Chemical plants are vulnerable, specialists warn

WASHINGTON -- Saying the government has failed to take the actions necessary to protect the lives of tens of millions of Americans from a terrorist attack, a former homeland security adviser to President Bush yesterday called for a major new law that would force the chemical industry to improve security at 15,000 high-risk facilities.

Testifying at a Senate hearing, Richard Falkenrath, who was Bush's deputy homeland security adviser until May 2004, decried the fact that nearly four years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress has yet to pass a law giving the Homeland Security Department the authority to enforce security standards at chemical plants.

''When you look at all of the different targets for a potential attack in the United States and ask yourself which ones present the greatest possibility of mass casualties and are the least well-secured at the present time, one target set flies off the page, and that's chemicals," Falkenrath said. ''This is an absolutely inescapable conclusion. It is one that was very apparent to me in my official capacity, and it remains apparent to me now as a private citizen."

Falkenrath also said that existing law gives the Bush administration authority to order railroads and trucking companies to take more security precautions when transporting hazardous chemicals, but the government has not done so.

The Environmental Protection Agency says 15,000 facilities use enough toxic chemicals to pose a threat to surrounding communities, including 123 where the rupture of a single tank could endanger the lives of at least a million people.

Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee yesterday, a series of security specialists warned that the government needs more authority to reduce the vulnerability of chemical plants to a terrorist attack or sabotage.

Among the voices, the blunt call for major new regulations on the chemical industry by Falkenrath, who is a visiting fellow at the centrist Brookings Institution, stood out because it sharply contrasted with the policies of his former employer.

Although the Bush administration has taken an aggressive stance in many areas of fighting terrorism, its record of imposing new regulations on the $460 billion chemical industry has been more passive.

In October 2002, then-Homeland Security director Tom Ridge and then-EPA director Christie Todd Whitman issued a statement saying that voluntary chemical plant security measures were insufficient. But since then, the administration has been silent.

Michelle Petrovich, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, touted the department's efforts to visit several hundred of the most high-risk chemical facilities in order to help develop perimeter security improvements and emergency response plans.

''We aren't waiting for legislation," she said. ''The recommendations we have provided have been taken on, and investments have been made. That's a big deal. The fact is we have visited more than half of the sites of immediate concern."

But Falkenrath said Homeland Security needs a law that would order it to place each plant in a ''risk tier" based on the kinds and amounts of chemicals it has and its proximity to dense populations. Then it should establish security requirements for each tier.

Chemical executives could choose to spend what it takes to comply with their tier's requirements or change their processes to lower their facility's risk. But if an audit shows that they have done neither, he said, they should be ''fined or thrown in jail," he said.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, there was bipartisan momentum to require the chemical industry to switch to inherently less dangerous processes where feasible.

But Republicans who initially supported the measure reversed themselves after industry lobbyists objected that such a plan would amount to micromanagement of their businesses, and the bill died.

The main lobbying arm of the industry, the American Chemistry Council, issued a statement yesterday in support of a law that would require all facillities to conduct vulnerability assessments and implement security plans subject to outside auditing.

The ACC already requires its 140 members to comply with a similar security review. But thousands of smaller chemical businesses are not members. An ACC spokeswoman said the group supported making the plan enforceable by allowing Homeland Security to shut down a facility that was not in compliance. Susan M. Collins, a Maine Republican who is the chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said she will lead an effort to take a closer look at chemical plant security in coming months.

''Chemical security has not received the attention that it deserves," Collins said. ''I am inclined to believe, based on the testimony today, that we need strong federal legislation in this area, but we also need legislation that would not put an unreasonable burden on the chemical industry."