ISCD Publishes Two New CFATS FAQs

This afternoon the DHS Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD) published two new frequently asked questions (FAQ) and their responses on the CFATS Knowledge Center. The new FAQs are:

1275 – What needs to be done when a facility is bought or sold?

1756 – What action is required if a facility needs to change owner and/or operator names when it is not related to a transfer of ownership?

The answers to these both note that the facility should not attempt to resolve the issue via the CSAT tool. In both cases letters explaining the situation need to be sent to David Wulf, the Director of ISCD.

The selling of a CFATS covered facility is the more complicated of the two situations. ISCD sees two potential scenarios that require slightly different action. The first is a straight sale of the facility where there is no change in operations, security or inventory of DHS chemicals of interest. In this case the new owner can assume the current CFATS status and continue on the current implementation or maintenance of the site security plan.

The second scenario involves the buyer making significant changes to COI inventory, operations or security; or they may just want to establish their own program from scratch.

In either case both the buyer and the seller will send separate letters to ISCD outlining what is taking place. In the second scenario the seller would also indicate a desire to submit a ‘zero Top Screen’ (a Top Screen showing zero inventory) so that their CFATS program can be closed out.

The second FAQ addresses the situation where there is no change in ownership but either the name of the facility or the operator of the facility is changing. In this case there will not any necessity of making changes to the CFATS program other than changing names on the documentation. Again this needs to be done by a letter to Director Wulf; not through the CSAT processes.