Chemical Facilities Are Making Themselves Less Attractive Targets For Terrorists

In the past year, more than 700 chemical facilities have been dropped from the government’s antiterrorism program for the sector because they are no longer considered “high risk” targets, new federal data show.

A report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicates that 3,471 facilities are currently regulated under its Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, down from 4,199 facilities a year ago.

Over the longer term, DHS says that more than 3,000 facilities have “voluntarily removed, reduced, or modified their holdings of chemicals of interest” since the program began in 2007 and are no longer regulated under CFATS.

Chemical industry officials say the sharp decline in the number of regulated facilities shows that the security initiative is working as intended.

“CFATS is driving facilities to reduce inherent hazards, relying on the company’s expert judgment to do so, and without transferring risk to some other point in the supply chain,” says William E. Allmond IV, vice president of government and public relations at the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates, an industry trade association.

“Thousands of facilities have changed processes or inventories in ways that, under DHS’s definition of high risk, no longer make them attractive targets to terrorists,” Allmond adds.

CFATS requires facilities that make, use, or store threshold quantities of certain hazardous chemicals to assess their risks, develop site-security plans for DHS approval, and then put the security measures in place.

The latest statistics also indicate that DHS has confirmed through on-site inspections that 1,600 of the 3,471 facilities have fully implemented their security plans.