US chems argue against new site security law

26 February 2008 19:50  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Chemical industry officials urged a US House panel on Tuesday to extend existing antiterrorism security regulations for high-risk production sites, but members of Congress appeared determined to toughen the programme.

 

In a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, industry officials asked that the 2007 chemical facility antiterrorism standards (CFATS) now being implemented by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) be renewed for a year or two beyond their scheduled October 2009 expiration so that producers and Congress can benefit from lessons learned.

 

Speaking for the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA), David Pulham urged the committee to support the developing DHS enforcement programme, arguing that a major revision to the underlying statute could undermine implementation of the existing regulations.

 

Maurice McBride, associate general counsel and security director at the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA), said that his main concern with the new draft legislation to toughen site security regulations “is that DHS is just now implementing the new rules and is making major progress, and to impose a new regulatory programme now would simply impede that progress”.

 

Bill Allmond, director of government relations for SOCMA, also suggested that both industry and congressional oversight interests would be better served if Congress were to wait a year or two past the current rules’ October 2009 expiration “to develop lessons learned from the regulations now being put in place and perhaps help determine whether additional regulations are necessary”.

 

“Imposing a new regulatory mandate now would be very disruptive,” Allmond said.

 

However, committee members appeared interested in expanding and toughening the existing regulations.

 

Among other things, the draft legislation now before the committee, the “Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2008,” would require consideration of inherently safer technologies (IST) as part of site security planning and enforcement, bring water and wastewater treatment facilities within the purview of the law and give a greater role to labour unions in developing increased security at chemical plants.

 

Many in Congress advocate inherently safer technologies - such as the use of less toxic or volatile feedstocks and production processes with lower temperatures and pressures - as a means of reducing possible offsite consequences from a terrorist attack on a plant.

 

“The Congress, and especially this committee, is very concerned with ensuring that there are effective and robust chemical security regulations in place when the current regulations expire in October 2009,” said Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (Democrat-Texas).

 

Jackson Lee noted that while the draft legislation “calls for the implementation of inherently safer technologies by certain [high risk] companies”, the bill is “narrowly tailored to support IST where it is possible and practical”.

 

Pulham cautioned that a congressional mandate for inherently safer technology as a site security requirement “would complicate and in some cases could undermine existing practices or compliance”.

 

“And it could be dangerous if we are compelled to accept or go along with an approach that we think may not be the lowest-risk approach,” Pullham said.

 

“With all due respect, this issue is vastly more complicated than most people appreciate,” Pulham said.

 

The 2007 chemical facility antiterrorism statute was passed when Republicans held majority control in Congress. That statute excluded some legislative options, such as an IST mandate, that Democrats want to re-introduce to site security requirements now that they control Congress and the legislative agenda.

By: Joe Kamalick
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