The FRA issued a safety advisory that makes recommendations for increasing hazard mitigation for on-track railroad workers near operating trains. The advisory applies to all federally regulated US railroad activity, including even holiday excursion services like the Southern Pacific “Daylight” steam locomotive operating on the Portland & Western Railroad in Oregon on November 26th, 2016. Image © 11/2016 by Nikki Burgess; all rights reserved.

Welcome back everyone!  Hopefully your Thanksgiving holiday was peaceful and fulfilling.  With the shortened holiday week things were a little bit slow in the regulatory world, however even so there were several items of note.  Let’s take a look:

U.S. EPA

• The agency has published a significant revision to the hazardous waste rules that govern RECRA; that’s Resource Recovery and Conservation Act—pretty much THE book to know when it comes to hazardous waste in the United States.  EPA notes that the new revisions will:
  • Reorganizing the hazardous waste generator regulations to make them more user-friendly
  • Provide a better understanding of how the RCRA hazardous waste generator regulatory program works
  • Address gaps in the existing regulations to strengthen environmental protection
  • Provide greater flexibility for hazardous waste generators to manage their hazardous waste in a cost-effective and protective manner
  • Make technical corrections and conforming changes to address inadvertent errors and remove obsolete references to programs that no longer exist

EPA has set an effective date of May 30^th, 2017 for the changes to become mandatory.  Here’s a link to the rule

• In closely related work, the agency has also issued a new final rule that revises the regulations governing the export and import of hazardous waste.  EPA notes similar benefits will accrue from this rule as for the rule outlined above.  One major benefit—electronic transmission of documents will be allowed, which should make international shipping a little easier.  See the new rule here

FRA

• The Federal Railroad Administration is issuing Safety Advisory 2016–02 out of concern for the number of railroad and railroad contractor fatalities that occur when roadway workers perform certain activities that fall outside the scope of FRA’s safety regulations, but within the purview of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) regulations. FRA is issuing this Safety Advisory to remind railroads and railroad contractors, and their employees (including roadway workers) of the importance of identifying hazardous conditions at job locations, conducting thorough job safety briefings to discuss the hazardous conditions, and taking appropriate actions to mitigate those conditions. This Safety Advisory reminds railroads, railroad contractors, and their respective employees that OSHA’s job safety regulations may apply to certain roadway worker activities.  The advisory applies to all federally recognized railroad operations regardless of size and purpose.  See the advice here
• The Agency also released third quarter 2016 data submitted by railroads on their progress in implementing Positive Train Control (PTC). Freight railroads now have PTC active on 12 percent of their tracks, up from 9 percent last quarter. Passenger railroads increased their percentage to 23 percent this quarter compared to 22 percent last quarter. The Q3 2016 status update includes railroad-by-railroad quarterly data as of Sept. 30, 2016, and includes data such as track segments completed, locomotives equipped, employees trained, radio towers installed, route miles in PTC operation and other key implementation data.  The agency released a set of graphics summarizing progress on major components; see it here

PHMSA

• Special permit activity was on the list of to-do’s for PHMSA last week.  The agency published a set of new actions, linked to below.  Action included applications, modification requests, notices of action, and a set of delays.  See all the activity here:
  • https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-11-25/pdf/2016-27724.pdf
  • https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-11-25/pdf/2016-27725.pdf
  • https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-11-25/pdf/2016-27726.pdf
  • https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-11-25/pdf/2016-27727.pdf
• PHMSA also published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) in response to the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act of 2016.  Along with several pipeline related issues, it addresses a petition for rulemaking proposing hazardous materials regulations regarding the marking of identification numbers on cargo tanks.  Comments on the proposal must be received by February 21, 2017. See it here

NRC

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering a potential amendment to its regulations that would revise the rules for packaging and transporting radioactive material. The NRC is gathering information about potential changes that may be proposed in a subsequent rulemaking activity.   This is a harmonization effort with International Atomic Energy Agency recommendations.  NRC asks for comments by January 20, 2017. See the details here

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