CFATS Knowledge Center Update 07-27-10

The folks at ISCD added a new item to the ‘Latest News Section’ of the CFATS Knowledge Center web page. Apparently the letters sent out to the facilities that were being required to complete the Agricultural Survey had an error in link to CSAT. The new note states:

“Letters with the corrected link to the CSAT Portal (https://csat.dhs.gov/csat) have been posted for facilities to access the Agriculture Survey. DHS regrets the initial error. Deadline for the Agriculture Survey is Monday, September 20, 2010.”

Covered facilities should have already had the URL for CSAT nearly hardwired into their systems by this time, but this certainly could have confused some people. Please note, however, that the revised letters do not change the due date for submitting the Survey.

Ag Survey Template

For facilities that are required to complete the DHS CFATS Agricultural Survey (you will have received a letter from DHS notifying you to complete the survey) there is an interesting article at CropLife.com that might be of interest to you. It is a short article that briefly addresses this new program. There is very little information in the article (about what I included in my first blog on the subject) but they do provide an interesting link in the article. They have produced a .PDF document showing the actual CSAT pages (WARNING: this is a very large download file) from an Ag Survey for a generic facility. Someone has set up a dummy facility in CSAT, Mike’s Dev Facility 4, that services customers in the Oil Seed and Grain Farming NAICS. They then answered some of the initial questions for that facility and then printed a summary screen for that facility’s survey. They then recommend “printing the Ag Survey Screen Captures and completing a draft of the survey before inputting information into the CSAT system”. Typically ISCD folks have provided a similar service by producing a ‘Questions’ manual to accompany the ‘Users Guide’ manual. In this case they have only made the Users Guide manual available on their web site. This makes the document made available at CropLife.com a valuable tool for completing the survey. Facility Specific Information There is a potential problem with this tool, there is no way of knowing for sure that all of the pages that a facility will see on their Ag Survey are included in this file. DHS has designed their tool so that a facility will see only the questions that apply for their site. The preparers of Mike’s Dev Facility 4 answered the initial questions about their facility and those answers will not be the same as the answers produced by any other facility. Using a document like this will certainly make the on-line completion of the survey easier. It will allow facilities to identify the specific information that they will need to complete the survey and will organize that information in a readily useable manner. While the provided screen prints would be a valuable addition to the Users Guide, I think that there is a better way to develop a facility specific ‘questions’ manual. I would suggest that a facility should develop their own tailored questions document by completing the first three sections of the Ag Survey (use the first 8 pages of the CropLife.com document as an information collection template to prepare for this). After saving the Survey at this point the facility preparer can print a facility specific version of the survey questions by using the ‘View Summary Report’ link on the left side of most Survey pages and following the subsequent instructions. There may still be pages on which the facility will have to answer questions that do not appear in the summary document as the default answers on the various questions shown may not provide access to all possible pages. These CSAT tools are very complicated documents (which is one of the reasons that they take so long to produce), but there is a very generous time limit on getting this survey completed (September 20th, 2010). Facilities should certainly plan on taking multiple sessions to complete this survey. CVI Note Technically speaking the document provided by the CropLife.com folks is a violation of the CVI rules. Anytime that there is any facility information provided on the Ag Survey, the printed (electronic or paper) copy of the survey becomes Chemical-terrorism Vulnerability Information. It must be marked in accordance with the requirements of the Chemical-terrorism Vulnerability Information Procedures Manual. I’m sure that DHS will take cognizance of the fact that this isn’t an actual facility and ignore the technical violation.

Facilities, on the other hand can expect that they will be required to protect any working copies of their Ag Survey as CVI. As soon as any facility specific information is added to the Survey it becomes CVI. This certainly includes working copies of the ‘blank’ survey found at CropLife.com.

Knowledge Center Update 07-21-10

DHS has updated their CFATS Knowledge Center web page today. They announced a personnel change in ISCD management and provided additional information on the Agricultural Survey that I wrote about last night. ISCD Personnel Change In the ‘Latest News’ section of the page, ISCD posted the following notice:

“On July 19, 2010, Ted Cromwell became acting CFATS Senior Compliance Officer, replacing Laurie Boulden who takes over as Technical Analysis Branch Chief. Rest assured that during the transition and forward, ISCD compliance policies, actions, and branch staff—including the Help Desk—will continue to implement CFATS in a consistent, seamless manner. As always, we are eager to hear from you with questions and concerns.”

