[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 248 (Monday, December 28, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 71411-71412]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-34200]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Coast Guard
46 CFR Part 45
[USCG-1998-4623]
RIN 2115-AF38
Limited Service Domestic Voyage Load Lines for River Barges on
Lake Michigan
AGENCY: Coast Guard, DOT.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; extension of comment period.
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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard is extending the comment period for the notice
of proposed rulemaking on Limited Service Domestic Voyage Load Lines
for River Barges on Lake Michigan to March 4, 1999, to allow additional
time for public comment.
DATES: Comments must reach the Docket Management Facility on or before
March 4, 1999.
ADDRESSES: You may mail comments to the Docket Management Facility,
(USCG-1998-4623), U.S. Department of Transportation, room PL-401, 400
Seventh Street SW., Washington DC 20590-0001, or deliver them to room
PL-401, located on the Plaza Level of the Nassif Building at the same
address between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except
Federal holidays. The telephone number is 202-366-9329.
The Docket Management Facility maintains the public docket for this
rulemaking. Comments will become part of this docket and will be
available for inspection or copying at room PL-401, located on the
Plaza Level of the Nassif Building at the same address between 9 a.m.
and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. You
[[Page 71412]]
may also access this docket on the Internet at http://dms.dot.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions on this proposed rule,
contact Mr. Thomas Jordan, Office of Marine Safety and Environmental
Protection (G-MSE-2), U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Room 1308,
telephone 202-267-0142. For questions on viewing or submitting material
to the docket, contact Dorothy Walker, Chief, Dockets, Department of
Transportation, telephone 202-366-9329.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Request for Comments
The Coast Guard encourages you to participate in this rulemaking by
submitting written data, views, or arguments. If you submit comments,
you should include your name and address, identify this notice (USCG-
1998-4623) and the specific section or question in this document to
which your comments apply, and give the reason for each comment. Please
submit all comments and attachments in an unbound format, no larger
than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, suitable for copying and electronic filing to
the DOT Docket Management Facility at the address under ADDRESSES. If
you want acknowledgment of receipt of your comments, you should enclose
a stamped, self-addressed postcard or envelope.
The Coast Guard will consider all comments received during the
comment period.
The Coast Guard may schedule a public meeting depending on input
received in response to this notice. You may request a public meeting
by submitting a request to the address under ADDRESSES. The request
should include the reasons why a meeting would be beneficial. If we
determine that a public meeting should be held, we will hold the
meeting at a time and place announced by a later notice in the Federal
Register.
Background and Purpose
On November 2, 1998, the Coast Guard published a notice of proposed
rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register (63 FR 58679). The NPRM
proposes exempting certain unmanned dry cargo river barges from the
normal Great Lakes load line requirements to operate on Lake Michigan.
Instead, these river barges would need to obtain a limited domestic
service load line for two specific routes (between Chicago, Illinois
and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and between Chicago and Muskegon, Michigan).
This proposed rule would allow direct river barge transport of certain
non-hazardous cargoes from inland river ports to Milwaukee and Muskegon
while maintaining a relatively low cost-per-ton-mile rate for river
barge transportation.
In response to the NPRM, a multi-industry group associated with the
river barge transport of bulk ore along the southern shore of Lake
Michigan to Burns Harbor, Indiana contacted the Coast Guard. The group
recently met to review the proposed regulations and was concerned that
there will not be enough time to develop and submit a consolidated
response to the docket before the NPRM comment period closes on January
4, 1999. As a result, the group has requested an extension of the
comment period. The Coast Guard accepts this as a reasonable request.
We are extending the NPRM comment period to March 4, 1999.
Dated: December 21, 1998.
Howard L. Hime,
Acting, Director for Standards.
[FR Doc. 98-34200 Filed 12-24-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-U
