Safety Zone; Matagorda Ship Channel, Port Lavaca, TX

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2025-0328]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA00</RIN> <SUBJECT>Safety Zone; Matagorda Ship Channel, Port Lavaca, TX</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 a temporary safety zone for certain navigable waters of the Matagorda Ship Channel. The safety zone is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards created by the repair of submerged dredge pipeline in the Matagorda Ship Channel. Entry of vessels or persons into this zone is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port, Sector Corpus Christi, or a designated representative. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> For the purposes of enforcement, actual notice will be used from April 14, 2025, until April 23, 2025. This rule is effective without actual notice from April 23, 2025, through June 06, 2025. It will be subject to enforcement each day it is in effect, between the hours of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. </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-2025-0328 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 about this rule, call or email Lieutenant Timothy Cardenas, Sector Corpus Christi Waterways Management Division, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone 361-939-5130, email <E T="03">Timothy.J.Cardenas@uscg.mil.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations</HD> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">COTP Captain of the Port, Sector Corpus Christi</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background Information and Regulatory History</HD> The Coast Guard is issuing this temporary rule without prior notice and opportunity to comment pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b). This 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. This rule is intended to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards associated with repair of a pipeline, including the deployment of heavy equipment which will obstruct vessel traffic, continuous diving operations, and various other activities which create underwater hazards for workers and the public. The Coast Guard was notified of this repair work April 7, 2025, and thus, there is insufficient time to publish an NPRM because the safety zone must be established by April 14, 2025. In addition, the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3) for making this rule effective less than 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . Delaying the effective date of this safety zone is impracticable because it must be in effect by April 14, 2025, when pipeline repair operations begin, to respond to potential safety hazards. <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. 70034. The Captain of the Port, Sector Corpus Christi (COTP) has determined that hazards inherent in underwater pipeline repair activities necessitate provisions to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment while those activities are taking place. The activities giving rise to these hazards include the deployment of heavy equipment which will obstruct vessel traffic, continuous diving operations, and various other activities which create underwater hazards for workers and the public. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of the Rule</HD> This rule establishes a safety zone from April 14, 2025, through June 6, 2025. The rule is subject to enforcement from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. each day it is in effect. The safety zone will cover all navigable waters near pipeline repair operations, inside the area encompassed by a line connecting the following points: beginning at Point 1: 28°34′58.78″ N, 96°33′08.69″ W; thence to Point 2: 28°35′00.96″ N, 96°32′49.79″ W; thence to Point 3: 28°35′08.91″ N, 96°33′04.94″ W; thence to Point 4: 28°35′09.87″ N, 96°32′50.23″ W; thence returning to Point 1. No vessel or person will be permitted to enter the temporary safety zone during the period in which the rule is subject to enforcement without obtaining permission from the COTP or a designated representative, who may be contacted on Channel 16 VHF-FM (156.8 MHz) or by telephone at 1-800-874-2143. The Coast Guard will issue Broadcast Notices to Mariners and Safety Marine Information Broadcasts to inform the public of these restrictions. <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. <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. Accordingly, this rule has not been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This regulatory action determination is based on the size, location, and duration of the safety zone. The safety zone covers less than 1 square mile area of the Matagorda Ship Channel in Texas and will be enforced during overnight hours when there is less traffic. The temporary safety zone will be subject to enforcement for a period of 12 consecutive hours each day of the period, from April 14, 2025, to June 6, 2025. Vessels may be allowed to transit through the zone during the enforcement period with the prior approval of the COTP. <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 consider the potential impact of regulations on small entities during rulemaking. The term “small entities” comprises small businesses, not-for-profit organizations that are independently owned and operated and are not dominant in their fields, and governmental jurisdictions with populations of less than 50,000. The Coast Guard certifies under 5 U.S.C. 605(b) that this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. While some owners or operators of vessels intending to transit the safety zone may be small entities, for the reasons stated in section V.A above, this rule will not have a significant economic impact on any vessel owner or operator. Under section 213(a) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-121), we want to assist small entities in understanding this rule. If the rule would affect your small business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction and you have questions concerning its provisions or options for compliance, please call or email the person listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. Small businesses may send comments on the actions of Federal employees who enforce, or otherwise determine compliance with, Federal regulations to the Small Business and Agriculture Regulatory Enforcement Ombudsman and the Regional Small Business Regulatory Fairness Boards. The Ombudsman evaluates these actions annually and rates each agency's responsiveness to small business. If you wish to comment on actions by employees of the Coast Guard, call 1-888-REG-FAIR (1-888-734-3247). The Coast Guard will not retaliate against small entities that question or complain about this rule or any policy or action of the Coast Guard. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Collection of Information</HD> This rule will not call for a new collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Federalism and Indian Tribal Governments</HD> A rule has implications for federalism under Executive Order 13132, Federalism, if it has a substantial, direct effect on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government. We have analyzed this rule under that Order and have determined that it is consistent with the fundamental federalism principles and preemption requirements described in Executive Order 13132. Also, this rule does not have tribal implications under Executive Order 13175, Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments, because it does not have a substantial direct effect on one or more Indian tribes, on the relationship between the Federal Government and Indian tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between the Federal Government and Indian tribes. If you believe this rule has implications for federalism or Indian tribes, please contact the person listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CO ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 14k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━