PHMSA Proposes New Safety Oil Spill Response Plans and
Information Sharing for High-Hazard Flammable Trains
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline
and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in coordination with
the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), today announced proposed
regulations for Oil Spill Response Plans and Information Sharing for
High-Hazard Flammable Trains (HHFTs) to improve oil spill response
readiness and mitigate effects of rail incidents involving petroleum oil.
The proposed rule would update and clarify the comprehensive oil
spill response plan requirements for certain trains, and would require
railroads to share information with state and tribal emergency response
commissions to improve community preparedness for potential accidents.
The rule would also incorporate a test method for initial boiling
point for flammable liquids into the hazardous materials regulations.
“Incidents involving crude oil can have devastating
consequences to local communities and the environment. We’ve taken
more than 30 actions in the last two years to continue to address risk, and
we continue to push the industry to do more to prevent derailments from
happening,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “This
rule goes one step further to hold industry accountable to plan and prepare
for the worst case scenario. It would help to ensure that railroads
have comprehensive plans to respond to derailments when they occur and
better ensure the safety of communities living near railroads.”
The proposed regulations include a number of commonsense
measures that will improve safety. The rule would expand the
comprehensive oil spill response plan requirements under the Clean Water
Act to certain HHFT trains based on the amount of crude oil being
transported. These changes mean that certain HHFT trains would be
required to have comprehensive plans, instead of basic plans that are
currently required. It would also require the operator to be prepared
to respond to an incident involving a worst-case discharge, or the largest
quantity of oil reasonably expected to be discharged during an incident.
The rule also would codify the requirement that railroads share information
about all HHFT operations with state and tribal emergency response
commissions to improve community preparedness, in accordance with the
Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act of 2015 (FAST Act).
“The substantial surge in our country’s production of crude
oil is creating a serious need for improved response and communication
between railroads and the communities through which they travel,” said
PHMSA Administrator Marie Therese Dominguez. “This rule would help to
ensure that railroads provide vital information to first responders to help
them prepare for and respond to a derailment involving crude.”
“Whether in a
small town, large city, or environmentally sensitive area, resources and
information matter during any crude oil train incident,” said FRA
Administrator Sarah E. Feinberg. “Railroads must continue to do
everything possible to prevent an incident from occurring and strategically
prepare in case one does.”
The rule proposes railroads be required to
provide monthly notification or certification of no change to state and
tribal emergency response commissions and relevant emergency responders for
HHFTs, including:
· A reasonable
estimate of the number of HHFTs that are expected to travel, per week,
through each county within the state.
· The routes
over which the affected trains will be transported.
· A
description of the materials shipped and applicable emergency
response information required by hazardous materials regulations.
· At least one
point of contact at the railroad (including name, title, phone number, and
address) for the state and tribal emergency response commissions, and
relevant emergency responders related to the railroad’s transportation of
affected trains.
· For
petroleum oil trains subject to the Comprehensive Oil Spill Response Plan
under 49 CFR part 130, the contact information for the qualified
individuals and description of response zones must also be provided to
state and tribal emergency response commissions, or other appropriate
state-delegated entities.
The notice of proposed rulemaking has been transmitted to
the Federal Register for publication. An actual date of
publication will be determined by the Federal Register, but
a preview of the rulemaking proposal transmitted by PHMSA is
available on the agency’s website. For more information on the
USDOT’s efforts to improve hazardous materials safety and awareness,
including details about the proposed rule, visit the PHMSA website at www.phmsa.dot.gov.
# # #
The mission of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration is to protect people and the environment by advancing the
safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials that are
essential to our daily lives. PHMSA develops and enforces regulations
for the safe operation of the nation's 2.6 million mile pipeline transportation
system and the nearly 1 million daily shipments of hazardous materials by
land, sea, and air. Please visit http://phmsa.dot.gov
or https://twitter.com/PHMSA_DOT
for more information.
|
