[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 7, 2006)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 32909-32911]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-8782]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

49 CFR Part 173

[Docket No. PHMSA-99-6223 (HM-213B)]
RIN 2137-AD36


Hazardous Materials: Safety Requirements for External Product 
Piping on Cargo Tanks Transporting Flammable Liquids

AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), 
DOT.

ACTION: Withdrawal of notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: PHMSA is closing this rulemaking proceeding, having considered 
and declined to adopt proposals for further regulating the 
transportation of flammable liquids in the product piping on cargo tank 
motor vehicles. On the basis of public comments and additional data and 
analysis, PHMSA has concluded that further regulation would not produce 
the level of benefits we originally expected and that the quantifiable 
benefits of proposed regulatory approaches would not justify the 
corresponding costs. Although PHMSA is withdrawing its rulemaking 
proposal, the agency will develop and implement an outreach program to 
educate the industry, first responder community, and the public about 
potential risks associated with unprotected product pipelines on these 
vehicles and will continue to collect data and other information in 
order to address the issue further if warranted.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben Supko, Office of Hazardous 
Materials Standards, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety 
Administration, telephone (202) 366-8553; or Michael Stevens, Office of 
Hazardous Materials Standards, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety 
Administration, telephone (202) 366-8553.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    On December 30, 2004 the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety 
Administration (PHMSA, we) published a notice of proposed rulemaking 
(NPRM) (69 FR 78375) inviting comments on a proposal to amend the 
Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR parts 171-180) to prohibit 
the carriage of flammable liquids in the product piping (wetlines) on 
cargo tank motor vehicles (CTMVs), unless the CTMV is equipped with 
bottom damage protection devices. We proposed a quantity limit of one 
liter or less in each pipe. We did not propose a specific method for 
achieving this standard. The NPRM included an exception from the 
proposed requirements for truck-mounted (e.g., straight truck) DOT 
specification CTMVs. We proposed to make the changes effective two 
years after the effective date of a final rule and to permit CTMV 
operators five years to phase in requirements applicable to existing 
CTMVs.

II. Comments on the NPRM

    We received thirty sets of public comments on the NPRM from a 
variety of stakeholders, including industry associations, companies, 
governmental entities, individuals and members of Congress, as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Commenter                         Document number
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maurice R. Tetreault................  RSPA-1999-6223-28
American Petroleum Institute (API)..  RSPA-1999-6223-32
Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle   RSPA-1999-6223-33
 Safety.
Southwest Research Institute........  RSPA-1999-6223-34
David M. Lawler.....................  RSPA-1999-6223-35
Dale L. Botkin......................  RSPA-1999-6223-37
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.  RSPA-1999-6223-38

[[Page 32910]]

 
National Transportation Safety Board  RSPA-1999-6223-39
 (NTSB).
California Air Resources Board......  RSPA-1999-6223-41
Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P....  RSPA-1999-6223-42
Laura E. Herman.....................  RSPA-1999-6223-45
National Tank Truck Carriers, Inc.    RSPA-1999-6223-46
 (NTTC).
API.................................  RSPA-1999-6223-47
Great Lakes Transport, LLC..........  RSPA-1999-6223-48
Anthony C. Pitfield.................  RSPA-1999-6223-49
The Dow Chemical Company (Dow)......  RSPA-1999-6223-50
Truck Trailer Manufacturers           RSPA-1999-6223-51
 Association (TTMA).
Petroleum Marketers Association of    RSPA-1999-6223-52
 America (PMAA).
Dangerous Goods Advisory Council....  RSPA-1999-6223-53
Saraguay Petroleum Corp (Saraguay     RSPA-1999-6223-54
 Petroleum).
Petroleum Transportation and Storage  RSPA-1999-6223-55
 Association (PTSA).
Baltimore Cargo Tank Services, Inc..  RSPA-1999-6223-56
American Trucking Associations (ATA)  RSPA-1999-6223-57
Cargo Tank Concepts, Ltd. (CTC).....  RSPA-1999-6223-58
Minnesota Trucking Association......  RSPA-1999-6223-59
Society of Independent Gasoline       RSPA-1999-6223-60
 Marketers of America (SIGMA).
Brenner Tank LLC....................  RSPA-1999-6223-61
Denny Rehberg, Member of Congress...  RSPA-1999-6223-62
TTMA................................  RSPA-1999-6223-63
ATA.................................  RSPA-1999-6223-64
The Honorable Thomas E. Petri.......  RSPA-1999-6223-65
The Honorable Conrad Burns..........  RSPA-1999-6223-66
The Honorable Michael Sodrel........  RSPA-1999-6223-67
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The comments are available for review through DOT's electronic 
Docket Management System (on the Web site http://dms.dot.gov).
    Many of the commenters took issue with our original estimates of 
costs and benefits in the regulatory evaluation prepared in support of 
the NPRM. Generally, these commenters assert we underestimated the 
number of cargo tanks affected and the cost of retrofits and over-
estimated the number and severity of wetlines incidents. Commenters 
also question the effectiveness, reliability, efficiency, and 
functionality of currently available technology to purge lading from 
wetlines.

