(61d) Implementation of Dhs Chemical Facility

Section 550 of the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007 (?Section 550?), enacted on October 4, 2006, provided the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with authority to promulgate ?interim final regulations? for the security of certain high risk chemical facilities in the United States. The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) regulation (6 CFR Part 27) is risk-based and performance-based, which makes it both particularly progressive and flexible and yet challenging due to the nature of the rule.

The asset owners of high risk chemical facilities must interpret regulatory requirements and DHS guidance, and then stand up a set of security measures that achieve risk-based performance standards depending on their Tier level. Congress prohibited the DHS from requiring specific security measures while giving them the authority to approve site security plans. DHS must then interpret the security posture established by the asset owner and evaluate the proposed measures against the risk-based performance standards to judge the level of compliance. Two key issues emerge ? the need to define adequate security and compliance in a completely performance-based regulation.

This paper overviews the requirements and describes some of the more difficult aspects. Experience with the regulation has proven that, for the higher tier sites particularly, critical cutting edge issues in homeland security are being addressed including the need to deal with a number of highly challenging attack scenarios. The more difficult risk-based performance standards include:

? Deter, Detect, and Delay - Deter, detect, and delay an attack, creating sufficient time between detection of an attack and the point at which the attack becomes successful;

? Restrict Area Perimeter - Secure and monitor the perimeter of the facility.

These and other requirements have established a profoundly different operating environment for the chemical sector. The paper gives advice on how to achieve the standards and how to document them in the SVA and SSP