Special Local Regulation; Galveston Channel, Galveston, TX

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 100</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2025-0586]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA08</RIN> <SUBJECT>Special Local Regulation; Galveston Channel, Galveston, TX</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, DHS. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing a special local regulation for the safety of life on certain waters of the Galveston Channel in Galveston County, TX. These regulations will be enforced during a boat parade which will be held annually, on the third Saturday in September. This proposed rulemaking prohibits entry of non-participants into the regulated area unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port, Sector Houston-Galveston (COTP) or designated representative. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective September 16, 2025. </DATES> <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-2025-0586 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 proposed rulemaking, call or email Lieutenant Ignacio J. Fernández-Cuervo, Marine Safety Unit Texas City, Waterways Management Division, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone (281) 309-1617, email <E T="03">MSUTexasCityWaterways@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, Houston-Galveston</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">PATCOM Patrol Commander</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">SLR Special Local Regulation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background Information and Regulatory History</HD> Coast Guard regulations define “regatta or marine parade” as an organized water event of limited duration which is conducted according to a prearranged schedule. 33 CFR 100.05(a). And, as explained in 33 CFR 100.15, the Coast Guard requires that an organization planning to hold a regatta or marine event apply for a permit if the event, by its nature, circumstances, or location, will introduce extra or unusual hazards to the safety of life on the navigable waters of the United States. Upon the approval of an application, under 33 CFR 100.35(a), the COTP may promulgate such “Special Local Regulations” (SLR's) as he or she deems necessary to ensure safety of life on the navigable waters immediately prior to, during, and immediately after the event. The Texian Navy submitted a marine event permit application in 2024 for a boat parade, and the event was permitted by the Coast Guard with a temporary SLR created for the event, which expired after the 2024 event completion. The Texian Navy submitted a new marine event permit application again in 2025 and expressed intent to submit applications annually to hold the event on the same day each year (the third Saturday in September). In response, on August 8, 2025, the Coast Guard published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) titled Special Local Regulation; Galveston Channel, Galveston, TX (90 FR 38423). There we stated why we issued the NPRM and invited comments on our proposed regulatory action related to this boat parade. During the comment period that ended August 18, 2025, we received no comments. 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> . Delaying the effective date of this rule would be contrary to the public interest because prompt action is needed to respond to the potential safety hazards associated with the 2025 boat parade scheduled for September 20, 2025. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Legal Authority and Need for Rule</HD> The Coast Guard is issuing this rule under the authority in 46 U.S.C. 70041. The Captain of the Port Sector Houston-Galveston (COTP) has determined that potential hazards associated with the boat parade will be a safety concern for anyone within a 200-yard radius of the parade in the Galveston Channel. This rule is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment in the navigable waters within the regulated areas while the parade is ongoing. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of Comments, Changes, and the Rule</HD> As noted above, we received no comments on our NPRM published August 8, 2025. There are no changes in the regulatory text of this rule from the proposed rule in the NPRM. This rule modifies 33 CFR 100.801 by listing a new recurring marine event in Table 3 of § 100.801, which covers the Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston COTP Zone. The regulated area created by this rule would encompass three zones to include a Pre-Staging Zone, Spectator Zone, and Parade Transit Zone as described below: <E T="03">Pre-Staging Zone:</E> This area is the pre-staging area for participating vessels to line up. It will include all waters within a 200-yard radius of 29°20′23″ N, 094°46′37″ W. <E T="03">Spectator Zone:</E> All vessels that will be viewing the event will be required to stay within a designated area. The sponsor is responsible for marking the spectator zone with four buoys on the outer corners and ensuring that all vessels within the area are anchored and remain in the area during parade transit. The following coordinates are the approximate location of the Spectator Zone: 29°19′17″ N, 094°46′36″ W, thence to 29°19′37″ N, 094°46′53″ W, and both points connecting to the eastern shore. <E T="03">Parade Transit Zone:</E> This area is exclusive to vessels participating in the parade. It will include all waters within the following areas: 29°19′07.02″ N, 094°47′10.98″ W, thence to 29°18′55.43″ N, 094°47′04.23″ W, thence to 29°20′29.45″ N, 094°46′14.18″ W, thence to 29°20′32.68″ N, 094°46′29.94″ W, and along the shore line back to the beginning point. A person or vessel not registered with the event sponsor as a participant or assigned as official patrols would be considered a spectator. A spectator vessel must not loiter within the navigable channel while within the regulated area. Official patrol vessels would direct spectators to the designated spectator zone. Official Patrols are any vessel assigned or approved by the Commander, Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston with a commissioned, warrant, or petty officer onboard and displaying a Coast Guard ensign. Official Patrols enforcing this regulated area can be contacted on VHF-FM channel 12. All non-participants will be prohibited from entering the established pre-staging and parade transit zones without obtaining permission from the on-water Safety Officer or designated representative. To seek permission to enter, contact the COTP or the COTP's representative by VHF Radio Channel 12. Those in the regulated area must comply with all lawful orders or directions given to them by the COTP or the designated representative. The term “designated representative” means Coast Guard Patrol Commanders, including Coast Guard coxswains, petty officers, and other officers operating Coast Guard vessels, and Federal, state, and local officers designated by or assisting the Captain of the Port Houston-Galveston in the enforcement of the regulated areas. <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. 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 received no comments from the Small Business Administration on this rulemaking. 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 for the following reasons. The zone will be for only one day each year. Vessel traffic will be able to safely transit around the regulated areas which would impact a small, designated area of the Galveston Channel for less than five hours. The Coast Guard will issue a Broadcast Notice to Mariners via VHF-FM marine channel 16 about the zone, and the rule will allow vessels to seek permission to enter the regulated areas. 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 will 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 action ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 16k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━