ACC and NACD Update CFATS Alternate Security Plan

Over the holidays the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) published a new updated version of the ACC’s Alternative Security Plan (ASP) for the CFATS program. The original version of the ASP was released three years ago as an easier way for regulated chemical facilities to submit site security plan (SSP) information for the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program.

The goal of the ASP program has been to not only make it easier to submit the information that the Infrastructure Security and Compliance Division (ISCD) of DHS needs to evaluate the SSP, but to also provide the submitting facility with a document that could actually be used in the implementation and day to day operation of the SSP.

The new program includes;

• An ASP Guidance Document (.PDF);

• An ASP Template (with instructions) (.DOCX Download); and

• A set of nine forms to be used with the ASP (.ZIP download)

A quick review of the literature associated with ASP II shows that it does include at least some information from the new legislation authorizing the CFATS program (the Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2014, PL 113-254), but it does not refer specifically to the new personnel surety program being rolled out by ISCD (understandable since many of the details of that program have yet to be published). It also does not address the Expedited Approval Program (EAP) initiated by ISCD this last summer as an alternative to both SSPs and ASPs.

Long time readers of this blog will undoubtedly remember that I was a big fan of the ASP when it was rolled out (see my series of blogs here). This looks like it will be a valuable update of that program. I am especially glad to see that the NACD has specifically signed on to this as a partner in the revised program.

I will be looking at this revised program in more detail in future posts.

NACD Lobbying Effort

Last week 50 members of the National Association of Chemical Distributors ‘flew-in’ to Washington to have a chance to personally lobby members of Congress according to an article on ThomasNet.com. Issues brought up in the effort included CFATS reauthorization and reaffirming the railroad common carrier obligation to carry hazmat chemicals. According to the article, the NACD approach to CFATS authorization was to urge Congress to remove the current October expiration of the CFATS authority without making any other changes to the system. The idea would be to allow full implementation of CFATS before making any substantive changes to the process. This personal lobbying effort has been an effective technique for NACD and other chemical industry groups to bring a particular viewpoint to the attention of members of Congress on a number of issues. It may be most effective when the people making the presentation in today’s economic and political environment can point to the preservation of jobs as part of the outcome of their desired point of view. Whether this will be a more effective lobbying method than the public pressure technique being employed by groups like Green Peace will depend on the size of the letter writing, petition signing campaign organized by those groups and how well those campaigns are targeted. Strong supporters of the chemical industry are unlikely to be swayed by the Green Peace campaign, just as strong environmentalists or workers rights supporters are unlikely to be swayed by personal lobbying efforts by industry. We will have some relative measure of the success of these two campaigns in the coming weeks as CFATS reauthorization is debated in Congress. There was one other interesting item of note in this article. Sue Armstrong, the Director of the DHS Infrastructure Security Compliance Division, had to opportunity for an outreach meeting with NACD members. This is a standard tool that DHS uses to help industry understand their responsibilities under CFATS. She gave them a standard briefing on the CSAT program as well as an update on the SSP roll-out. Now that the OMB has approved the Risk-Based Performance Standards Guidance document, there was more information she could include in her update than was available when she briefed the ACC ChemSecure conference a couple of months ago.