January 19, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On January 23, 2006, the Coast Guard published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to revise the regulated navigation area in Savannah, Georgia, to address changes in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tankship mooring locations following the creation of two new berths within a slip at the Southern LNG facility on the Savannah River. The previous rule only addressed facility and vessel requirements when an LNG vessel was underway or was moored parallel to the navigational channel outside of the slip. This interim rule describes requirements for three different potential mooring situations following the expansion: an LNG tankship moored outside of the slip, one or more LNG tankships moored inside the slip, and LNG tankships moored both inside and outside of the slip. This interim rule will become effective on February 20, 2007. However, we still encourage you to participate in this rulemaking by submitting comments and related material to the docket. We will accept comments for 60 days from the date this rule is published in the Federal Register, after which we intend to publish a final rule. Any comments received will be considered in the final rule. This interim rule is necessary to ensure safe navigation of the Savannah River and the safe transfer of LNG in the Port of Savannah.

The FAA proposes to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to all Airbus Model A300-600 series airplanes. The existing AD currently requires inspections of the lower door surrounding structure to detect cracks and corrosion; inspections to detect cracking of the holes of the corner doublers, the fail-safe ring, and the door frames of the door structures; and repair if necessary. The existing AD also provides for optional terminating action for certain inspections. This proposed AD would retain all requirements of the existing AD, mandate the previously optional terminating action, reduce the applicability of the existing AD, and add repetitive inspections behind scuff plates for certain affected airplanes. This proposed AD results from a determination that further rulemaking is necessary to improve the fatigue behavior of the cabin door surroundings. We are proposing this AD to prevent corrosion between the scuff plates at exit and cargo doors and fatigue cracks originating from certain fastener holes located in adjacent structure, which could result in reduced structural integrity of the door surroundings.

This interim final rule implements two provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (NDAA FY06), Public Law 109-163. First, Section 715 of the NDAA FY06 extends the time frame certain dependents of Active Duty Service Members (ADSM) who die while on active duty for more than 30 days shall receive TRICARE medical benefits at active duty dependent payment rates. Second, Section 592 of the NDAA FY06 modifies the requirement for those intermediaries who provide adoption placements. Additionally, this interim final rule makes an administrative clarification to the following two eligibility provisions: those placed in the legal custody of a member or former member; and those placed in the home of a member or former member in anticipation of adoption. This clarification makes a distinction between the two groups and specifies that for placement into legal custody by court order, the court order must be for a period of 12 consecutive months. Public comments are invited and will be considered for possible revisions to the final rule.

The FAA proposes to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to all Airbus Model A310 series airplanes. The existing AD currently requires inspections of the lower door surrounding structure to detect cracks and corrosion; inspections to detect cracking of the holes of the corner doublers, the fail-safe ring, and the door frames of the door structures; and repair if necessary. The existing AD also provides for optional terminating action for certain inspections. This proposed AD would retain all requirements of the existing AD, mandate the previously optional terminating action, and reduce the applicability of the existing AD. This proposed AD results from a determination that further rulemaking is necessary to improve the fatigue behavior of the cabin door surroundings. We are proposing this AD to prevent corrosion between the scuff plates at exit and cargo doors and fatigue cracks originating from certain fastener holes located in adjacent structure, which could result in reduced structural integrity of the door surroundings.

The Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) Region V is issuing a notice of intent to delete the Avenue E Groundwater Contamination Superfund Site (Site) located in Traverse City, Michigan, from the National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comments on this notice of intent to delete. The NPL, promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is found at Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300 which is the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). The EPA and the State of Michigan, through the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), have determined that all appropriate response actions under CERCLA have been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' Section of today's Federal Register, we are publishing a direct final notice of deletion of the Avenue E Groundwater Contamination Superfund Site without prior notice of intent to delete because we view this as a non-controversial revision and anticipate no adverse comment. We have explained our reasons for this deletion in the preamble to the direct final notice of deletion. If we receive no adverse comment(s) on this notice of deletion or the direct final notice of deletion, we will not take further action on this notice of intent to delete. If we receive timely adverse comment(s), we will withdraw the direct final notice of deletion, and it will not take effect. We will, as appropriate, address all public comments in a subsequent final deletion notice based on adverse comments received on this notice of intent to delete. We will not institute a second comment period on this notice of intent to delete. Any parties interested in commenting must do so at this time. For additional information, see the direct final notice of deletion which is located in the Rules section of this Federal Register.

This document provides the time and location of the public meeting which will be held by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regarding the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) entitled ``Rail Transportation Security,'' which was published in the Federal Register on December 21, 2006.

On August 18, 2005, NHTSA published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to amend our certification regulation to require that, in addition to the vehicle identification number (VIN), a suffix that identified attributes about the bus body be recorded on the certification label of each bus manufactured in two or more stages. The NPRM also proposed a new regulation to require manufacturers of buses manufactured in two or more stages to obtain a manufacturer's identifier and to submit information to NHTSA about the bus bodies manufactured. NHTSA has identified an alternative approach to obtain accurate bus accident data for analysis and safety improvement that it believes is more efficient and less burdensome. Therefore, we are terminating this rulemaking.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is publishing a new regulation on nonprocurement debarment and suspension in Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) as the final step of a four step process in streamlining the government-wide nonprocurement suspension and debarment rules. The purpose of this government-wide initiative is to make the rule on nonprocurement suspension and debarment easier to find and use by the regulated community. The first step in this process was the update to the nonprocurement suspension and debarment common rule published in the Federal Register on November 26, 2003. The second step was the establishment of Title 2 in the Code of Federal Regulations on May 11, 2004. The third step was the publication of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) guidance on nonprocurement suspension and debarment as adoptable guidance of the new 2 CFR on August 31, 2005. This rule adopts OMB guidance on nonprocurement debarment and suspension. The EPA is also removing a regulation containing the existing EPA implementation of the government-wide common rule on nonprocurement debarment and suspension. This regulatory action makes no substantive change in EPA policy or procedures for nonprocurement debarment and suspension.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for pollock in Statistical Area 610 in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the A season allowance of the 2007 total allowable catch (TAC) of pollock for Statistical Area 610 in the GOA.