[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 59 (Tuesday, March 26, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 13144-13146]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-7295]



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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs Administration

49 CFR Part 195

[Docket PS-140(c), Notice 5]
RIN 2137-AC34


Areas Unusually Sensitive to Environmental Damage

AGENCY: Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT.

ACTION: Public workshop.

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SUMMARY: RSPA invites industry, government agencies, and the public to 
the fourth workshop on unusually sensitive areas (USAs). The purpose of 
this workshop is to openly discuss the terms to be used in describing 
USAs, and the scope and objectives of the additional USA workshops. 
This workshop is a continuation of the USA workshops held June 15-16, 
1995; October 17, 1995; and January 18, 1996.

DATES: The workshop will be held on April 10-11, 1996 from 8:30 a.m. to 
4:00 p.m. Persons who are unable to attend may submit written comments 
in duplicate by May 28, 1996. However, persons submitting comments to 
be considered at the April 10-11 workshop must do so by April 3, 1996. 
Interested persons should submit as part of their written comments all 
material that is relevant to a statement of fact or argument. Late 
filed comments will be considered so far as practicable.

ADDRESSES: The workshop will be held at the U.S. DOT, Nassif Building, 
400 Seventh Street SW., Room 8236-40, Washington, DC. Non-federal 
employee visitors are admitted into the DOT building through the 
southwest entrance at Seventh and E Streets, SW. Persons who want to 
participate in the workshop should call (202) 366-2392 or e-mail their 
name, affiliation, and phone number to [email protected] before close 
of business April 3, 1996.
    Send written comments in duplicate to the Dockets Unit, Room 8421, 
RSPA, U.S. DOT, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001. 
Identify the docket and notice numbers stated in the heading of this 
notice.
    All comments and docketed materials will be available for 
inspection and copying in Room 8421 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. 
each business day. A summary of the workshop will be available from the 
Dockets Unit about three weeks after the workshop.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christina Sames, (202) 366-4561, about 
this document, or the Dockets Unit,

[[Page 13145]]
(202) 366-5046, for copies of this document or other material in the 
docket.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The pipeline safety laws (49 U.S.C. 
Sec. 60109) require the Secretary of Transportation to prescribe 
regulations that establish criteria for identifying each hazardous 
liquid pipeline facility and gathering line, whether otherwise subject 
to 49 U.S.C. Chapter 601, located in an area that the Secretary, in 
consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), describes 
as unusually sensitive to environmental damage if there is a hazardous 
liquid pipeline accident.
    Consistent with the President's regulatory policy (E.O. 12866), 
RSPA wants to accomplish this congressional mandate at the least cost 
to society. Toward this end, RSPA is seeking early public participation 
in the rulemaking process by holding public workshops at which 
participants, including RSPA staff, may exchange views on relevant 
issues. RSPA hopes these workshops will enable government and industry 
to reach a better understanding of the problem and the potential 
solutions before proposed rules are issued.
    On June 15 and 16, 1995, RSPA held the first public workshop to 
openly discuss the criteria being considered to determine USAs (60 FR 
27948; May 26, 1995). Participants included representatives from the 
hazardous liquid pipeline industry; the Departments of Interior, 
Agriculture, Transportation, and Commerce; EPA; non-government 
agencies; and the public. Participants requested that additional 
workshops be held to further discuss this complex topic .
    On October 17, 1995, RSPA held a second public workshop that 
focused on developing a process that could be used to determine if an 
area is a USA (60 FR 44824; August 29, 1995). Participants asked that 
the process include a series of workshops on topics such as guiding 
principles, the definition of terms that may be used when referring to 
USAs, drinking water source protection, biological resources, and human 
use resources.
    The American Petroleum Institute (API) provided information on its 
current USA research and suggested that any final definition consider 
the resource to be protected, the likelihood of a given pipeline 
impacting that resource, and what can be done to reduce the risk to the 
resource. Other participants suggested integrating factors on the 
likelihood of a rupture occurring and the severity of the consequence 
into the USA definition. Participants also brainstormed guiding 
principles that could be used when determining if a given area is a 
USA.
    RSPA held a third workshop on January 18, 1996, to further discuss 
the guiding principles for determining USAs (61 FR 342; January 4, 
1996). The primary concerns voiced in this workshop were that drinking 
water resources and significant ecological resources be considered USA 
but that economic or recreational areas not be intrinsically considered 
USAs. A secondary concern voiced by the participants was the need to 
consider cultural resources as USAs.
    Indian tribal concerns were also identified and participants 
requested that additional research be conducted in this area.
    Participants at the workshop also discussed the following guiding 
principles for the USA identification process and asked that the 
following be considered:
    1. A functional definition of significance must be developed to 
determine USAs.
    2. Human health and safety.
    3. Serious threat of contamination.
    4. Only areas in the trajectory of a potential spill, e.g. down 
gradient.
    5. Not all areas identified as USAs will require preventative 
measures but all candidates for USAs will require protection through 
response planning under 49 CFR part 194. The process should clarify how 
sensitive areas are protected under the Pipeline Safety Act separate 
and apart from protection under the 49 CFR part 194.
    6. Operators that have voluntarily taken measures that exceed the 
regulatory requirements to minimize the potential for spills in their 
operations should receive credit for these measures in other 
rulemakings, thereby resulting in exemptions from these additional 
rulemakings.
    7. It is expected that no pipeline operator will be required to 
collect natural field resource data to determine USAs.
    8. USAs should be subject to a systematic review process. USAs may 
change through time as species migrate, change location or for other 
reasons. The USA definition should be explicit and practical in 
application.
    9. All phases of the USA definition process should be pilot tested 
for validity, practicality, and workability, to the extent practical.
    10. The government agencies must describe and identify USAs so that 
the data will not be subject to various interpretations and will be 
applied consistently. The standards and criteria for resource 
sensitivity should be uniform on a national basis such that equivalent 
resources receive equivalent sensitivity assessments regardless of 
regionally based response priorities.
    11. Sources of USA data must be readily available to the public and 
uniform in criteria and standards. The standards and criteria for 
resource sensitivity should be uniform on a national basis such that 
equivalent resources receive equivalent sensitivity assessments 
regardless of regionally based priorities.
    The following diagram was created to display how the process could 
work:

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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TP26MR96.012



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    Finally, participants brain stormed and identified the USA terms 
that they thought needed to be clarified. The following list is the 
result of that discussion. The workshop on April 10 will focus on the 
criteria, components, and parameters of these terms. This list is not 
final and RSPA invites comments on these terms and submissions of 
additional terms. This list and any additional terms that are submitted 
to the docket before April 3 will be considered at the April 10 
workshop:

1. Serious threat
2. Contamination
3. Significant
4. Ecological
5. Economic areas
6. Recreational areas
7. Cultural areas
8. Readily available
9. Uniform

    The workshop on April 11 will focus on the scope and objectives of 
the additional USA workshops on drinking water sources, ecological 
resources, cultural resources, and Indian tribal concerns. RSPA invites 
comments on the scope and objectives of these additional workshops. 
Items that are submitted to the docket before April 3 will be 
considered at the April 11 workshop.
    Persons interested in receiving a transcript of the first or third 
workshop, the summary of the second workshop, material presented at the 
workshops, or comments submitted to the docket should contact the 
Dockets Unit at (202) 366-5046 and reference docket PS-140, PS-140(b), 
and PS-140(c).

    Issued in Washington, DC on March 21, 1996.
Richard B. Felder,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 96-7295 Filed 3-25-96; 8:45 am]
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