Reader Comment 10-24-08

Fred Millar, an activist working on a variety of railroad hazmat issues, posted a comment to last Friday’s blog on the RBPS Guidance Document. Fred notes that the RBPS is the effective equivalent of the guidance document being developed for the railroads for making their routing decisions. I too am waiting for the release of that guidance since that proposed process certainly smacks of what Fred called a “Rube Goldberg-like complex process”. I do take objection to one of Fred’s comments. The Bush Administration did not refuse to order IST provisions in their facility security rule. Congress, in the authorizing legislation, specifically forbade DHS from requiring any specific security measure. And Congress has been unable or unwilling to change that restriction. When DHS issued the interim final rule on CFATS they did note that removing the COI from the facility, or reducing the amount of the COI on hand at the facility could result in a removal of facility from a ‘covered status’ or reduce the tier level of the facility. I do admit that it would have been nice to see this included in the discussion of RBPS 5 – Shipping, Receipt, and Storage in the Guidance Document.