US drops some chemicals from antiterrorism list

02 October 2007 16:34  [Source: ICIS news]

BALTIMORE, Maryland (ICIS news)--As many as two dozen chemicals have been eliminated from the list of hazardous substances that will trigger antiterrorism site security regulations at US chemical plants, a top US security official said on Tuesday.

 

Robert Stephan, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, also told chemical industry executives that the final list likely will be published by the end of this month.

 

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

 

Stephan said the final list will likely number slightly more than 320 substances. When the list was first published in proposed form earlier this year, it named about 350 chemicals.

 

Stephan said he could not now say which chemicals have been removed from the list because the list is not yet final and there may yet be some further deletions or additions.

 

He said some substances were removed from the list after explosives experts at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) determined they could not be successfully employed by terrorists as improvised weapons of mass destruction.

 

He also said that threshold amounts for some substances have been raised.

 

When the list is published, all US facilities that host threshold amounts of any listed substance at any time during a calendar year will be required to complete within 60 days an online registration with the department to determine if the facility is a high-risk site and subject to the federal security mandate.

 

Stephan, the department’s top official responsible for US infrastructure protection, said he expects that owners or operators of as many as 80,000 sites across the country will complete the online registration process and that 5,000-8,000 of those will meet the department’s definition of a high-risk facility.

 

High-risk facilities will be further categorised in four risk-based tiers, with only about 300-500 plant sites falling into the first tier and subject to the department’s highest security criteria requirements, he said.

 

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.

 

Stephan spoke to industry security officials on the second day of a three-day conference on chemical security and safety.  Sponsored by the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA), the conference runs through Wednesday.

 

By: Joe Kamalick
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