CG Notification of Arrivals Final Rule

Earlier this week the Coast Guard published a final rule in the Federal Register updating and finalizing the interim final rule (IFR, 70 FR 74663) regarding the requirement to notify the Coast Guard of the arrival of ships containing ‘certain dangerous goods’ (CDC) that required special security and safety treatment. This final rule increases the number of materials that can be considered CDC residue and thus avoid the notice of arrival (NOA) requirements for CDC. This final rule goes into effect on October 28th.

The IFR introduced the concept of CDC residues as applied to ammonium nitrate, defining it as the amount that remained onboard after the vessel discharges all saleable cargo. Vessels carrying CDC residue ammonium nitrate were exempt from the NOA requirements. All other CDC carrying vessels after being off-loaded continued to have the NOA requirement. The Coast Guard’s Chemical Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) noted that many of the CDC provided a low enough security risk when in residue quantities that they should also be treated as CDC residue.

In this final rule the Coast Guard expands the concept of CDC residues to all of the CDC except:

• Anhydrous ammonia:
• Chlorine;
• Ethane;
• Ethylene oxide;
• Methane (LNG);
• Methyl bromide;
• Sulfur dioxide; and
• Vinyl chloride

For all other CDC’s “the cargo that remains onboard in a cargo system after discharge that is not accessible through normal transfer procedures” is considered CDC residue and is exempt from the NOA requirements