Security Zone; Monongahela River Mile Markers 0-43.5, Allegheny River Mile Markers 0-14.5, and Ohio River Mile Markers 0-28.5 and 89-93, Pittsburgh, PA

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2024-0868]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA87</RIN> <SUBJECT>Security Zone; Monongahela River Mile Markers 0-43.5, Allegheny River Mile Markers 0-14.5, and Ohio River Mile Markers 0-28.5 and 89-93, Pittsburgh, PA</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, DHS. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing four security zones for certain navigable waters on the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers to prevent waterside threats for persons under the protection of the United States Secret Service (USSS). These security zones will be enforced intermittently and when persons under USSS protection are in the area. This rule prohibits vessels and people from entering or remaining in the zones unless specifically exempt under the provisions of this rule or granted specific permission from the Captain of the Port Pittsburgh. The regulation will enhance the safety and security of persons and property, while minimizing, to the extent possible, the impact on commerce and legitimate waterway use. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective without actual notice from September 27, 2024 through November 30, 2024. For the purpose of enforcement, actual notice will be used from September 23, 2024, until September 27, 2024. This rule will be enforced when persons under USSS protection are in the vicinity of one of the security zone areas. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To view documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> , type USCG-2024-0868 in the search box and click “Search.” Next, in the Document Type column, select “Supporting & Related Material.” <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions on this rule, call or email Marine Science Technician First Class Brett Lanzel, Marine Safety Unit Pittsburgh, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone 206-815-6624, email <E T="03">brett.j.lanzel@uscg.mil</E> . </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">COTP Captain of the Port Pittsburgh</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background Information and Regulatory History</HD> On seven separate occasions since February 2024, the COTP has established temporary security zones encompassing certain U.S. navigable waters on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio River. These security zones were established and enforced at the request of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) to support security measures required during visits by high-ranking United States government officials. There is a high likelihood that between September 23, 2024, and November 30, 2024, there will be several visits to the Pittsburgh, PA area by persons under USSS protection. Most of these visits will occur with less than two weeks' notice. Therefore, the Coast Guard is establishing these security zones to notify the public that when these visits occur, the Coast Guard may enforce one or more security zones to ensure the safety of the protected persons, vessels, bridges, and the public while the protected persons transit bridges or are at waterfront facilities. The security zones will be enforced only when protected persons are in the area. The Coast Guard will provide local notice for each instance the security zones will be enforced. The Coast Guard is issuing this temporary rule under the authority in 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). This statutory provision authorizes an agency to issue a rule without prior notice and opportunity to comment when the agency for good cause finds that those procedures are “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” Under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for not publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) with respect to this rule because it is impracticable and contrary to the public interest to delay the effective date of this rule due to the short time period between event planners notifying the Coast Guard and the effective date needed for the security zones. It is impracticable because this security zone must be established by September 23, 2024, to provide for the security of life on the navigable waters during anticipated dignitary visits, and we lack sufficient time to provide a reasonable comment period and then consider those comments before issuing this rule. And publishing an NPRM is contrary to the public interest because waiting for the NPRM process would delay the establishment of the security zone until after the date of anticipated dignitary visits. Additionally, under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for making this rule effective less than 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . As previously mentioned above, delaying the effective date of this rule would be impracticable and contrary to the public interest because action is needed by September 23, 2024, to ensure the security of the of life on the navigable waters during a dignitary visit. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Legal Authority and Need for Rule</HD> The Coast Guard is issuing this rule under authority in 46 U.S.C. 70051 and 70124. The Captain of the Port Pittsburgh (COTP) has determined that four security zone are needed to protect various visiting dignitaries, persons, and property during multiple anticipated visits between September 23, 2024, until November 30, 2024. This rule is necessary to provide waterside security and protection when persons under USSS protection are in these areas. These security zones will protect both the persons under USSS protection, vessels and certain shoreside facilities, and the public from potential hazards and threats. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of the Rule</HD> This rule establishes four security zones that will be enforced at one (1) mile segments for up to six (6) hours each during various dignitary bridge crossings or waterside events from September 23, 2024, through November 30, 2024. The Coast Guard will provide local notice for each instance of enforcement. This rule is necessary to expedite the establishment and enforcement of these security zones when short notice is provided to the COTP for USSS protectees who may be present in the area. Security Zone One will cover all navigable waters on the Monongahela River Mile Markers 0-43.5. Security Zone Two will cover all navigable waters on the Allegheny River Mile Markers 0-14.5. Security Zone Three will cover all navigable waters on the Ohio River Mile Markers 0-28.5. Security Zone Four will cover all navigable waters on the Ohio River Mile Marker 89-93. The duration of each instance of enforcement of the security zone is intended to protect a visiting dignitary and the other persons and property in the zone. These security zones may be activated individually or simultaneously with respect to the presence of USSS protectees. No vessel or person is permitted to enter or remain in the security zone without obtaining permission from the COTP or a designated representative of the COTP. A designated representative is a commissioned, warrant, or petty officer of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) assigned to units under the operational control of the COTP. To seek permission to enter, contact the COTP or a designated representative via VHF-FM channel 16, or through Marine Safety Unit Pittsburgh at 206-815-6624. Persons and vessels permitted to enter the security zone must comply with all lawful orders or directions issued by the COTP or designated representative. The COTP or a designated representative will inform the public of the effective period for the security zone as well as any changes in the dates and times of enforcement through Local Notice to Mariners (LNMs), Broadcast Notices to Mariners (BNMs), and/or Marine Safety Information Bulletins (MSIBs), as appropriate. <HD SOURCE="HD1">V. Regulatory Analyses</HD> We developed this rule after considering numerous statutes and Executive orders related to rulemaking. Below we summarize our analyses based on a number of these statutes and Executive orders, and we discuss First Amendment rights of protestors. <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Regulatory Planning and Review</HD> Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 direct agencies to assess the costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits. This rule has not been designated a “significant regulatory action,” under Executive Order 12866, as amended by Executive Order 14094 (Modernizing Regulatory Review). Accordingly, this rule has not been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This regulatory action determination is based on size, location, and duration of the temporary security zones. These security zones will impact one (1) mile stretches for up to six (6) hours at a time on the Monongahela River, Allegheny River and the Ohio River starting September 23, 2024, and ending November 30, 2024. Moreover, the Coast Guard will issue a Broadcast Notice to Mariners via VHF-FM marine channel 16 about the enforcement of these zones and this rule allows vessels to seek permission from the COTP to transit the zone. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Impact on Small Entities</HD> The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, 5 U.S.C. 601-612, as amended, requires Federal agencies to co ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 18k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━