions for future FAQ topics.
Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # PHMSA-2021-0109). Comments should be submitted by May 23rd, 2022.