For the first time in 14 years, federal officials have updated the nation’s list of roadways where states restrict the transport of hazardous materials, reports pressconnects.com.
But rather than close a long-standing regulatory gap affecting hazardous materials shipments outside New York City, the new rules only serve to reinforce it.
And in a peculiar regulatory twist, the New York City Fire Department is designated in the new 71-page Hazardous Materials Route Registry as the the only agency with authority to decide where hazmat can be shipped in New York State.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s newly-revised registry, released on Monday and like the previous version, includes no listings in New York’s 57 counties outside of New York City — giving haulers free rein to carry hazmat through neighborhoods, around lakes and across rivers and streams. A hazmat trucker can choose to drive on any road in the state that’s open to truckers outside of New York City.
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