[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 46 (Thursday, March 10, 2005)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 11912-11913]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-4600]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

33 CFR Chapter I

[USCG-2004-19615]


Exclusion Zones for Marine LNG Spills

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS.

ACTION: Request for comments; reopening of comment period.

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SUMMARY: At the request of the Attorney General of Rhode Island, the 
Coast Guard is reopening the public comment period on a petition from 
the City of Fall River, Massachusetts. Fall River?s petition asks the 
Coast Guard to promulgate regulations establishing thermal and vapor 
dispersion exclusion zones for marine spills of liquefied natural gas, 
similar to Department of Transportation regulations for such spills on 
land. The Attorney General of Rhode Island asked that we reopen the 
comment period for an additional sixty days, to allow his office to 
review a threat analysis being prepared for its consideration.

DATES: Comments and related material must reach the Docket Management 
Facility on or before May 9, 2005.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Coast Guard docket 
number USCG-2004-19615 to the Docket Management Facility at the U.S. 
Department of Transportation. To avoid duplication, please use only one 
of the following methods:
    (1) Web site: http://dms.dot.gov.
    (2) Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    (3) Fax: 202-493-2251.
    (4) Delivery: Room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif 
Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone 
number is 202-366-9329.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this notice, 
call Commander John Cushing at 202-267-1043 or e-mail 
[email protected]. If you have questions on viewing or submitting 
material to the docket, call Andrea M. Jenkins, Program Manager, Docket 
Operations, telephone 202-366-0271.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Public Participation and Request for Comments

    We encourage you to submit comments and related material on the 
petition for rulemaking. All comments received will be posted, without 
change, to http://dms.dot.gov and will include any personal information 
you have provided. We have an agreement with the Department of 
Transportation (DOT) to use the Docket Management Facility. Please see 
DOT's ``Privacy Act'' paragraph below.
    Submitting comments: If you submit a comment, please include your 
name and address, identify the docket number for this notice (USCG-
2004-19615), and give the reason for each comment. You may submit your 
comments and material by electronic means, mail, fax, or delivery to 
the Docket Management Facility at the address under ADDRESSES; but 
please submit your comments and material by only one means. If you 
submit them by mail or delivery, submit them in an unbound format, no 
larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, suitable for copying and electronic 
filing. If you submit them by mail and would like to know that they 
reached the Facility, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard 
or envelope. We will consider all comments and material received during 
the comment period.
    Viewing the comments: To view the comments, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time and conduct a simple search using the docket 
number. You may also visit the Docket Management Facility in room PL-
401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., 
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays.
    Privacy Act: Anyone can search the electronic form of all comments 
received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review the 
Department of Transportation's Privacy Act Statement in the Federal 
Register published on

[[Page 11913]]

April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or you may visit http://dms.dot.gov.
    Background and purpose: As we stated in the original notice and 
request for public comments (69 FR 63979, Nov. 3, 2004), the City of 
Fall River, Massachusetts, has petitioned the Coast Guard to promulgate 
regulations establishing thermal and vapor dispersion exclusion zone 
requirements for liquefied natural gas (LNG) spills on water. The City 
asks that these regulations be similar to Department of Transportation 
regulations for LNG spills on land, contained in 49 CFR 193.2057 and 
193.2059. In our original notice, we provided a public comment period 
that ended February 1, 2005. At the end of that comment period, we 
received a letter from the Attorney General of Rhode Island that read 
in part: ``I wish to emphasize that my office is waiting for the 
completion of a Threat Analysis. I am formally requesting that the 
public comment period in this docket remain open for an additional 
sixty (60) days to allow for consideration of [that] report.'' In light 
of this request, the Coast Guard is providing an additional sixty-day 
comment period. The public is invited to review the material contained 
in the docket and submit relevant comments. The Coast Guard will 
consider the City's petition, any comments received from the public, 
and other information to determine whether or not to initiate the 
requested rulemaking.

    Dated: March 2, 2005.
Howard L. Hime,
Acting Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security, and 
Environmental Protection, U.S. Coast Guard.
[FR Doc. 05-4600 Filed 3-9-05; 8:45 am]
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