Safety Zones; Delaware River Dredging, Marcus Hook, PA

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2025-0556]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA00</RIN> <SUBJECT>Safety Zones; Delaware River Dredging, Marcus Hook, PA</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, DHS. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary interim rule and request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing three temporary safety zones on the waters of the Delaware River, in portions of Marcus Hook Range, Anchorage 7, off Marcus Hook, PA, and Anchorage 9, near entrance to Mantua Creek. The safety zones temporarily restrict vessel traffic from transiting or anchoring in portions of the Delaware River while maintenance dredging is being conducted. The safety zones are needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from hazards created by dredging operations. Entry of vessels or persons into these zones is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the COTP or his designated representatives. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective without actual notice from July 9, 2025, through October 31, 2025. For the purposes of enforcement, actual notice will be used from July 1, 2025, until July 9, 2025. <E T="03">Comments due date:</E> Comments and related material must be received by the Coast Guard on or before August 8, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments identified by docket number USCG-2025-0556 using the Federal Document Management System at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> . See the “Public Participation and Request for Comments” portion of the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section for further instructions on submitting comments. 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-2025-0556 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 Petty Officer Dylan Caikowski, Waterways Management Branch, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay; telephone (206) 815-6688, option 3, email <E T="03">SecDelBayWWM@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</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> 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.” 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 to do so given that there is insufficient time to allow for a reasonable comment period and publish a final rule prior to July 1, 2025, the start date for dredging operations. Also, 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> for the same reason provided above. <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 COTP has determined that dredging operations present potential hazards, such as the presence of submerged and floating pipelines, booster pumps, head sections, and vessels with a restricted ability to maneuver. The purpose of this rulemaking is to ensure the safety of personnel, vessels, and the marine environment within a 250-yard radius of dredging operations and all associated pipeline and equipment and to ensure safe anchorage availability for larger vessels which are not able to anchor in areas being dredged. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of the Rule</HD> This rule establishes three safety zones from July 1, 2025, through October 31, 2025. Two safety zones are being established to facilitate maintenance dredging of the Delaware River in the vicinity of Marcus Hook Range, and Anchorage 7, off Marcus Hook, as described in 33 CFR 110.157(a)(8). The third safety zone is being established in Anchorage 9, near entrance to Mantua Creek, as described in 33 CFR 110.157(a)(10), to ensure safe anchorage availability for larger vessels that cannot anchor in Anchorage 7 because of the dredging. Dredging will most likely be conducted with the dredge LEXINGTON, though other dredges may be used, along with associated dredge pipeline and boosters. The pipeline consists of a combination of floating hoses immediately behind the dredge and submerged pipeline leading to upland disposal areas. Due to the hazards related to dredging operations, the associated pipeline and the location of submerged pipeline, safety zones are being established in the following areas: (1) Safety Zone One includes all navigable waters within 250 yards of the dredge, and all related dredge equipment when the dredge is operating in Marcus Hook Range, and Anchorage 7. The dredge will be displaying lights and shapes for vessels restricted in ability to maneuver, as described in our Inland Navigation Rules at 33 CFR 83.27. This safety zone is being established for the duration of the maintenance project. Vessels requesting to transit the safety zone must contact the dredge on VHF channel 13 or 16 at least 1 hour prior to arrival to arrange safe passage. At least one side of the main navigational channel will be kept clear for safe passage of vessels in the vicinity of the safety zone. At no time will the entire main navigational channel be closed to vessel traffic. Vessels should avoid meeting in these areas where one side of the main navigational channel is open and proceed per this rule and the Rules of the Road (33 CFR chapter I, subchapter E). (2) Safety Zone Two includes all the waters of Anchorage 7 off Marcus Hook Range, as described in 33 CFR 110.157(a)(8). Vessels wishing to anchor in Anchorage 7 off Marcus Hook Range while this rule is in effect must obtain permission from the COTP at least 24 hours in advance by calling (215) 271-4807. Vessels requesting permission to anchor within Anchorage 7 off Marcus Hook must be at least 650 feet in overall length. The COTP will permit, at maximum, two vessels to anchor at a time, on a “first-come, first-served” basis. Vessels will only be allowed to anchor for a 12-hour period. Vessels that require an examination by the Public Health Service, Customs, or Immigration authorities will be directed to an anchorage by the COTP for the required inspection. Vessels under 650 feet in overall length may request to anchor in Anchorage 7, off Marcus Hook Range by contacting the COTP via phone at (215) 271-4807 and may be approved on a case-by-case basis. Vessels are encouraged to use Anchorage 9 near the entrance to Mantua Creek, Anchorage 12 between Gloucester and Camden, Philadelphia, and Anchorage 6 off Deepwater Point Range as alternative anchorages. (3) Safety Zone Three includes all the waters of Anchorage 9, near entrance to Mantua Creek, as described in 33 CFR 110.157(a)(10). Vessels must be at least 500 feet in overall length to anchor in Anchorage 9, near entrance to Mantua Creek. Vessels under 500 feet in overall length may request to anchor in Anchorage 9, near entrance to Mantua Creek by contacting the COTP via phone at (215) 271-4807 and may be approved on a case-by-case basis. Vessels must be at least 650 feet in overall length to use Anchorage 7 and 500 feet in overall length to use Anchorage 9 while this rule is in effect. We are instituting this restriction because vessels of this size are limited in their ability to utilize other anchorages due to draft and Anchorage 9 needs to be utilized as overflow for vessels between 500 feet and 700 feet in overall length. Smaller vessels maintain a host of other options to include, but not limited to, Anchorage 6 and 12, as recommended above. Entry into, transiting, or anchoring within safety zone one is prohibited unless vessels obtain permission from the COTP or make satisfactory passing arrangements with the operating dredge per this rule and the Rules of the Road (33 CFR chapter I, subchapter E). The COTP may issue updates regarding the vessel and equipment being utilized for these dredging operations via Marine Safety Information Bulletin, Broadcast Notice to Mariners and Local Notice to Mariners. <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 (Regulatory Planning and Review) and 13563 (Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review) 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. Executive Order 13563 emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and benefits, of reducing costs, of harmonizing rules, and of promoting flexibility. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has not designated th ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 23k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━