CFATA Hearing Update

There is a report over on the ISAWWA Blog that the Energy and Environment Subcommittee will be holding their first hearing on both HR 2868 and HR 3258 on October 1st. This is not the first such report that I have seen and I understand that the hearing is scheduled for 10:00 am EDT. There is an interesting item in the blog that I do think is worth sharing. They report that:

“Officials from EPA and DHS announced this week that the Obama Administration wants to see both drinking water and wastewater under EPA jurisdiction for purposes of chemical security regulation. The Administration would like to see EPA adapt DHS’s current security program (called the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards or CFATS program) to the water sector, in consultation with DHS.”

I have not found a public pronouncement that supports this claim, but I do understand that there have been conversations between the two departments and potentially affected organizations in the private sector. This is a common strategy when an administration is planning on making a new policy statement at a congressional hearing. This allows for other witnesses at the hearing to make an informed statement in support (or opposition since the government does not control the opinion of these organizations) of the policy. I do know that not everyone in the DHS is in agreement with the policy of separating out the responsibility for chemical security operations at water and waste water treatment plants from the general CFATS scheme. As I have noted in a couple of blogs there are points in favor of both points of view, but this is as much a political decision as it is a security based decision. While many will deplore the fact that politics would have an effect on security decisions, at this level it is a fact of life that must be dealt with. I will say that I do not think that this political decision will have a significant effect on the outcome of the security arrangements that will be required under the impending rules. If the EPA patterns their rules on the CFATS model, there will be an increase in security at these facilities. Combining Water and Waste Water Security Another interesting point is that while the Administration may want to ensure that both water treatment and waste water treatment security are based under the EPA, the current wording of both HR 2868 and HR 3258 place waste water treatment facility security under DHS. This too was apparently a political decision, but in this case made by Chairmen Thompson and Waxman. This decision was made as part of their divvying up the oversight responsibility for chemical security. I’m not sure about the details of that bargaining, so I can’t predict how this will play out in the legislative process. I do know that the two types of facilities have more in common with each other than they do with a typical chemical manufacturing facility. For one thing they use the same limited number of chemicals of interest. From an enforcement point of view, inspectors familiar with one of these types of facilities would not find the other hard to understand. Witness List There is still no official word about the hearing on the House Energy and Commerce Committee web site, but I don’t expect that until probably late Friday at the earliest. It will be interesting to see who is included on the witness list. DHS and EPA representatives will surely be included as I expect will be the American Water Works Association (AWWA). Since Subcommittee Chairman Markey is such a proponent of IST, I would expect to see at least one representative of an organization like Greenpeace that has been very vocal in their campaign in support of the IST provisions in both bills. Since industry was so heavily represented in the last Homeland Security Committee hearing on HR 2868, I don’t expect more than one representative from industry at the hearing if there are any. I do understand that SOCMA has submitted written testimony for the hearing. Other industry organizations will certainly do the same.