Federal Register, Volume 76, Number 149, August 3, 2011, Pages 46595-47054 Page: 46,943
viii, 47054, iii p. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Federal Register/Vol. 76, No. 149/Wednesday, August 3, 2011 /Proposed Rules
with applying for and receiving an AN
Registered User Number. Additionally,
DHS included approximately $1.9
million for farmers who attempt to make
a purchase without knowing about the
regulation and must then make one
extra trip. These calculations are
detailed in Tables 11 and 12 in Section
7 of the full evaluation. Because of the
minimal time and effort it takes to apply
for and receive an AN Registered User
Number, the Department believes this
approach to be a cost-effective way to
prevent misappropriation of ammonium
nitrate.
The Department considered using the
U.S. Mail as the primary medium for
communication; however, the
Department ultimately rejected this
approach due to the additional time it
would take to notify applicants of their
AN Registered User Number. The
Department also cited the significant
availability of the Internet. Therefore,
the Department is proposing to use
electronic means as the primary
medium for communication.
Additionally, the Department believes
that electronic communication is more
secure and faster than U.S. Mail.
d. Reporting Theft or Loss
The Department considered two
alternatives pursuant to Subtitle J,
which requires an AN Facility
Representative who has knowledge of
theft or unexplained loss of ammonium
nitrate to report such theft or loss to
Federal law enforcement authorities
within 24 hours of the time at which
knowledge of theft or loss is acquired.
The Department considered requiring an
AN Facility Representative to report to
either the Department or ATF. The
Department proposes to require
reporting of theft/loss to ATF.
Under either option, there is a burden
to the industry. The cost to industry of
this activity will be the time to gather
details and report the theft or loss of
AN. Because of the seriousness of theft
or loss of AN, the total time to report a
theft or loss is assumed to include two
hours each for an inventory manager
and sales person, plus one hour for the
general manager. This includes the time
for the reporter to organize useful
details for law enforcement and conduct
a brief investigation. There will likely be
additional time for a necessary follow-
up investigation. Strictly for purposes of
this analysis, the Department assumes
that two percent of AN Facilities and
AN Purchasers will report loss or theft
once per year. Based on these
assumptions, there will be 88 reports of
theft or loss annually, at a total annualcost to industry of $13,350.
1. ATF Reporting
One of the many responsibilities of
ATF is regulating the use of explosives.
Because pure ammonium nitrate does
not fall within the scope of the statutory
definition of "explosives" set forth at 18
U.S.C. 841(d), it is not subject to ATF's
controls on importation, manufacture,
distribution or storage; however,
ammonium nitrate explosive mixtures
and ANFO are included in ATF's List of
Explosive Materials. ATF has an
existing program for reporting the theft
or loss of explosives. Individuals that
discover the theft or unexplained loss of
ammonium nitrate would contact ATF
by phone and facsimile and provide the
pertinent information. The costs to the
industry for reporting to ATF the theft
or unexplained loss of ammonium
nitrate would be minimal. The costs to
the Department would be minimal as
well, unless DHS funded ATF efforts.
2. DHS Reporting
Similar to ATF's method for reporting
theft or loss of explosives, individuals
upon discovering the theft or
unexplained loss of ammonium nitrate
would contact DHS. The costs to the
industry for reporting the theft or
unexplained loss of ammonium nitrate
to DHS would be minimal. The costs to
the Department would be greater than
when compared to the ATF reporting
requirement. DHS would be required to
create and establish the theft/loss
reporting policies, procedures, and
infrastructure.
The Department is proposing to
require reporting of theft/loss to ATF.
See section III.E of this preamble. ATF
already possesses the unique experience
in collecting and responding to the
theft/loss of explosive related materials.
Additionally, DHS wishes to avoid
duplicative efforts at the Federal level.
e. Recordkeeping
The Department considered two
options to maintain records: (1)
Mandatory use of a central electronic
database, and (2) the flexibility to
maintain records in paper format or in
electronic format. The Department
proposes allowing AN Facilities to
select the method of records storage for
themselves. See section III.F of this
preamble.
The Department selected this
alternative because the burden to submit
and maintain electronic records in a
central database would increase the
burden on the industry without
measurable benefit to the industry. The
benefit would be limited to the
confidence an AN Facility would have,that if it maintained its records in a
central database, it would meet
Department recordkeeping
requirements.
The costs to industry associated with
this alternative are the costs of the time
spent during each transaction collecting
and recording the information required
under the regulations, the costs of the
time spent on ongoing recordkeeping
activities throughout the year, and any
capital investment costs an AN Facility
incurs in acquiring equipment to
facilitate the safe storage of the AN
transaction records.
f. Agents
The Department considered three
options to minimize the likelihood that
agents are used to circumvent the
intentions of Subtitle J. Specifically, the
Department believes it is imperative for
AN Sellers to ensure that an agent is
acting at the direction of a registered AN
Purchaser before the AN Seller transfers
possession of ammonium nitrate to that
agent. To accomplish this, the
Department is considering the following
alternatives:
1. Requiring AN Purchasers to submit
the names of their agents to DHS via the
AN User Registration Portal, and
requiring the AN Seller to confirm with
DHS, prior to transferring possession of
the ammonium nitrate, that the
prospective AN Purchaser has
submitted the name of the agent to DHS;
2. Requiring the AN Seller to orally
confirm with the prospective AN
Purchaser prior to each sale that the
agent is acting on behalf of the AN
Purchaser;
3. A combination of the first two
options, whereby an AN Seller first
should check with DHS to see if the
prospective AN Purchaser has
submitted the name of the agent to DHS
and, if not, then the AN Seller must
orally confirm with the prospective AN
Purchaser that the agent is acting on his/
her behalf. DHS is proposing this third
approach.
Under the first approach, each AN
Purchaser would be required to provide
to DHS the names of any agents that
might act on his/her behalf at the point
of sale. The AN purchaser would submit
names of agents to DHS via the AN User
Registration Portal. An AN Purchaser
could submit an agent's name when he/
she applies for an AN Registered User
Number or at any other time prior to
conducting a purchase involving that
agent. Then, prior to transferring
possession of ammonium nitrate to an
agent, an AN Seller would need to
verify with the Department that the
prospective AN Purchaser has
designated the agent as an approvedagent to represent the AN Purchaser at
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United States. Office of the Federal Register. Federal Register, Volume 76, Number 149, August 3, 2011, Pages 46595-47054, periodical, August 3, 2011; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52326/m1/356/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.