Hazardous Materials Regulatory Program

The decade of the 1970s was marked by significant changes in both the nature and scope of the Department of Transportation s hazardous materials regulatory program. While an extensive discussion of each of these developments is beyond the scope of this chapter, the following overview of the major... 

CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW OF COMPLIANCE WITH THE HAZARDOUS MATERIALS REGULATORY PROGRAM... 

National Transportation Safety Board. (1981). Safety Report Status of Department of Transportation s Hazardous Materials Regulatory Program. Report NTSB-SR-81-2. Washington D.C. U.S. Government Printing Office. 

An international non-profit educational association representing transporters and container manufacturers of hazardous materials, substances, and wastes concerned with the safe handling of these substances. Provides regulatory assistance and advice for establishing hazardous materials compliance and safety programs. 

The Department of Transportation s hazardous materials transportation regulatory program is, by any measure, massive in scope. Comprising over... 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT S HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TRANSPORTATION REGULATORY PROGRAM OVER THE LAST DECADE... 

Consolidation of the various individual regulatory programs into a single set of regulations (an effort aided and abetted by the passage of the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act in 1975)... 

Prior to the expansion of the scope of the program to include environmental and health effects materials, the primary focus of the Department s hazardous materials transportation regulatory program had been upon the properties of materials that pose substantial potential hazards to persons or property from acute exposures. Consequently, the program had been directed primarily towards controlling the handling of such materials in transportation. 

The system, as described in the first portion of this manuai, is the basic Hazardous Materials Identification System. As noted earlier, it is a flexible system which may stand on its own as a means of worker hazard identification and is also compatible with other existing plant education and training programs. Legislative or regulatory provisions that cail for the special identification of extremely hazardous materials (such as carcinogens) can easily be incorporated into the HMIS. too. 

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) oversees pipeline and hazardous materials transportation safety. The administration oversees the nations pipeline infrastructure, which accounts for 64% of energy commodities consumed in the United States. The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) functions as the safety authority for the nation s 2.3 million miles of natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines. The office administers a national regulatory program to ensure the safe pipeline transportation of natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and hazardous liquids by pipeline. The Accountable Pipeline Safety and Partnership Act of 1996 requires that OPS adopt rules requiring interstate gas pipeline operators to provide maps of their facilities to the governing body of each municipality in which a pipeline traverses. 

The objective of this program is to establish hazard classification procedures, as a supplement to the existing regulatory manual, for in-process materials used during the various stages of propellant and explosive manufacture. 

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