Safety Zones; Recurring Events in Captain of the Port Duluth Zone

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2025-0082]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA00</RIN> <SUBJECT>Safety Zones; Recurring Events in Captain of the Port Duluth Zone</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, DHS. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is proposing to revise existing regulations for recurring safety zones in the Captain of the Port Duluth Zone. The proposed amendments would update the table of annually recurring marine events, add definitions, and clarify how and when the COTP may enforce listed zones. These changes are intended to improve the timeliness and clarity of public notification, enhance mariner situational awareness, and promote the safety of life on the navigable waters of the western Great Lakes during recurring near-shore events. We invite your comments on this proposed rulemaking. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments and related material must be received by the Coast Guard on or before October 9, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments identified by docket number USCG-2025-0082 using the Federal Docket 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. This notice of proposed rulemaking with its plain-language, 100-word-or-less proposed rule summary will be available in this same docket. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this proposed rulemaking, call or email LT Zachary Fedak, Marine Safety Unit Duluth, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone 218-522-0708, email <E T="03">Zachary.A.Fedak@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">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, Purpose, and Legal Basis</HD> Each year, communities throughout the western Lake Superior region sponsor marine events that generate predictable concentrations of spectator vessels in confined harbor and near-shore waters. These activities pose recurring hazards, including the accidental discharge of fireworks, falling embers or debris, and congestion of swimmers or boaters. In such conditions, even routine vessel wakes or sudden wind shifts can increase the risk of collisions and injuries. To address these risks, the Coast Guard previously codified annually recurring safety zones for these events in 33 CFR 165.943. Under the current regulation, enforcement of each zone must be individually noticed, which can result in fragmented or delayed information reaching mariners. This fragmentation may lead to confusion when multiple events occur in close proximity or on separate dates. Through this proposed rule, the Coast Guard seeks to revise § 165.943 to improve clarity, consistency, and public communication. Proposed changes include: defining key terms to support uniform enforcement; clarifying procedures for enforcement and early suspension of safety zones; updating the regulation's structure and formatting; and framing the rule to allow flexibility for consolidated Notifications of Enforcement when operationally appropriate. These revisions are intended to enhance the predictability and timeliness of safety communications, thereby improving mariner situational awareness and promoting the safety of life on navigable waters. The Coast Guard is proposing this rulemaking under authority in 46 U.S.C. 70034. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Discussion of Proposed Rule</HD> The Coast Guard is proposing to revise the existing regulatory text and associated table establishing annually recurring safety zones within the Captain of the Port (COTP) Duluth Zone, as listed in 33 CFR 165.943. The proposed changes would update event listings, clarify enforcement procedures, add relevant definitions, and structure the rule in a way that may accommodate a single Notification of Enforcement announcing multiple zones or event dates. These revisions are intended to improve the clarity, consistency, and timeliness of public notification. The geographic locations and general durations of the safety zones remain unchanged. Each safety zone would continue to be enforced only during specific periods, which will be announced in advance through publication of a Notification of Enforcement in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> and via Broadcast Notices to Mariners over VHF-FM marine channel 16. These measures ensure continued protection of persons, vessels, and the navigable waters of the western Great Lakes during recurring safety zone enforcement periods. During periods of enforcement, no vessel or person may enter a designated safety zone without obtaining prior authorization from the COTP Duluth or their designated on-scene representative. The revised regulatory text, which includes updated enforcement procedures, defined terms, exemption and waiver provisions, and provisions for rain dates and early suspension of enforcement, appears at the end of this document. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Regulatory Analyses</HD> We developed this proposed 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. 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 proposed rule would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities for the following reasons. The amendments primarily update event listings, clarify enforcement procedures, and improve public notification without expanding the zones' geographic scope or duration. Vessel traffic can safely transit around these zones, which are short in duration, geographically limited, and often occur during off-peak periods. The Coast Guard will continue issuing Broadcast Notices to Mariners via VHF-FM marine channel 16, and vessels may request permission to enter the zones. If you think that your business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction qualifies as a small entity and that this proposed rule would have a significant economic impact on it, please submit a comment (see <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> ) explaining why you think it qualifies and how and to what degree this rule would economically affect it. 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 proposed rule. If the proposed 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. The Coast Guard will not retaliate against small entities that question or complain about this proposed rule or any policy or action of the Coast Guard. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Collection of Information</HD> This proposed rule would not call for a new collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. 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 proposed 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 proposed rule does not have tribal implications under Executive Order 13175 (Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments) because it would 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 proposed rule has implications for federalism or Indian tribes, please call or email the person listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</HD> The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1531-1538) requires Federal agencies to assess the effects of their discretionary regulatory actions. In particular, the Act addresses actions that may result in the expenditure by a State, local, or tribal government, in the aggregate, or by the private sector of $100,000,000 (adjusted for inflation) or more in any one year. Though this proposed rule would not result in such an expenditure, we do discuss the potential effects of this proposed rule elsewhere in this preamble. <HD SOURCE="HD2">E. Environment</HD> We have analyzed this proposed rule unde ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 22k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━