U.S. localities need better access to chemical plant information to prepare for terrorist attacks

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to do a better job of sharing information about high-risk chemical facilities with local emergency planners and first responders to minimize the risk of casualties in the event of a terrorist attack, the investigative arm of Congress says.

In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program is generally working well. But there is room for DHS to improve its operation of the 11-year-old initiative to safeguard chemical plants from terrorists. Leaders of the congressional homeland security committees requested the assessment as they prepare to reauthorize and possibly revise CFATS, which is set to expire at the end of this year. Under the program, facilities that make, use, or store threshold quantities of any of roughly 300 hazardous chemicals are required to provide DHS with data about their chemical holdings. DHS has determined that 3,500 of those facilities are high risk and must devise and implement department-approved site-security plans. The report notes that DHS has developed a secure interface called the Infrastructure Protection Gateway to share confidential facility-specific information with local officials. However, GAO found that the online resource is poorly used. GAO urged DHS to “take actions to encourage access to and wider use” of the gateway and to “explore other opportunities to improve information-sharing with first responders and emergency planners.” DHS says it agrees with the recommendation and that additional outreach activities are already under way.