US chlorine thefts isolated and not a pattern

24 April 2007 20:24  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Thefts of chlorine in California appear to be isolated and there is no widespread pattern of chlorine diversion, industry officials said on Tuesday, noting, however, that they have issued a security alert to producers and commercial users.

 

Arthur Dungan, president of the Chlorine Institute, said that the 20 February theft of one 150-pound chlorine cylinder and the 15 April theft of two cylinders from the same California water treatment facility appear to be the only such incidents, according to the institute’s records.

 

“I’ve looked back through our files and can find no other reports of chlorine thefts,” Dungan said.  “We can’t guarantee that there were no other thefts, but there are none that we are aware of,” he said.

 

He said institute guidelines for its member companies - which Dungan said represent 99% of US chlorine producers and commercial users - recommend that chlorine thefts be reported to police authorities. “I can’t imagine that since 9/11 anyone would fail to report a theft of chlorine,” Dungan said, referring to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.

 

On Monday, top national security figures in the US House of Representatives cited the three chlorine cylinder thefts in California in calling for an urgent response by the federal Department of Homeland Security. 

 

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee asked the department to report what response it has made to the thefts and to detail how many other chlorine thefts have taken place in the last five years. In addition to the three chlorine cylinders reported stolen, there have been two other apparent attempts to steal chlorine in California since the first of the year.

 

Dungan said that while the California incidents appear isolated, the institute has nonetheless issued a security alert to its member companies.

 

“This is a matter of concern,” Dungan said. “We want to do more to prevent future thefts of chlorine.”

 

“We’re asking our members to look at their security precautions to see what needs to happen to prevent this sort of thing from happening again,” he said.

 

The California thefts were reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but neither the FBI nor the Department of Homeland Security have replied to questions about any investigations of the thefts.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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