US to begin chemical plant security inspections

12 June 2007 18:23  [Source: ICIS news]

FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (ICIS news)--A team of 36 federal security agents will soon begin making on-site inspections of several hundred US chemical plants that pose high-risk consequences if attacked by terrorists, a top official said on Tuesday.

Larry Stanton, head of chemical security compliance at the Department of Homeland Security, told some 400 industry executives that the inspections will begin within weeks and should be completed by the end of this year.

Speaking at the fourth annual chemical industry security summit, Stanton said that six teams of six inspectors each will fan out across the country to conduct audits of antiterrorism provisions at plants that, if attacked, would likely cause the most casualties or seriously disrupt US commerce or government operations.

He said security audits of several hundred high-risk plants are being done as soon as possible to give the department immediate experience in how well those facilities are already protected. This experience will help the department, he said, when it expands the security mandate across the US chemicals industry.

“We know there are glitches in the programme, things that we haven’t thought through, so we wanted a relatively controlled environment in which to begin enforcement,” he said.

The new federal rules that mandate antiterrorism security standards for chemical facilities went into force on 8 June.

Stanton said his department already is contacting the owners of the several hundred facilities that will be inspected in the next few months to arrange site visits.

“We want the folks at these sites to know that we are there to learn, to sort out issues and problems and to find out what needs to be tuned up in the regulations before we really start rolling down the tracks,” he said.

Stanton also said that the department wants to demonstrate that it is moving with deliberate speed to implement the chemical site security law passed by Congress late last year.

“There is an expectation in Congress that this programme will be implemented within six months. That is not a whole lot of time,” Stanton said.

“We have to show progress and assure policymakers that we can work with the chemicals industry and get results,” he said. “Some elements of this programme are not fully cooked yet, but we have to show results to policymakers.”

Congress is already considering revisions to the chemical site security law passed last year, and many in the US chemicals industry want federal legislators to give the department and industry time to demonstrate that they can effectively implement the law.
By: Joe Kamalick
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