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The United States Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) issued a November 7th final rule amending the federal Hazardous Materials Regulations (“HMR”). See 83 Fed. Reg. 55792.

The Hazardous Materials Regulations are found at 49 C.F.R. Parts 171-180.

PHMSA states it is amending the HMR in response to 19 petitions for rulemaking submitted by the regulated community to:

. . . update, clarify, streamline, or provide relief from miscellaneous regulatory requirements.

PHMSA describes the rationale for the adoption of such amendments as allowing “more efficient and effective ways of transporting hazardous materials in commerce while maintaining an equivalent level of safety.”

By way of summary, the principal revisions include:

• Incorporating by Reference (IBR) multiple publications from the Compressed Gas Association (CGA), the Chlorine Institute, and the Department of Defense (DoD).
• Revising the table in § 180.407(g)(1)(iv) to make this section consistent with the applicable packaging specification (e.g., § 178.347).
• Addressing inconsistencies with domestic and international labels and placards.
• Revising § 173.150(g) include the use of the International System of Units (SI).
• Excepting limited quantities of ‘‘UN1942, Ammonium nitrate’’ from requiring permission from the Captain of the Port (COTP) before being loaded or unloaded from a vessel at a waterfront facility.
• Allowing for combination non-bulk packagings that are tested and marked for a liquid hazardous material to be filled with a solid hazardous material.
• Including an additional hazardous material description for transport in roadway striping vehicles.
• Extending the service life of interim compliant toxic inhalation hazard (TIH) tank cars to the full service life of all other tank cars.
• Allowing the use of plastic, metal, or composite pallets to transport materials classed and marked as limited quantities.
• No longer mandating that excepted quantities comply with the emergency response telephone requirement.
• Harmonizing the recordkeeping requirements for portable tanks.
• Allowing for printing tolerances for labels and placards.
• Allowing electronic signatures for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) manifest forms.
• No longer requiring the service pressure to be marked on Department of Transportation (DOT) 8 and 8L cylinders.
• Acknowledging that the marked date of manufacture on a composite intermediate bulk container (IBC) may differ from the marked date of manufacture on the inner receptacle of that IBC.
• Revising the basis weight tolerance for fiberboard boxes from +/ - 5% to +/ - 10% from the nominal basis weight reported in the initial design qualification test report.

A copy of the November 7th Federal Register can be found here.