US antiterror substance list due out soon

21 August 2007 23:53  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--The final list of some 350 hazardous substances that will trigger plant site security reporting and compliance obligations for US chemical facilities may be available by mid-September, sources said on Tuesday.

 

Known as “Appendix A” to the new Department of Homeland Security antiterrorism site security regulations, the list identifies “chemicals of interest” and threshold amounts for each that will trigger requirements under plant security rules.

 

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 a high risk site and subject to the federal security mandate.

 

Chemical production, storage or transportation facilities that qualify as high-risk sites will have to meet department-mandated standards to protect against possible terrorist attacks.

 

When the list was first issued in proposed form earlier this year, it was widely criticised by the chemical industry, the utility sector and academics 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, for example, that 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.

 

Department officials have said that the “any amount” requirement has been eliminated and threshold amounts are being set for each of the listed compounds. Some changes in the chemicals listed also are expected.

 

Sources said the department completed work on the revised list last week and sent it to the White House office of management and budget (OMB) for expedited review.

 

Under the OMB expedited review process, proposed regulations are to be vetted within 30 days. That means that the final “chemicals of interest” list could be made public as early as mid-September.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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