Department of Homeland Securities (DHS) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) Update

Background:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released Appendix A of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) in November 2007.  This Appendix contained a list of chemicals that, if possessed by a facility in a specified quantity, trigger a requirement to complete and submit an easy-to-use, online consequence assessment tool called a Top-Screen.

The Top Screen consequence assessment tool was to have been completed by facilities subject to the rule (re. Appendix A) by January 22, 2008.

Once all of this has been accomplished the DHS assessed the Top-Screen entries and determined the vulnerability rankings for each facility that participated.  The next step is for the DHS to send out notification letters to the participants.

New Developments:

The following provides a summary of the notification letters and subsequent required Security Vulnerability Assessment (SVAs) for the sites preliminarily tiered as "high risk" (1 through 4) under CFATS.  DHS preliminarily identified approximately 7,000 sites as "high risk" with 219 in tier 1, 756 in tier 2, 1,712 in tier 3, and 4,319 in tier 4.  The notification letters for these sites and those sites determined to be "non-regulated" will be delivered via Federal Express with tier 1 through 3 letters, as well as those to the non-regulated sites, being sent today, and tier 4 being sent later this week.  The letters will include the preliminary site tier ranking, the triggering chemical of interest, the triggering scenario, and the SVA requirements/deadline.  The letters and all information therein are chemical-terrorism vulnerability information (CVI).

The timeline for completion of the CFATS SVA is approximately 90 days for tier 1, 120 for tier 2, 150 for tier 3, and 180 for tier 4.  The deadline dates (which will be included in the notification letter) are:  Sept. 25 for tier 1, Oct. 24 for tier 2, Nov. 24 for tier 3, and Dec. 31 for tier 4.  The SVA tool and guidelines will be posted on www.dhs.gov/chemicalsecurity later.

Tiers 1 through 3 sites are required to use the CFATS SVA, available online.  Tier 4 sites will be able to use Center for Chemical Process (CCPS) and DHS-approved SVAs along with an alternative security plan (ASP).

There are no security upgrade requirements based on the receipt of the notification, just SVA requirements.  Site Security Plans (SSP) will be required if the site remains tiered as a "high risk" site, but the SSP templates are not yet ready.  SSPs will eventually be tailored to each site in order to meet the Risk-Based Performance Standards on a site-by-site basis.

For more information: contact NPCA’s Allen Irish.

Source: July/August 2008 Coatings, posted 6/30/08