[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 248 (Monday, December 28, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 71411-71412]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-34200]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Coast Guard

46 CFR Part 45

[USCG-1998-4623]
RIN 2115-AF38


Limited Service Domestic Voyage Load Lines for River Barges on 
Lake Michigan

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; extension of comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard is extending the comment period for the notice 
of proposed rulemaking on Limited Service Domestic Voyage Load Lines 
for River Barges on Lake Michigan to March 4, 1999, to allow additional 
time for public comment.

DATES: Comments must reach the Docket Management Facility on or before 
March 4, 1999.

ADDRESSES: You may mail comments to the Docket Management Facility, 
(USCG-1998-4623), U.S. Department of Transportation, room PL-401, 400 
Seventh Street SW., Washington DC 20590-0001, or deliver them to room 
PL-401, located on the Plaza Level of the Nassif Building at the same 
address between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays. The telephone number is 202-366-9329.
    The Docket Management Facility maintains the public docket for this 
rulemaking. Comments will become part of this docket and will be 
available for inspection or copying at room PL-401, located on the 
Plaza Level of the Nassif Building at the same address between 9 a.m. 
and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. You

[[Page 71412]]

may also access this docket on the Internet at http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions on this proposed rule, 
contact Mr. Thomas Jordan, Office of Marine Safety and Environmental 
Protection (G-MSE-2), U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Room 1308, 
telephone 202-267-0142. For questions on viewing or submitting material 
to the docket, contact Dorothy Walker, Chief, Dockets, Department of 
Transportation, telephone 202-366-9329.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Request for Comments

    The Coast Guard encourages you to participate in this rulemaking by 
submitting written data, views, or arguments. If you submit comments, 
you should include your name and address, identify this notice (USCG-
1998-4623) and the specific section or question in this document to 
which your comments apply, and give the reason for each comment. Please 
submit all comments and attachments in an unbound format, no larger 
than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, suitable for copying and electronic filing to 
the DOT Docket Management Facility at the address under ADDRESSES. If 
you want acknowledgment of receipt of your comments, you should enclose 
a stamped, self-addressed postcard or envelope.
    The Coast Guard will consider all comments received during the 
comment period.
    The Coast Guard may schedule a public meeting depending on input 
received in response to this notice. You may request a public meeting 
by submitting a request to the address under ADDRESSES. The request 
should include the reasons why a meeting would be beneficial. If we 
determine that a public meeting should be held, we will hold the 
meeting at a time and place announced by a later notice in the Federal 
Register.

Background and Purpose

    On November 2, 1998, the Coast Guard published a notice of proposed 
rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register (63 FR 58679). The NPRM 
proposes exempting certain unmanned dry cargo river barges from the 
normal Great Lakes load line requirements to operate on Lake Michigan. 
Instead, these river barges would need to obtain a limited domestic 
service load line for two specific routes (between Chicago, Illinois 
and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and between Chicago and Muskegon, Michigan). 
This proposed rule would allow direct river barge transport of certain 
non-hazardous cargoes from inland river ports to Milwaukee and Muskegon 
while maintaining a relatively low cost-per-ton-mile rate for river 
barge transportation.
    In response to the NPRM, a multi-industry group associated with the 
river barge transport of bulk ore along the southern shore of Lake 
Michigan to Burns Harbor, Indiana contacted the Coast Guard. The group 
recently met to review the proposed regulations and was concerned that 
there will not be enough time to develop and submit a consolidated 
response to the docket before the NPRM comment period closes on January 
4, 1999. As a result, the group has requested an extension of the 
comment period. The Coast Guard accepts this as a reasonable request. 
We are extending the NPRM comment period to March 4, 1999.

    Dated: December 21, 1998.
Howard L. Hime,
Acting, Director for Standards.
[FR Doc. 98-34200 Filed 12-24-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-U