CG Meetings on Cargo Security Risk Reduction

The Coast Guard published a notice in today’s Federal Register (76 FR 41278) about their scheduling of two “public listening sessions” to discuss issues related to their formulation of a CDC Security National Strategy to reduce risks associated with the transport, transfer, and storage of Certain Dangerous Cargo (CDC) in bulk within the U.S. Marine Transportation System. Development of this strategy was directed by §812 of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010.

Certain Dangerous Cargo

I briefly discussed the requirements related to CDC in that legislation in a blog post last year. This new category of hazardous material was broadly described in §812(d)(1) as “anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, chlorine, liquefied natural gas, liquiefied (sic) petroleum gas, and any other substance, material, or group or class of material, in a particular amount and form that the Secretary determines by regulation poses a significant risk of creating a transportation security incident while being transported in maritime commerce”. Regulations further defining the term have not yet been published.

Agenda

Two meetings will be held, one in St. Louis, MO (8-2-11) and one in Houston, TX (8-18-11). Seating will be limited at both meetings. The notice states that you can “RSVP for the sessions” by sending an email to CDC@uscg.mil, but it is not clear that this actually reserves a seat at one or both of the meetings.

According to the notice: “The agenda for the two sessions will principally consist of a presentation and discussion of certain elements of the working draft of the CDC Security National Strategy and future strategy implementation considerations.” This will include the discussion of the following goals:

• “Provide to internal and external stakeholders realtime (sic) national, regional, and local awareness of the risk of intentional attacks on the CDC Marine Transportation System.

• “Consistently assess vulnerability to threats of intentional attacks on the CDC Marine Transportation System and mitigate the vulnerability to an acceptable level.

• “Dynamically assess the potential consequences of intentional attacks on the CDC Marine Transportation System and capably mitigate, through coordinated response, the impact of a successful attack.

• “Lead the development of national, regional, and local resiliency/recovery capability from successful attacks on the CDC Marine Transportation System.”

Public Comments

Provisions have been made for allowing participation for those who are unable to attend these public meetings. Questions and comments maybe submitted by email to the address above or via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (http://www.regulations.gov/; Docket # USCG-2011-0112).

It would seem to me that, with the limited number of meetings currently scheduled, that the Coast Guard should maximize public access to these discussions by making one or both of these meetings available as a webcast.