Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration August 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the procedures governing the application for, and the processing of, exemptions from the Department of Transportation's Hazardous Material Regulations (49 CFR part 107, subpart B), notice is hereby given that the Office of Hazardous Materials Safety has received the application described herein. Each mode of transportation for which a particular exemption is requested is indicated by a number in the ``Nature of Application'' portion of the table below as follows: 1Motor vehicle, 2Rail freight, 3Cargo vessel, 4Cargo aircraft only, 5Passenger-carrying aircraft.

This is to notify the public that PHMSA and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) are investigating the manufacture, marking, and sale of high pressure DOT exemption cylinders made and/or distributed by Global Composites International, Inc. (GCI), Ontario, CA. PHMSA and the OIG have evidence that suggests GCI manufactured, marked, certified, and sold an undetermined number of high-pressure DOT exemption carbon fiber filament cylinders when the cylinders had not been manufactured in accordance with the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR), DOT-E 12695, and the design qualification standards incorporated into the exemption. The evidence suggests that some of these cylinders were not wrapped with a sufficient number of carbon fiber layers to insure their structural integrity. In addition, the evidence suggests that many of these cylinders did not undergo the complete series of safety tests and inspections required by the HMR and may not possess the structural integrity to safely contain its contents under pressure during normal transportation and use. Extensive property damage, serious personal injury, or death could result from rupture of a cylinder.

This notice requests public participation in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval process regarding the renewal of an existing PHMSA/Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) collection of information for pipeline safety reports of abandoned underwater pipelines. PHMSA is requesting OMB approval for renewal of this information collection under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and 5 CFR part 1320. The public is invited to submit comments over the next 60 days on ways to minimize the burden associated with collection of information related to the pipeline safety reports of abandoned underwater pipelines.

In accordance with the requirements of 49 U.S.C. 5117(C), PHMSA is publishing the following list of exemption applications that have been in process for 180 days or more. The reason(s) for delay and the expected completion date for action on each application is provided in association with each identified application.

PHMSA is correcting a petition for waiver published in the Federal Register on July 14, 2005 (70 FR 40780). That petition, from BOC Gases (BOC), requested a waiver from the pipeline safety standards at 49 CFR 195.306(c)(5) to allow the use of inert gas or carbon dioxide as the test medium for pressure testing an existing carbon dioxide pipeline. This notice corrects the supplementary information of that publication, which referred to a gas pipeline safety regulation when it should have referred to a hazardous liquid pipeline safety regulation.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR) described below has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for extension of currently approved collection. The ICR describes the nature of the information collection and the expected burden. The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on the following collection of information was published on May 23, 2005, [FR 70, page 29553].