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U.S. Chemical Plants Remain Vulnerable, Expert Says
U.S. chemical plants are open to terrorist attacks due to inadequate government regulations, a former homeland security adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday (see GSN, April 5). Facilities that manufacture chemicals and the rail cars that transport the material are vulnerable targets, according to written testimony that Richard Falkenrath plans to deliver tomorrow to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Falkenrath left the White House in May, USA Today reported. “I am aware of no other category of potential terrorist targets that presents as great a danger,” Falkenrath’s statement says. Carolyn Merritt, the head of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, plans to tell the committee that there are “serious gaps in the preparations for major chemical releases by companies, emergency responders, government authorities and the public,” according to USA Today. Many plants “have little more to secure them than a fence around the perimeter,” said committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine). Inspectors have, however, evaluated security at more than half of the 300 plants “of immediate concern,” said Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Michelle Petrovich. The department also supports the voluntary security measures created by the American Chemistry Council, according to USA Today. The council, however, wants new federal regulations requiring security upgrades, spokeswoman Kate McGloon told USA Today (Mimi Hall, USA Today, April 26).
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