Inspectors Gain Additional Authority to Inspect Hazmats Under New Rule
This story appears in the March 14 print edition of Transport Topics.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said a new federal rule will expand the enforcement authority of federal regulators to conduct “enhanced inspections” and investigations of packaged hazardous materials.
The rule, which takes effect on May 2, gives Department of Transportation inspectors the right to open packages suspected of being non-compliant or undeclared hazmat, and the authority to “issue emergency orders, restrictions, prohibitions, and recalls in response to imminent hazards.”
“This rulemaking is another step in ensuring the safe transportation of hazardous materials by providing our inspectors the authority to conduct thorough investigations, to remove non-compliant packages from transportation, and to recall packages that could pose a significant threat to the public and the environment,” Cynthia Quarterman, PHMSA administrator, said in a statement.
Each year, about 3 billion tons of hazardous materials are transported in the United States, and nearly all of the shipments move through the system “safely and without incident,” the agency said. But PHMSA said it has long considered undeclared shipments of hazardous materials to be a “serious safety issue.”
The most significant change will be the speed with which federal inspectors can act to prevent unsafe movements of hazardous materials. By current regulations, DOT can obtain relief against a carrier only by court order, PHMSA said.
“As a practical matter, judicial relief could rarely be obtained before the hazardous transportation movement was complete,” the rule said.
Although the agency said the new rule would not create any new costs for carriers, American Trucking Associations said that it does “potentially create inspection/enforcement situations that could add cost and delays to motor carrier operations.”
An agent may remove packages in a shipment from transportation or require that the carrier have the package transported to a facility for examination and analysis, ATA said.
“Clearly these interventions would create new costs for motor carriers, as being ordered to transport an undeclared hazmat package to a facility and delaying the delivery of the other freight on the truck will increase costs for motor carriers,” Richard Moskowitz, ATA’s vice president and regulatory affairs counsel, told Transport Topics.
“Motor carriers should review the rule and consider incorporating provisions into their freight contracts to address these potential issues, especially those issues that are outside of a motor carrier’s control,” he said.
Groups including the Council on Safe Transportation of Hazardous Articles Inc., the Association of Hazmat Shippers Inc., the Radiopharmaceutical Shippers & Carriers Conference and the Institute of Makers of Explosives have urged PHMSA to limit the use of its enhanced authority.
AHS said in written comments that the enhanced authority to conduct ‘‘random stops’’ to verify that hazardous materials are packaged, marked and labeled in compliance with DOT requirements would be contrary to the public interest.
But PHMSA said, “It is quite possible that a package declared as hazmat, but that is otherwise non-compliant with the [rule], could pose an imminent hazard. If DOT narrowed the application of this authority only to undeclared shipments, the agency would be rendered powerless in situations in which emergency enforcement action is desperately needed.”
PHMSA added it is instructing agents to use the enhanced inspection and enforcement authority in a manner that “minimizes burdens on the transportation system while, at the same time, meeting the overriding mission of transportation safety.”
