[Docket No. PHMSA–2017–0152; Amdt. No. 195–104]
Effective Monday, October 24, 2022, PHMSA issued a limited enforcement discretion relative to the Unusually Sensitive Areas (USA) Interim Final Rule (IRF). [See related article in the January Edition of the DOT Pipeline Compliance News.]
PHMSA will exercise its discretion to refrain from taking enforcement action against hazardous liquid pipeline facilities in connection with regulatory requirements under 49 CFR part 195 that are, or will become, newly applicable to those facilities because they could affect resource areas that are newly designated as “certain coastal waters” solely due to the IFR’s definition of the term “territorial seas of the United States” to include waters between 3 nautical miles and 12 nautical miles seaward from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) determined baseline recorded in the GIS dataset compiled by PHMSA.
The period of this limited enforcement discretion will be from October 20, 2022, until the earlier of either (1) the effective date of a published final rule, or (2) August 17, 2023.
The full text of PHMSA’s Limited Enforcement Discretion can be found here.