62162 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 208 / Friday, October 28, 2005 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Office of the Secretary 

Notice of Applications for Certificates 

of Public Convenience and Necessity 

and Foreign Air Carrier Permits Filed 

Under Subpart B (Formerly Subpart Q) 

During the Week Ending October 7, 

2005 

The following Applications for 

Certificates of Public Convenience and 

Necessity and Foreign Air Carrier 

Permits were filed under Subpart B 

(formerly Subpart Q) of the Department 

of Transportation’s Procedural 

Regulations (See 14 CFR 301.201 et. 

seq.). The due date for Answers, 

Conforming Applications, or Motions to 

Modify Scope are set forth below for 

each application. Following the Answer 

period DOT may process the application 

by expedited procedures. Such 

procedures may consist of the adoption 

of a show-cause order, a tentative order, 

or in appropriate cases a final order 

without further proceedings. 

Docket Number: OST–2000–8445. 

Date Filed: October 4, 2005. 

Due Date for Answers, Conforming 

Applications, or Motion to Modify 

Scope: October 25, 2005. 

Description: Application Polar Air 

Cargo, Inc., requesting renewal of its 

experimental certificate of public 

convenience and necessity for Route 

626, authorizing it to provide scheduled 

foreign air transportation of property 

and mail between the coterminal points 

Miami, FL and Los Angeles, CA; the 

intermediate points Curacao, 

Netherlands Antilles; Santiago, Chile, 

Barranquilla, Colombia; and Panama 

City, Panama; and the coterminal points 

Manaus, Rio je Janeiro and Sao Paulo, 

Brazil. 

Renee V. Wright, 

Program Manager, Docket Operations, 

Federal Register Liaison. 

[FR Doc. 05–21536 Filed 10–27–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–62–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials 

Safety Administration 

[Docket No. RSPA–04–19857] 

Pipeline Safety: Public Meetings on 

Operator Qualifications 

AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous 

Materials Safety Administration 

(PHMSA), U.S. Department of 

Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice of meeting. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces a 

public meeting on operator qualification 

programs. PHMSA is preparing a Report 

to Congress on the status and results of 

programs to ensure the qualifications of 

individuals performing safety tasks on 

pipelines. The American Society of 

Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has 

almost completed developing a 

consensus standard qualifying 

individuals performing safety tasks on 

pipelines. The meeting provides an 

opportunity to discuss progress on 

operator qualification programs to help 

PHMSA prepare the Report to Congress 

and the potential the ASME standard 

offers for strengthening operator 

qualification programs. 

DATES: The meeting will take place on 

December 15, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 

p.m. 

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at 

the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, 

DC, 480 L’Enfant Plaza, SW., 

Washington, DC 20024. The phone 

number for reservations at the hotel is 

202–484–1000. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

more information about the subject 

matter of this meeting contact Barbara 

Betsock at (202) 366–4361 or 

Barbara.Betsock@dot.gov. For 

information about the logistics of this 

meeting contact: William Fuentevilla at 

(202) 366–6199, 

William.Fuentevilla@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Meeting Details 

PHMSA will post any additional 

information or changes on its Web page 

(http://ops.dot.gov) 15 days prior to the 

meeting date. 

Members of the public may attend the 

meetings and may make short 

statements on the topics under 

discussion. Anyone wishing to make an 

oral statement should notify Mr. 

Fuentevilla, before November 21, of the 

topic and the time needed for the 

presentation. The presiding officer at 

each meeting may deny any request to 

present an oral statement and may limit 

the time of any presentation. 

You may file written comments by 

mail or deliver them to the Dockets 

Facility, U.S. Department of 

Transportation, Room PL–401, 400 

Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 

20590–0001. The Dockets Facility is 

open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday 

through Friday, except Federal holidays. 

You also may file written comments to 

the docket electronically by logging onto 

the following Internet Web address: 

http://dms.dot.gov. Click on ‘‘Help & 

Information’’ for instructions on how to 

file a document electronically. All 

written comments should reference 

docket number RSPA–04–19857. 

Anyone who would like confirmation of 

mailed comments must include a selfaddressed stamped postcard. 

Privacy Act Statement 

Anyone may search the electronic 

form of all comments received for any 

of our dockets. You may review DOT’s 

complete Privacy Act Statement in the 

Federal Register published on April 11, 

2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 

19477–78) or you may visit http:// 

dms.dot.gov. 

Information on Services for Individuals 

With Disabilities 

For information on facilities or 

services for individuals with 

disabilities, or to request special support 

at the meeting, please contact William 

Fuentevilla at (202) 366–6199 by 

November 21, 2005. 

