DHS Publishes CFATS ANPRM

The DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) is publishing in Monday’s Federal Register (79 FR 48693-48696; available on-line today) an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) concerning possible changes to the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. This is the third rulemaking that was directed by the President’s Executive Order on Increasing Chemical Safety and Security (EO 13650) and the only one to start as an ANPRM rather than a request for information (RFI).

Actually the EO gave only a very limited requirement for the CFATS program to look at the list of DHS chemicals of interest (COI) that triggers the initial facility reporting requirement that may lead a facility to be covered by the CFATS program. This ANPRM address that issues and takes a broader look at the potential for changes to the CFATS program. No specific changes are proposed in this ANPRM; rather this is functionally similar to the RFIs for the EPA Risk Management Program (RMP) and the OHSA Process Safety Management (PSM) program.

NPPD’s Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD) proposes a number of questions that it would like answers to from the regulated and affected communities that would allow ISCD to formulate a proposed rule. Those questions are grouped into seven functional areas:

• General regulatory approach;

• Treatment of non-traditional chemical facilities;

• Clarification of terminology;

• Risk based performance standards (RBPS);

• Appendix A (COI list);

• Small business considerations; and

• Alignment with other regulatory programs.

In soliciting responses to these questions, ISCD requests that the responses be as detailed as possible and include analysis of the potential cost and benefits of the proposals. Comments may be filed using the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # DHS-2014-0016) Comments should be filed by October 17^th, 2014.