III. Revised Regulatory Evaluation

    Based on comments received in response to the NPRM, we re-evaluated 
the data and information concerning potential costs and benefits of 
regulatory alternatives to ensure that any final rule prohibiting the 
transportation of flammable liquids in unprotected wetlines would 
maximize the net benefit to society.
    Our revised regulatory review included reassessment of the number 
of accidents involving wetlines and fatalities, injuries, and property 
damage resulting from those accidents. We also revised our estimate of 
the number of vehicles potentially affected by rulemaking action and 
the technology currently available to purge flammable liquids from 
wetlines to ascertain its effectiveness and practicability in the 
transportation environment. The following table summarizes the overall 
costs and benefits, calculated over a 20-year period using a seven 
percent discount rate, for the three options considered in the 2006 
regulatory evaluation:

                                    Present Value Costs and Benefits of Rule
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                                                                                 P.V. total       Benefit-cost
                        Alternatives                         P.V. total cost      benefit            ratio
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Purging System on New Trucks...............................      $23,847,613      $25,377,985              1.06
Purging System on Trucks Manufactured on or After January         35,968,401       38,902,738              1.08
 1, 2002...................................................
Purging System on New and Existing Trucks..................       53,595,422       50,945,401              0.95
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    The revised regulatory evaluation assumes a total of 27,000 
vehicles would be affected by a final rule, and the cost to install a 
purging system would be $1,600 per tank on newly manufactured CTMVs and 
$1,760 to retrofit existing CTMVs. We also assumed the average service 
life for a CTMV in flammable liquid service is 20 years; thus, five 
percent of the fleet would be retired each year.
    In measuring the benefits of wetlines regulation, we considered 
avoided injuries, property damage, traffic delays, evacuations, 
emergency response, and environmental damage. These benefits are scaled 
to account for underreporting of wetlines incidents, particularly for 
the period prior to October 1998, when DOT incident reporting 
requirements were extended to intrastate operations.
    In response to concerns expressed by commenters, we reexamined 
available data for each of the 190 incidents that had been attributed 
to wetlines in the original regulatory analysis, applying revised 
criteria to isolate those that, by virtue of their circumstances, could 
be verified as wetlines incidents. In 42 of these cases, we found that 
the incident-related injuries, property damage, and other costs could 
not be attributed to the risk associated with unprotected wetlines. For 
instance, the revised regulatory analysis excludes incidents in which 
both the wetline and the cargo tank were breached and does not include 
incidents involving spills of more than 50 gallons, unless a fire 
resulted from the spill. Using incident data reported to DOT from 
January 1, 1990 through December 31, 2001, we

[[Page 32911]]

identified 148 CTMV incidents involving wetlines. These incidents 
resulted in seven fatalities, three injuries, and over $7 million in 
property damage.
    Because of commenters' questions and concerns about many of the 
assumptions used to develop the regulatory evaluation for the NPRM, we 
performed a sensitivity analysis to calculate the benefits and costs of 
the three identified options by changing the variables used, including 
the number of affected vehicles, the installation costs for a non-
welded purging system, and the number of wetlines incidents. PHMSA 
concludes from the sensitivity analysis that the benefit-cost ratios 
for the new-construction-only option could range from a low of .73/1 
(assuming the highest possible costs and lowest possible benefits) to a 
high of 1.20/1 (assuming the lowest possible costs and highest possible 
benefits). A complete discussion of the sensitivity analysis is 
included in the regulatory evaluation in the public docket for this 
proceeding.
    For purposes of the analysis in the regulatory evaluation, we 
identified an on-truck purging system as the low-cost alternative for 
compliance with the performance standard at issue in this rulemaking 
proceeding. The purging system utilizes 5 psi of air pressure from the 
CTMV's compressed air tanks to purge the loading lines. The system 
routes the product from the lowest point in the piping to the tank 
shell through 0.5 inch braided stainless steel lines. Purging the 
loading lines on a four-compartment cargo tank takes six minutes.
    The purging system represents the lowest cost, most efficient 
solution available for the elimination of wetlines. However, as noted 
above, many commenters question the effectiveness, reliability, 
efficiency, and functionality of purging systems. We agree with 
commenters that the current technology may cause problems unrelated to 
the wetlines issue it is designed to address. Although most of these 
problems may be corrected or avoided, we have determined that the 
benefits of imposing solutions through regulation would not justify the 
costs of such action.
    Finally, we note that the industry is taking action voluntarily to 
limit the safety risks associated with the transportation of flammable 
liquids in unprotected wetlines. One large gasoline distributor has 
installed purging systems on its CTMVs. Another large gasoline 
distributor has installed damage protection equipment on its CTMVs that 
could help to mitigate the consequences of a collision with an 
automobile or other vehicle. We urge the regulated community to 
continue its efforts voluntarily to identify and implement measures to 
address this issue. We also plan to develop and implement an outreach 
program to educate the industry, first responder community, and the 
public about the potential risks associated with wetlines. We will 
continue to collect relevant information concerning wetlines incidents 
and technological developments affecting wetlines transportation.

IV. Conclusion

    In the final analysis, we did not identify a cost-effective 
approach for addressing the risk of wetlines transportation through 
regulatory action. Based on the revised regulatory evaluation, we 
believe the benefits of a final rule prohibiting the transportation of 
flammable liquids in wetlines only on newly constructed CTMVs may 
slightly outweigh the costs. However, given the sensitivity of the 
benefit-cost determinations to variations in the data and the inherent 
margin for error in the overall analysis, it is possible, even for 
newly constructed CTMVs, the costs of a regulatory solution will 
outweigh potential benefits.
    Accordingly, PHMSA is withdrawing the December 30, 2004 NPRM and 
terminating this rulemaking proceeding.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on May 31, 2006, under authority 
delegated in 49 CFR part 1.
Brigham A. McCown,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. E6-8782 Filed 6-6-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P