[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 58 (Friday, March 26, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14788-14789]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-7406]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs Administration
[Docket No. RSPA-99-5143 [Notice No. 99-2]


Hazardous Materials Transportation; Registration and Fee 
Assessment Program

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

ACTION: Notice of filing requirements.

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SUMMARY: The Hazardous Materials Registration Program will enter 
registration year 1999-2000 on July 1, 1999. Persons who transport or 
offer for transportation certain hazardous materials are required to 
annually file a registration statement and pay a fee to the Department 
of Transportation. Persons who registered for the 1998-99 registration 
year will be mailed a registration statement form and informational 
brochure in May.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David W. Donaldson, Office of 
Hazardous Materials Planning and Analysis, DHM-60 (202-366-4109), 
Hazardous Materials Safety, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 
20590-0001, or by E-mail to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is intended to notify persons 
who transport or offer for transportation certain hazardous materials 
of an annual requirement to register with the Department of 
Transportation. Each person, as defined by the Federal hazardous 
materials transportation law (49 U.S.C. 5101 et seq.), who engages in 
any of the specified activities relating to the transportation of 
hazardous

[[Page 14789]]

materials is required to register annually with the Department of 
Transportation and pay a fee. The regulations implementing this program 
are in Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, Secs. 107.601-107.620.
    Proceeds from the fee are used to fund grants to State, local, and 
Native American tribal governments for emergency response training and 
planning, and to provide related assistance, including the revision, 
publication, and distribution of the North American Emergency Response 
Guidebook. Grants were awarded to 50 states, the District of Columbia, 
four territories, and 15 Native American tribes during FY 1998. By law, 
75 percent of the Federal grant monies awarded to the States is further 
distributed to local emergency response and planning agencies. 
Preliminary reports indicate that the FY 1997 funds helped to provide: 
(1) Training for approximately 117,000 emergency response personnel; 
(2) approximately 400 commodity flow studies and hazard analyses; (3) 
7,350 emergency response plans updated or written for the first time; 
(4) assistance to 1,450 local emergency planning committees; and (5) 
750 emergency exercises.
    The persons affected by these regulations are those who offer or 
transport in commerce any of the following materials:
    A. Any highway route-controlled quantity of a Class 7 (radioactive) 
material;
    B. More than 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of a Division 1.1, 1.2, or 
1.3 (explosive) material in a motor vehicle, rail car, or freight 
container;
    C. More than one liter (1.06 quarts) per package of a material 
extremely toxic by inhalation (that is, a ``material poisonous by 
inhalation'' that meets the criteria for ``hazard zone A'');
    D. A hazardous material in a bulk packaging having a capacity equal 
to or greater than 13,248 liters (3,500 gallons) for liquids or gases 
or more than 13.24 cubic meters (468 cubic feet) for solids; or
    E. A shipment, in other than a bulk packaging, of 2,268 kilograms 
(5,000 pounds) gross weight or more of a class of hazardous materials 
for which placarding of a vehicle, rail car, or freight container is 
required for that class.
    The following persons are excepted from the registration 
requirement:
    A. Agencies of the Federal Government;
    B. Agencies of States;
    C. Agencies of political subdivisions of States;
    D. Employees of those agencies listed in A, B, or C with respect to 
their official duties;
    E. Hazmat employees, including the owner-operator of a motor 
vehicle which transports in commerce hazardous materials if that 
vehicle, at the time of those activities, is leased to a registered 
motor carrier under a 30-day or longer lease as prescribed in 49 CFR 
part 376 or an equivalent contractual relationship; and
    F. Persons domiciled outside the United States whose only activity 
involving the transportation of hazardous materials within the United 
States is to offer hazardous materials for transportation in commerce 
from locations outside the United States, if the country in which they 
are domiciled does not impose registration or a fee upon U.S. companies 
for offering hazardous materials into that country. However, persons 
domiciled outside the United States who carry the types and quantities 
of hazardous materials that require registration within the United 
States are subject to the registration requirement.

    The 1998-99 registration year ends on June 30, 1999. The 1999-2000 
registration year will begin on July 1, 1999, and end on June 30, 2000. 
Any person who engages in any of the specified activities during the 
1999-2000 registration year must file a registration statement and pay 
the associated fee of $300.00 before July 1, 1999, or before engaging 
in any of the activities, whichever is later. All persons who 
registered for the 1998-99 registration year will be mailed a 
registration statement form and an informational brochure in May 1999. 
Other persons wishing to obtain the form and any other information 
relating to this program should contact RSPA at the address given 
above. The brochure and form can also be downloaded from the RSPA 
registration Internet home page at http://hazmat.dot.gov/register.htm.

    The registration requirements have not been amended for the 1999-
2000 registration year, nor has the registration statement been revised 
materially. Registrants should file a registration statement and pay 
the associated fee at least four weeks before July 1, 1999, in order to 
ensure that a 1999-2000 certificate of registration has been obtained 
by that date to comply with the recordkeeping requirements. These 
include the requirement that the registration number be made available 
on board each truck and truck tractor (not including trailers and semi-
trailers) and each vessel used to transport hazardous materials subject 
to the registration requirements. A certificate of registration is 
generally mailed within ten days of RSPA's receipt of a properly 
completed registration statement.
    Persons who engage in any of the specified activities during a 
registration year are required to register for that year. Persons who 
engaged in these activities during registration year 1992-93 (September 
16, 1992, through June 30, 1993), 1993-94 (July 1, 1993, through June 
30, 1994), 1994-95 (July 1, 1994, through June 30, 1995), 1995-96 (July 
1, 1995, through June 30, 1996), 1996-97 (July 1, 1996, through June 
30, 1997), 1997-98 (July 1, 1997, through June 30, 1998), or 1998-99 
(July 1, 1998, through June 30, 1999) and have not filed a registration 
statement and paid the associated fee of $300.00 for each year for 
which registration is required should contact RSPA to obtain the 
required form (DOT F 5800.2). A copy of the form that will be 
distributed for the 1999-2000 registration year may be used to register 
for previous years. Persons who fail to register for any registration 
year in which they engaged in such activities are subject to civil 
penalties for each day a covered activity is performed. The legal 
obligation to register for a year in which any specified activity was 
conducted does not end with the registration year.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on March 22, 1999.
Alan I. Roberts,
Associate Administrator for Hazardous Materials Safety.
[FR Doc. 99-7406 Filed 3-25-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P