Lac-Mégantic Quebec

August 2013 – Announcements of Proposed Rules, Changes to the Rules, and Final Rules for RCRA and the HMR

On its website the US Government Printing Office makes a wealth of Federal publications available for review and download; one of these is the Federal Register.

Published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.

See below for a brief summary of announcements in the Federal Register by the US EPA on the subject of Hazardous Waste and the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) of the US DOT on the subject of Transportation of Hazardous Materials.

The Federal Register is a great way to look down the road and see potential changes to the regulations long before they are put into effect (sometimes The Rulemaking Process takes years before a final rule is issued, if ever).  Knowledge of these potential changes provides you with several advantages:

  • Additional time to modify your business operations to comply.
  • Awareness of on what topics the regulatory agencies intend to focus their efforts.
  • The ability to register your concerns, complaints, suggestions, etc. in order to modify the proposed rule before a final rule is issued.  It can be done, really!
  • Make changes to your training program to account for changes that become effective before the next training cycle.
  • Alert you to the need to re-train your employees prior to their next scheduled training cycle, if necessary.
  • Keep you abreast of changes to the regulations that affect your business and/or your industry group.

Please note that this is my best effort to identify the relevant announcements in the Federal Register that may be of interest to generators of hazardous waste and shippers of hazardous materials.  I encourage you to review the list of Federal Register publications yourself to ensure regulatory compliance.

August 1 through August 31, 2013

PHMSA – Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR):

Rules and Regulations:

None

Proposed Rules:

None

Notices:

Lac-Mégantic Railroad Accident Discussion and DOT Safety Recommendations Pages 48224 – 48229 [FR DOC # 2013-19211] PDF | Text | More

USEPA – Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA):

Rules and Regulations:

None

Proposed Rules:

None

Notices:

Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System: Identification and Listing of Special Wastes; Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals From Electric Utilities Pages 46940 – 46947 [FR DOC # 2013-18706] PDF | Text | More

Information can be helpful but it’s useless if you are not able to make sense of it, determine how any changes to the rules and regulations (final or proposed) will affect your operations, and communicate the necessary information to your personnel.  I can help you do that.  Please contact me for a free consultation to determine your regulatory requirements and how training can help you to attain and maintain compliance.

Lac-Mégantic, Quebec Train Derailment of July 6, 2013

According to Rail Safety Advisory Letters issued by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada on July 19, 2013, the incident is summarized as follows.

At approximately 10:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on July 5, 2013, MMA train 2 was proceeding eastward from Montreal, Quebec, to St. John, New Brunswick.  The train was approximately 4,700 feet long and weighed over 10,000 tons.  It consisted of five locomotives, a loaded box car, and 72 loaded tank cars containing petroleum crude oil (U.S. DOT Hazard Class 3, UN 1267).  At approximately 11:00 p.m. the train stopped near milepost 7.40 near Nantes, Quebec.  At that location the operator of the train secured it and departed, leaving the train unattended on mainline track with a descending grade of approximately 1.2 percent.  At around 11:50 p.m. a local resident reported a fire on the controlling locomotive (MMA 5017) of the train.  The local fire department was called and responded with another MMA employee.  At approximately midnight, the controlling locomotive was shut down and the fire extinguished. After the fire was extinguished, the fire department and the MMA employee left the site.  At approximately 1:00 a.m. the next day (the early morning of July 6th) it appears that the train began rolling and picking up speed down the descending grade toward the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, which sits approximately 30 miles from the United States-Canada border.  Near the center of town, the box car and 63 of the loaded tank cars derailed.  The locomotives, which separated from the train, traveled an additional 1/2 mile before coming to a stop.  A number of derailed tank cars released product resulting in multiple explosions and subsequent fires.  At this time, it is estimated that there were 42 fatalities and that 5 persons are still missing.  There was also extensive damage to the town, and approximately 2,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area.  While the investigation is ongoing and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has not reached any final conclusions, it has made a determination that the braking force applied to the train was insufficient to hold it on the 1.2-percent descending slope between Nantes and Lac-Mégantic.