Members of a key congressional panel have called for a long-term extension of the U.S. Homeland Security Department effort that sets regulations for facilities that manufacture, use, store or distribute substances that could be used to produce chemical warfare materials.
While lawmakers lauded the program, they expressed frustration with aspects of the effort that have yet to be completed, including Homeland Security’s failure to formally approve a single site security plan. The antiterrorism standards had been set to expire at the end of fiscal 2010 but were temporarily extended under the continuing budget resolution due to end on March 4. Should the standards expire, the department would lose its authority to regulate chemical industry security.
The full House last year passed legislation that would have given the effort permanent status and expanded it to cover drinking water and wastewater plants, and facilities located at the nation’s ports; however, the legislation stalled in the Senate. The antiterrorism standards are intended to identify and impose federal security regulations on high-risk sites where dangerous chemicals are made, used or stored. The program boasts 109 chemical inspectors in the field and at DHS headquarters. The program requires covered chemical facilities to prepare “Security Vulnerability Assessments” to identify protection weaknesses and implement “Site Security Plans” that address their level of risk, according to a DHS fact sheet.
Facilities are placed in one of four (4) security tiers based on the level of risk posed by the chemicals in their possession.
The program covers 4,755 high-risk facilities nationwide.
Of those, 4,094 have received final risk determinations and deadlines for submission of their security plans, Rand Beers, undersecretary of the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate, told the subcommittee.
Today there are
- 218 facilities in the top tier that encompasses the sites deemed to pose the greatest danger;
- 535 in the second tier;
- 1,126 in the third tier; and
- 2,215 in the fourth tier.
The department also has about 650 sites awaiting final tier designation, he added. Beer said 1,246 facilities have completely removed their chemicals of interest, while an additional 584 sites no longer possess the quantities that meet the threshold requirements to be considered as high-risk. Meanwhile, the program has wrapped up only four authorization inspections at sites that have brought themselves in line with the effort and no facility security plans have been formally approved or disapproved. Progress has been slow because the department began with a list of 47,000 potential facilities that might fall within the program’s purview. That number was then reduced to roughly 8,000 sites and then whittled down to the present figure.