Senator reintroduces chemical plant security bill

Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., reintroduced legislation Tuesday to increase security at U.S. chemical plants to reduce the threat of an intentional release of toxic chemicals through a terrorist attack. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had approved the proposed Chemical Security Act unanimously in late July, but the full Senate failed to act before the congressional session ended, according to Corzine spokesman Darius Goore. The bill has been reintroduced in the new Congress with only a few technical changes, such as replacing references to the Office of Homeland Security with the term "Homeland Security Department," Goore said, adding that no hearings on the bill are scheduled yet.

The bill would require the Environmental Protection Agency and Homeland Security Department to identify high-priority chemical plants based on the chemicals they produce or store and their proximity to populated areas. Once such plants have been identified, the two agencies would be required to craft regulations requiring the plants to develop vulnerability assessments and implement response plans. Plants would have up to year after the regulations' release to develop vulnerability assessments and up to 18 months to develop their response plans.

The bill envisions chemical plants working with local law enforcement and first responder units to develop vulnerability assessments and response plans, which would then be submitted to the two agencies for review. The EPA and Homeland Security Department could issue orders to correct any deficiencies and to impose fines and penalties on plants that failed to comply.

The bill also seeks to prevent terrorists from obtaining information on a chemical plant that could be useful when planning an attack. A plant's vulnerability assessment and response plan would not be made publicly available. Instead, only information on the EPA and Homeland Security's certification of those plans would be available for public review.

Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., plans to reintroduce a companion chemical security bill in the House of Representatives within the next two weeks, Pallone spokesman Andrew Souvall said. The House bill did not make it out of committee last year because of its late introduction, which was delayed until after the Senate version was approved by committee, Souvall said.

Goore said he was fairly positive the Senate would take chemical plant security up his year, noting that both EPA Administrator Christie Whitman and Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge have expressed support for legislative action on the issue. There is also support among Republican senators for legislative action to improve chemical plant security, Goore said. He did not say, however, if such support directly transferred to Corzine's bill.

"I think this is a balanced bill that puts commonsense requirements in place to deal with a significant problem," Corzine said on the Senate floor Tuesday when reintroducing his bill. "I think the bill has moved a long way from the introduced bill. It has accommodated many of the concerns that industry raised about the bill I introduced in the 107th Congress. It reflects intensive bipartisan negotiations, and I think it's a good bill," he added.