I talked with Laurie Boulden when I did an article for the Journal of Hazmat Transportation on her Corporate Reporting Tool. She is a very well spoken and informative woman who was very helpful in providing information about the program that she had worked so hard on to develop. I’m sure that she’ll do well as the Technical Analysis Branch Chief. Congratulations Laurie. Agricultural Survey
The ‘Latest News’ section also includes this notice about the Agricultural Survey:

“DHS is requesting information from approximately 1274 CFATS high-risk covered facilities that may sell, transfer or commercially apply COI-containing products (e.g., pesticides, fertilizers) used in agricultural activities by agricultural production facilities (e.g., farms, ranches, dairies, equine facilities, parks). Recipients must complete and submit the Agriculture Survey by Monday, September 20, 2010. DHS indefinitely extended the Top-Screen submission due date for agricultural production facilities in December 2007. The survey will provide DHS with additional information on potential risks, vulnerabilities and consequences related to facilities throughout the agricultural COI distribution chain – including manufacturers, distributors and retailers, commercial applicators and end users – and help the Department determine its next steps regarding the Top Screen extension.”

Additionally, there are 10 new frequently asked questions (and responses, of course) directly targeting this new CSAT tool. Those questions are:

1671: I sell pesticides, but only deliver them to customers on an "as needed" basis. How do I answer the questions regarding delivery of my pesticide products? 

1672: For purpose of completing the Agriculture Survey, how will I know if a pesticide includes an agricultural chemical of interest (COI) at or above the minimum concentration? Where can I find the EPA Registration Number for the pesticide? Where can I find the percent by weight of a COI in the pesticide? 

1673: Where can I read about the current indefinite extension to the Top-Screen deadline for agricultural facilities? 1674: Do the Appendix A minimum concentrations apply to the Agriculture Survey? What about the Appendix A screening threshold quantities (STQ)? 

1675: I sell fuels that are Appendix A COI or that include COI, such as propane, to agricultural facilities. Should I include these fuels in the Agriculture Survey? 

1676: Will my responses to the Agriculture Survey be protected as CVI? 

1677: What is an “agricultural facility” as regards the Agriculture Survey? 

1678: What are “agricultural activities” in terms of the Agriculture Survey? 

1679: What does the term “COI-containing products” mean in the Agriculture Survey? 1680: When is the Agriculture Survey due? 

1681: What CFATS covered facilities will receive the Agriculture Survey?

What is clear from reading these responses is that DHS will be mailing letters to those CFATS facilities that will be required to complete the Agricultural Survey and they are currently targeting fewer than 1300 facilities. If your facility receives one of those letters you certainly need to read each of the FAQ. If your facility services the agriculture sector I would think that it would also be a good idea to read these FAQ.

CSAT Web Page Update 07-19-10

Without any fan fare or explanation the CFATS people at ISCD updated the Chemical Security Assessment Tool web page today. A single change was made to the page, adding a link to another ‘Key Document’ on the right side of the page; the CSAT Agriculture Survey User Guide. This document and its associated tool in CSAT (Agricultural Survey) are part of the data collection effort to resolve the issues that lead to the issuance of the Agricultural Facilities Time Extension Notification in January 2008. What is not yet clear is how DHS intends to communicate the requirement to complete this survey to “CFATS covered facilities that sell, transfer or commercially apply COI and COI-containing products to agricultural production facilities subject to the extension of the Top-Screen due date” (pg 1). There are a couple of possible options, official letter to the targeted facilities or a notice in the Federal Register. There is no notice scheduled to be published in the July 21st Federal Register, but one could be posted at some later date. With just a quick review of this document this evening it looks like a standard CSAT tool, requiring registered users who have completed CVI certification to access the tool. The odd thing about the questions is their focus on the facility’s customers rather than on facility security. It does not appear that facilities will be required to identify specific customers. The questions appear to be targeted at the universe of customers for each Covered Facility. Another interesting provision of the Survey is that DHS is asking for information on chemical use for all chemicals that are listed DHS chemicals of interest (COI) or that contain one or more COI above the minimum concentration values listed in Appendix A, regardless of whether or not the delivered quantity is above the Screening Threshold Quantity (STQ) for that COI. This applies even if the covered facility was not required to report the COI on their Top Screen because it was below the STQ threshold. I’m sure that I’ll have more to say about this document and its associate program after I have had a chance to look over the document in more detail and do some more research on how DHS plans on using this tool and its associated information.