House Holds First Hearing on New Chemical Facility Security Regulations

On July 24, 2007 the House Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection held their first hearings on Chemical Facility Security since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the final interim regulations on Chemical Facility Anti-terrorism Standards (CFATS, 6 CFR part 27) in April. Robert B. Stephan, Assistant Secretary, Infrastructure Protection, testified about the current state of efforts DHS is taking to protect chemical facilities from terrorist attack.

Stephan updated the Subcommittee on previous voluntary efforts completed by some members of the chemical industry to update their security after the attacks of 9-11-2001. These include the American Chemistry Council's Responsible Care Security Code and Cyber Security Program as well as efforts by the National Association of Chemical Distributors, American Petroleum Institute, the Chlorine Institute, the Agribusiness Security Working Group, and the National Paint and Coatings Association.

He also described a wide variety of efforts that DHS is taking in coordination with other groups. Under the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) the chemical industry has partnered with DHS and other government agencies to form a Chemical Sector Coordinating Council (CSCC). As part of the Chemical Sector Specific Plan, teams will have conducted Comprehensive Reviews of security issues in Detroit, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Northern New Jersey and the Lower Delaware River areas by August of this year. Additionally, 394 chemical plants have been made eligible for grants under the Buffer Zone Protection Program. In June the first Chemical Security Summit was held with 350 industry attendees being briefed on DHS and CSCC plans and actions to date.

DHS is also working on training programs for the chemical sector. The Chemical Security Awareness Training Program, an on-line training tool for all chemical facility employees, will come on line this fall. A Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device Training Program is under development for security officers who will be responsible for checking vehicles for explosive devices.

Next Secretary Stephan updated the Subcommittee on actions that DHS has taken to date under the new CFATS regulation. On June 8th the Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT) went live for the first time and on June 11th DHS sent out notification letters to 50 known high-risk facilities that they were required to complete an initial Top Screen filing. These 50 facilities were aided by DHS inspectors so that a live trouble shoot of the system was effectively conducted.

In coordination with the Chemical SSP and the Oil and Gas SSP, additional facilities were identified for directed Top Screen Completion. To date (July 13th, 2007) 6,096 facilities have registered in the CSAT and are in some phase of Top Screen completion. These first two groups of facility registrations will serve as a learning program for DHS and the industry and provide a chance to work out the inevitable bugs in the system. Security Vulnerability Assessments (SVA) and Site Security Plans (SSP) should be in place for most of these facilities by year end.

The next phase of facility registrations will begin when the final version of Appendix A, DHS Chemicals of Interest, is published. Then, any facility that has (or plans to have) a chemical listed in the appendix at more than the published Screening Threshold Quantity (STQ) will be required to complete a Top Screen in the CSAT system.

Assistant Secretary Robert B. Stephan's testimony provides valuable insight into the way the CSAT system is operating. The way that the system is operating at individual facility levelsw will be protected information under the Chemical Vulnerability Information (CVI) rules. This type of aggregated information will be all that the general public will ever see. It would be helpful if this subcommittee and their Senate counterparts were to hold periodic review type hearings to allow the public to keep up to date on the progress that is being made in this important area of community security.