05-0148
05-0148
Page 1U.S. Department 400 Seventh Street, S.W. of Transportation Washington, D.C. 20590 Pipeline and AUG - 5 2005 Administration Hazardous Materials Savery Ms. Debbie Hape Reference No.: 05-0148 Transportation Compliance Specialist PGM Global Logistices Pfizer Inc. 1855 Shelby Oaks Drive North Memphis, TN 38134 Dear Ms. Hape: This is in response to your June 21, 2005 letter requesting clarification of the Hazardous Materials Incident Reporting requirements, effective January 1, 2005, under the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180). Specifically, you ask whether a consignee is required to file a Hazardous Materials Incident Report (DOT Form F5800.1) if, during a loading/unloading operation, the consignee discovers an undeclared shipment of hazardous material, or a shipment of hazardous material that is damaged or leaking. As specified in § 171.16, each person in physical possession of a hazardous material while it is being transported must submit a Hazardous Materials Incident Report on DOT Form F5800.1 within 30 days of discovery of an incident when any of the following occurs: (1) any of the circumstances set forth in § 171.15(b); (2) an unintentional release tank with a capacity of 1,000 gallons or greater containing any hazardous material suffers of a hazardous material or the discharge of any quantity of hazardous waste; (3) a cargo structural damage to the lading retention system or damage that requires repair to a system intended to protect the lading retention system, even if there is no release of hazardous material; (4) or an undeclared hazardous material is discovered. For purposes of the HMR, transportation in commerce begins when a carrier takes possession of a hazardous material for the purpose of transporting it and continues until the package containing the hazardous material arrives at its destination. Therefore, an incident that occurs while a shipper is filling a bulk packaging, such as a cargo tank, transport vehicle before the carrier arrives at the facility to pick up the shipment is not portable tank, or rail car, or loading packaged or containerized hazardous material onto a required to be reported because the incident occurs prior to the onset of transportation in commerce. An incident that occurs while the carrier that will be transporting the hazardous material is observing or participating in the filling or loading operation must be reported because the carrier is deemed to be in possession of the hazardous material at that point; the incident thus occurs during transportation. For these incidents, the carrier must complete the report. 171.16 050148#
Page 2Similarly, an incident that occurs or is discovered while a consignee is unloading a hazardous material from a transport vehicle or emptying a bulk packaging after the carrier has delivered the material is not required to be reported because the incident occurs or is discovered after transportation has ended. Thus, the consignee is not required to report an undeclared shipment or a damaged or leaking shipment that is discovered after the carrier has delivered the hazardous material. An incident that occurs while the carrier that delivered the hazardous material is observing or participating in the unloading operation must be reported because the carrier is deemed to be in possession of the hazardous material at that point; the incident thus occurs during transportation. For these incidents, the carrier must complete the report. I trust this satisfies your inquiry. Sincerely, Susan Gorsky Flay Office of Hazardous Materials Standards Acting Director#
Page 3DGAC Incident Reporting Workshop starter Page 1 of 2 Incident Reports Drakeford, Carolyn <PHMSA> 05-0148 From: Gorsky, Susan < PHMSA> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 7:01 AM To: Drakeford, Carolyn <PHMSA> Cc: Foster, Glenn <PHMSA› Subject: FW: DGAC Incident Reporting Workshop Please turn this into an interp request and assign it to Glenn for response. Thanks. Susan From: Hape, Debbie [mailto:Debbie.Hape@pfizer.com] ----Original Message----- To: Gorsky, Susan <PHMSA> Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 10:58 AM Subject: DGAC Incident Reporting Workshop Susan, you and the other members of the DOT staff who attended the workshop. Your input was very much appreciated! I recently attended the DGAC Incident Reporting Workshop in Washington, D.C. (June 10). I would like to thank your statement that shippers and consignees would not be required to submit HazMat Incident Reports. May I As a representative of the Shipper and Consignee segment of the transportation chain, I was very interested in the Incident Reporting Regulation, but hesitate to do so until I have a hard copy in hand. have written confirmation of this statement for my file? I would like to update my company on this clarification of leaking or undeclared would still fall under the carrier's responsibility to file the Incident Report, as the carrier was At the workshop, it was explained that HazMat materials that were discovered by the consignee to be either the entity in possession of the material during actual transportation. I remember that one attendee actually had a copy of the DOT Guidance Document for Incident Reporting that stated that there are instances in which a consignee or shipper would be required to complete an Incident Report. I believe you said that document would be updated to revise that information. responsible for completing an Incident Report for damaged/leaking or undeclared HazMat discovered during On behalf of my company, I would like confirmation that HazMat Shippers and/or Consignees would not be loading/unloading operations. It is my understanding that the Shipper/Consignee should report any such incidents to the Carrier, who would then be responsible for filing the report with DOT Thank you. Debbie F. Hape, cHMM Transportation Compliance Specialist PGM Global Logistics Pfizer Inc 1855 Shelby Oaks Drive North 6/22/2005#
This material provides agency context. It does not replace binding regulatory text, and its legal effect depends on the underlying authority and facts.