ISCD Updates Whistleblower Information

Today the DHS Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD) updated the landing page for the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, providing more information on how someone can report various concerns about the implementation of the CFATS program at facilities around the country. The new information includes:

• Links to a new ‘Reporting CFATS Violations’ web page;

• Links to a new ‘Report a Violation’ flyer;

• A new email address that can be used to report violations; and

• A brief blurb on the landing page describing all of the above.

Other than the email address there is no new information here. There is an understandable minor expansion of what can/should be reported; the new documentation specifically identifies failure to submit a Top Screen (which is, for some reason, not actually named in the flyer) as one of the things that should be reported to ISCD. That was never specifically mentioned in earlier discussions about CFATS’ violations reporting.

The new version of the landing page also provides a link to another ‘new’ page and an older document. The ‘new’ page is ‘Actions to Improve Chemical Facility Safety and Security - A Shared Commitment. It is dated December 16^th, 2016, but this is the first time that I have seen it. The document linked to from that page is the final report on the response by EPA, OSHA and DHS to the President’s (Obama) Executive Order on Chemical Safety and Security (EO 13650). That reporting document was published in May 2014 and I commented on it soon after.