US to issue final list of security concern chems

12 June 2007 19:32  [Source: ICIS news]

FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (ICIS news)--The final list of some 350 hazardous substances that will trigger reporting and security obligations for US chemicals manufacturers will be published within weeks, top federal officials said on Tuesday.

The list of chemicals and threshold amounts for each will determine which chemical production, storage or transportation facilities will be determined by the department as “high risk” and subject to antiterrorism security regulations.

When the list is published, all US chemical sites that host threshold amounts of any of the listed substances at any time during a calendar year will be required to complete within 60 days an online registration with the department to determine if a given facility is subject to the federal security mandate.

According to Larry Stanton, head of chemical security compliance at the department, the final list will include threshold amounts for every listed chemical. 

When the list was first issued in proposed form earlier this year, it was widely criticised by the chemical industry, the utility sector and academic spokespersons because as many as 100 of the listed substances had no threshold amounts. In other words, a facility would have to report possession of a listed compound if it was held in any amount.

That meant that, for example, even university research laboratories that might hold a few ounces of a listed substance would have a reporting obligation and could be subject to regulation.

“We have done away with the ‘any amount’ criteria,” Stanton said. He appeared at the fourth annual chemical security summit with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Because of the thresholds and other considerations that the department will evaluate - such as the proximity of a facility to population centres - Stanton said that “the vast majority of reporting entities will be screened out”. That means they will not be subject to mandatory government security standards and related site inspections.

Although the final list will not be available for some weeks, Chertoff noted that the department is beginning immediate on-site inspections of several hundred US chemical facilities that, in the department’s view, are certain to be categorised as high risk sites. 

Six department investigation teams of six agents each are to begin security audits at those facilities within days, Stanton said. The owners of those sites will be contacted first to schedule the on-site reviews.

Cosponsored by the department and 18 chemical industry trade associations, the security summit runs through Wednesday.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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