Review - CFATS Regulation Changes – COI Changes

I noted earlier this month that the revision of the CFATS regulations had made its way back onto the Unified Agenda. I have been able to confirm that CISA’s Office of Chemical Security (OCS) is actively working on a notice of proposed rulemaking, but no details are available. So, while we wait for the NPRM, I thought that I would take a look at some of the things that could make it into that document. First, I want to take a look at changes to Appendix A, the DHS chemicals of interest list.

Background

The Unified Agenda listing for “Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS)” (RIN: 1670-AA01) provides the following background information on their decision to look at changes to the COI list:

“The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program regulates facilities possessing large quantities of dangerous chemicals. The particular chemicals listed and threshold quantities were established in 2007, and were based on EPA’s threshold quantities for Hazardous Substances published under its Release Management Program. In the 15 years since implementation of the program, CISA has gained extensive experience in analyzing chemical holdings and determining which facilities should be classified as high-risk and subject to further regulation. Given its experience, CISA has determined that it should adjust its list of regulated chemicals, threshold quantities, and counting methods to better reflect the security issues implicated by these chemicals.”

Appendix A Changes

Currently, Appendix A provides a list of 300+ COI along with their concentration and screening threshold quantity (STQ). It also lists the security issue of concern for each chemical, which affects the STQ that applies to that chemical. Facilities use the information in Appendix A to determine if their inventory of chemicals on the list requires the facility to submit a Top Screen to OCS. OCS, in turn uses the information provided on the Top Screen, analyzed via their threat modeling tool, to determine if the facility is at high enough risk of potential terrorist attack to be covered under the CFATS program.

There are three different kinds of changes that OCS could be considering for the Appendix A list in their pending regulatory revision:

• Adding or deleting chemicals of interest,

• Increasing the minimum concentration of concern, or

• Increasing or decreasing the STQ

More to Come

I will look at other items that we could see in the upcoming CFATS NPRM in future posts. Just a reminder, these are my thoughts on what may be coming, no one is giving me any insider information on the NPRM at this point.

For more details about potential COI changes that could be made to the CFATS regulations when CISA publishes their NPRM, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/cfats-regulation-changes - subscription required.