The United States Congress in 1975 established its interest in the safe routing of hazardous materials by passing the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act. This act dealt with the packaging, labeling, handling, and transporting of hazardous materials for all transportation modes and established the basis for Federal involvement in the routing of hazardous materials. Subsequent actions by the Department of Transportation (DOT) resulted in the development of regulations and guidelines for the safe routing of high levels of radioactive materials. The DOT then turned its attention to the safe routing of nonradioactive materials. While the DOT was advancing its proposed rule, Congress Congress developed and passed the Hazardous Materials Transportation Uniform Safety Act of 1990 (HMTUSA). This act was fairly extensive and specific about the future role of the Federal government in the routing of nonradioactive hazardous materials. It identified specific standards and factors that States would be responsible for if they established, administered, or enforced highway routing of nonradioactive materials. The development of these statutory requirements into a regulation and the anticipated effect of this regulation are discussed in this paper. (A)
Abstract