Homeland Security to implement new regulations



Fears over terrorist attacks prompt new rules for hazardous chemical plants.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For most of her life, Jean Taylor has lived in northern New Jersey near the largest oil refinery on the East Coast.
She wonders what she's breathing, though she says the odors are not as noxious as they were a few decades ago.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she also has wondered about security. A community activist, she toured the Conoco Phillips Bay View plant with a group of like-minded citizens and was amazed at what she saw -- and didn't see.
"There wasn't any guard or security official that I saw. There's more security at the airport than out here."
Now federal officials are catching up with Taylor's concerns.
In October, Congress passed a law giving the Homeland Security Department the authority to regulate the nation's most hazardous chemical plants.
Those rules have now been published. Regulators, congressional and state officials, industry and environmentalists all have different views of what comes next.
Nationwide concern
While New Jersey has a particularly large concentration of chemical facilities, nearly every U.S. urban area has plants that produce or use hazardous materials capable of endangering their neighbors. The government lists about 100 plants nationwide with a million or more people living in such a "vulnerability zone."
California, for example, is home to 12 plants, each with more than a million people living in its shadow. Ohio has nine, Illinois 14 and Texas 17.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledges "the collection of a lot of potentially dangerous chemicals in one place does create an attractive target to somebody who wants to carry out a terrorist attack."
Department regulators estimate as many as 66,000 plants around the country possess some amount of a "chemical of interest." Roughly one-third of those already are regulated by other agencies, such as the Coast Guard or the Environmental Protection Agency.
For the rest, the government is asking the owners to complete an online questionnaire within 60 days telling what they manufacture, what chemicals they store, in what quantities, and in what type of storage.
Risk-level determination
The department will determine their risk level by assessing the potential consequences to people nearby of an accident or attack, the impact of sabotage or theft, and the economic consequences of any catastrophe.
Chertoff estimates about 7,000 plants will fall into the high-risk category.
Assistant Secretary Robert Stephan, who will oversee the process, said 100 to 150 in the topmost tier can expect the earliest attention and closest scrutiny.
All 7,000 high-risk facilities will file "vulnerability assessments" in which various threat scenarios are played out. Managers must determine whether the plant could withstand an attack by armed assailants, for example, or a bomb. Each plant must develop a security plan that will resolve those vulnerabilities. The Homeland Security Department will then follow up with inspections.
Stephan said resources are tight; he will have only about 80 regulators to address all the high-risk plants, and a budget of 25 million.

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