[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 228 (Tuesday, November 26, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65213-65214]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-25567]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

[Docket No. PHMSA-2019-0195 (Notice No. 2019-11)]


Hazardous Materials: Information Collection Activities

AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), 
DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, PHMSA 
invites comments on a revision to the information collection pertaining 
to hazardous materials public sector training and planning grants for 
which PHMSA intends to request a renewal with revision from the Office 
of Management and Budget.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
January 27, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by the Docket Number 
PHMSA-2019-0195 (Notice No. 2019-11) by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
     Mail: Docket Management System; U.S. Department of 
Transportation, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Routing 
Symbol M-30, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590.
     Hand Delivery: To the Docket Management System; Room W12-
140 on the ground floor of the West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue 
SE, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
Docket Number (PHMSA-2019-0195) for this notice at the beginning of the 
comment. To avoid duplication, please use only one of these four 
methods. All comments received will be posted without change to the 
Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) and will include any personal 
information you provide.
    Requests for a copy of an information collection should be directed 
to Steven Andrews or Shelby Geller, (202) 366-8553, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, 
Standards and Rulemaking Division, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, 
Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    Docket: For access to the dockets to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov or DOT's Docket 
Operations Office (see ADDRESSES).
    Privacy Act: In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits 
comments from the public to better inform its rulemaking process. DOT 
posts these comments, without edit, including any personal information 
the commenter provides, to www.regulations.gov, as described in the 
system of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at 
www.dot.gov/privacy.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven Andrews or Shelby Geller, (202) 
366-8553, U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous 
Materials Safety Administration, Standards and Rulemaking Division, 
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 1320.8 (d), title 5, Code of Federal 
Regulations (CFR) requires PHMSA to provide interested members of the 
public and affected agencies an opportunity to comment on information 
collection and recordkeeping requests. This notice identifies an 
information collection request that PHMSA will be submitting to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for revision. Specifically, PHMSA 
is notifying the public of its intent to seek additional information in 
hazardous materials planning grant applications. This information 
collection is contained in 49 CFR 171.6 of the Hazardous Materials 
Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR parts 171-180). PHMSA has revised burden 
estimates, where appropriate, to reflect current reporting levels or 
adjustments based on a proposed revision to this information 
collection. The following information is provided for this information 
collection: (1) Title of the information collection, including former 
title if a change is being made; (2) OMB control number; (3) summary of 
the information collection activity; (4) description of affected 
public; (5) estimate of total annual reporting and recordkeeping 
burden; and (6) frequency of collection. PHMSA will request a 3-year 
term of approval for this information collection activity and will 
publish a notice in the Federal Register upon OMB's approval.
    On February 28, 2019, PHMSA published a final rule titled 
``Hazardous Materials: Oil Spill Response Plans and Information Sharing 
for High-Hazard Flammable Trains (FAST Act)'' [HM-251B; 84 FR 6910] 
which revised and clarified requirements for Comprehensive Oil Spill 
Response Plans (COSRPs) and expanded their applicability based on 
petroleum oil thresholds that apply to an entire train consist. The 
final rule also required a railroad to share information about high-
hazard flammable train (HHFT) operations with each State emergency 
response commissions (SERC, Tribal Emergency Response, Commission 
(TERC), or other appropriate State-delegated agency in each State 
through which it operates to improve community preparedness. At a 
minimum, railroads must provide: (1) A reasonable estimate of the 
number of HHFTs that the railroad expects to operate each week, through 
each county within the State or through each tribal jurisdiction; (2) 
the routes over which the HHFTs will operate; (3) a description of the 
hazardous materials being transported and all applicable emergency 
response information required by the shipping papers and emergency 
response information requirements of the HMR; (4) an HHFT point of 
contact; and (5) a description of the response zones (including 
counties and states) and the contact information for the qualified 
individual and alternate as specified under Sec.  130.120(c) if a route 
identified above is additionally subject to the comprehensive spill 
plan requirements. In addition, the HHFT notification must be 
maintained and transmitted in accordance with the following: (1) 
Railroads must update the notifications for changes in volume greater 
than 25%; (2) notifications and updates may be transmitted 
electronically or by hard copy; (3) if the disclosure includes 
information that a railroad believes is security sensitive or 
proprietary and exempt from public disclosure, the railroad should 
indicate that in the notification; (4) each point of contact must be 
clearly identified by name or title, and contact role (e.g., qualified 
individual, HHFT point of contact) in association with the telephone 
number. One point of contact may fulfill multiple roles; and (5) copies 
of the railroad's notifications must be made

[[Page 65214]]

available to the Department of Transportation upon request.
    Following an audit conducted by the General Accounting Office 
(GAO), PHMSA received a recommendation (GAO-17-91) to develop a process 
for regularly collecting information from SERCs on the distribution of 
the railroad-provided hazardous materials shipping information to local 
planning entities. In response to this recommendation, PHMSA is seeking 
to have grant applicants declare if SERCs have received copies of the 
railroad-provided information detailed above. In addition, PHMSA is 
seeking to determine if the SERCs are disseminating this information to 
local planning entities. PHMSA expects that requesting grantees to 
provide this additional information will add approximately 2 minutes of 
burden time per respondent. For 62 grantees, this is appropriately 
2.067 additional burden hours (62 grantees x 2 minutes).
    The time to complete each component of an HMEP grantee application, 
including the additional information-sharing compliance questions, is 
as follows:

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                                                   Responses per     Number of       Hours per     Total burden
         Question/topic             Respondents     respondent       responses       response          hours
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General Grantee and Sub-grantee               62               1              62              16             992
 information....................
Information on LEPCs............              62               1              62              16             992
Assessment of Potential Chemical              62               1              62               8             496
 Threats........................
Assessment of Response                        62               1              62               8             496
 Capabilities for Accidents/
 Incidents......................
HMEP Planning and Training Grant              62               1              62               7             434
 Reporting......................
HMEP Planning Goals and                       62               1              62               7             434
 Objectives.....................
HMEP Training and Planning                    62               1              62               7             434
 Assessment.....................
Hazmat Transportation Fees......              62               1              62            3.23          200.26
Grant Applicant is NIMS                       62               1              62             5.5             341
 Compliant/Grant Application Is
 Reviewed By SERC...............
HMEP Grant Program                            62               1              62             5.5             341
 Administration.................
HHFT Information-Sharing                      62               1              62           0.033           2.067
 Compliance Questions...........
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    Title: Hazardous Materials Public Sector Training and Planning 
Grants.
    OMB Control Number: 2137-0586.
    Summary: Part 110 of 49 CFR sets forth the procedures for 
reimbursable grants for public sector planning and training in support 
of the emergency planning and training efforts of States, Indian 
tribes, and local communities to manage hazardous materials 
emergencies, particularly those involving transportation. Sections in 
this part address information collection and recordkeeping regarding 
the application for grants, the monitoring of expenditures, and the 
reporting and requesting of modifications.

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                                                                 Total annual      Hours per       Total annual
           Information collection               Respondents       responses         response       burden hours
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Hazardous Materials Grants Applications.....              62               62            83.26            5,162
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    Affected Public: State and local governments, Indian tribes.
    Increase in Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Burden:
    Increase in Annual Respondents: 0.
    Increase in Annual Responses: 0.
    Increase in Annual Burden Hours: 2.
    Frequency of collection: On occasion.

    Issued in Washington, DC on November 20, 2019.
William S. Schoonover,
Associate Administrator of Hazardous Materials Safety, Pipeline and 
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
[FR Doc. 2019-25567 Filed 11-25-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P


