Residue of Class 8 (corrosive) materials

This responds to your June 21, 1995 letter concerning trailers containing a residue of Class 8 (corrosive) materials. Your questions have been paraphrased and answered as follows:

Q. Is a truck trailer considered a packing for purposes of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR parts 171-~80)?

A. Whether a truck trailer is considered a packing depends on the circumstances. As the term is used in the HMR, a packaging is considered the receptacle and any and any other components or materials necessary to perform its contain function in conformance with the minimum packaging requirements of the HMR. (See § 171.8.) A truck trailer would be considered the packaging if loose material were loaded into it. In instances involving the shipment of hazardous materials in non-bulk packagings, a truck trailer would be considered only a transport vehicle, and not a packaging.

Q. What obligation does the owner of a truck have to clean it after transporting hazardous materials?

A. Section 177.858 requires a vehicle to be washed in the event of any accident involving breakage, spillage, or leakage involving containers of Class 8 (corrosive) materials. The interior: or any other parts of a motor vehicle upon which a Class l material may have become spilled must be thoroughly washed with water as soon after the unloading process as feasible and prior, in any event, to the subsequent reloading of the motor vehicle.

For most purposes, the same requirements in the HMR apply to the transportation of both a commercial (or usable) quantity of a hazardous material and a residue of that same material. Accordingly, a person who is subject to the HMR (or to a State requirement that incorporates and makes the provisions in the HMR applicable to transportation not governed by the HMR), may not transport (or offer for transportation) a residue of a hazardous material unless the requirements in the HMR are met.

Q. Would the owner or operator of a transport vehicle be in compliance with the law if he/she could demonstrate that they did not have knowledge that a residue is present?

A. The HMR requirements include those covering the proper packaging, marking, labeling, placarding, and shipping papers. Section 173.29(b) (subject to certain additional conditions), makes other provisions in the HMR inapplicable to an empty packaging which has been a sufficiently cleaned of residue and purged of vapors to remove any potential hazard. However, this provision would not excuse compliance with the HMR's other requirements when a hazardous material residue remains in an empty trailer and still presents a potential hazard.

Under the Federal hazardous materials transportation law, the Department of Transportation may assess civil penalties only when a person knowingly violates that law or a regulation issued there under. (49 CFR 5123 (a) (1". As stated there, a person acts knowingly when he or she has actual knowledge of the facts giving rise to the violation, a or would have that knowledge if acting reasonably Din the circumstances and exercising reasonable care. In other words, a civil penalty may be assessed against any person subject to the HMR who transports or offers for transportation a hazardous material (including a residue), in a manner that fails to comply with the HMR, unless that person did not know and had no reason to know that the hazardous material was present.