Areas Unusually Sensitive to Environmental Damage

Passage 1[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] ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Research and Special Programs Administration [Docket PS-140(c), Notice 5] RIN 2137-AC34 Areas Unusually Sensitive to Environmental Damage AGENCY: Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.#

Passage 2ADDRESSES: 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.#

Passage 3SUPPLEMENTARY 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 us#

Passage 4ed 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#

Passage 5of 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: [[Page 13146]] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TP26MR96.012 BILLING CODE 4910-60-C 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] BILLING CODE 4910-60-P#