Background 

Pipeline safety regulations issued in 

1999 require operators to have programs 

to ensure the qualifications of 

individuals performing safety tasks on 

pipelines. The regulations address 

operation and maintenance tasks and 

the ability of individuals to react to 

abnormal operating conditions to 

protect life and property. The Pipeline 

Safety Improvement Act of 2002 

amended the pipeline safety law by 

adding section 49 U.S.C 60131. Section 

60131 provides standards and criteria 

for operator qualification programs, 

directs PHMSA to ensure their inclusion 

in programs, and directs PHMSA to 

report to Congress on the status and 

results of operator qualification 

programs. In a final rule published in 

the Federal Register on March 3, 2005, 

PHMSA changed the operator 

qualification regulations to conform to 

section 60131. Among the changes was 

the required inclusion of training ‘‘as 

appropriate.’’ (70 FR 10332.) 

Because of the differences between 

the performance-based operator 

qualification regulations and the 

standards and criteria in section 60131, 

PHMSA developed protocols and 

‘‘Frequently Asked Questions.’’ PHMSA 

and State inspectors use these when 

auditing operator qualification programs 

to find out the extent of compliance 

with the regulations. PHMSA and State 

inspectors are completing their first 

audits and collecting information on 

those audits for the Report to Congress. 

The report on the status and results of 

the operator qualification programs is 

due December 17, 2006. PHMSA 

discussed a proposed outline for this 

report and the early information about 

Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 208 / Friday, October 28, 2005 / Notices 62163 

the audits at a meeting on operator 

qualifications on December 17, 2004. 

You can read the transcript of that 

meeting in the docket, RSPA–04–19857, 

at http://dms.dot.gov/. While PHMSA 

continues to gather data on compliance 

audits for the report, we believe that we 

should also include in the report 

information about safety improvements 

that go beyond the regulations. 

The pipeline industry and PHMSA 

recognized soon after the protocols were 

developed that a national consensus 

standard could provide greater certainty 

that operator qualification programs are 

high quality. A public meeting in 

Houston in 2003 produced a list of 13 

areas in which there were perceived 

gaps between operator qualification 

programs that conform to the 

regulations and ‘‘ideal’’ programs. The 

pipeline industry approached ASME 

International about developing a 

consensus standard. The result was the 

B31Q Project Team on Qualification of 

Pipeline Operators with members drawn 

from both the regulated pipeline 

community and the regulators. The 

ASME committee voted to approve the 

consensus standard developed and to 

present it for a 60-day public comment 

period. 

PHMSA believes the considerable 

work done to qualify pipeline personnel 

has resulted in improved safety by 

producing a workforce better able to 

perform safety tasks on pipelines. 

PHMSA believes that much of the work 

has exceeded the requirements of the 

current regulations. PHMSA also 

believes the B31Q consensus standard 

offers an opportunity to further 

strengthen operator qualification 

programs. The two purposes of this 

public meeting are to gather information 

about improvements in operator 

qualification programs for the Report to 

Congress and to identify how we can 

best use B31Q to strengthen the 

programs. 

Preliminary Agenda 

The agenda includes discussion of the 

following issues: 

• Why do we have more confidence 

today in the qualifications of pipeline 

personnel? 

• What are the primary contributions 

made during the past four years in 

improving safety through better 

qualification programs for pipeline 

personnel? To what extent have these 

exceeded regulatory compliance? 

• What is the best way to use the 

B31Q standard to improve programs? 

• Are there any elements of the B31Q 

standard that PHMSA should 

incorporate into the regulations? If so, 

which ones would be the best to 

incorporate? 

• Are there any aspects of operator 

qualification that require greater 

flexibility to avoid cost impacts with 

minimal safety benefit? 

• Can operators develop performance 

metrics that could assure equivalent 

safety through a more flexible 

performance-based approach? 

• How do we continue to improve 

operator qualification programs without 

the uncertainty of continual change? 

• Are protocols and ‘‘Frequently 

Asked Questions’’ the best way to 

provide necessary prescription, clarity, 

and consistency to performance 

regulations? 

• When is training appropriate? 

• How does an operator provide 

enough objectivity in evaluating an 

employee’s knowledge and skills? 

• Should the regulations go beyond 

operation and maintenance and include 

additional tasks that affect the safety 

and integrity of the pipeline as covered 

tasks? 

• How do we best foster the 

portability of qualifications? 

• Should emergencies such as Katrina 

trigger exceptions? 

• Would mechanisms for operators to 

share success stories about operator 

qualification benefit overall safety? 

Issued in Washington, DC on October 24, 

2005. 

Stacey L. Gerard, 

Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety. 

[FR Doc. 05–21499 Filed 10–27–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–60–P