NTAS Changes for MTSA Facilities

Last month when DHS changed over from their old color-coded terrorist alert system to the new National Terrorism Alert System (NTAS) I did a blog about how that change would affect CFATS facilities and their preparation of site security plans. CFATS isn’t the only security program affected by this change. A couple of readers have noted that the Coast Guard’s MTSA security program also required the planning for enhanced security as the old Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) raised the threat level which, in turn, affected the Maritime Security (MARSEC) level.

Coast Guard Response to NTAS

One reader sent me a copy of a Marine Safety Information Bulletin (MSIB) (I'm sorry I don't have a link for the document) published by the Captain of the Port for New Orleans on April 29th describing how MTSA covered facilities and vessels should adapt their approved security plans to the new NTAS pending specific changes to 33 CFR 101.

That MSIB provided the following policy guidance:

“1. MARSEC levels will continue to have the meaning defined by 33CFR101.105

“2. All references to the HSAS in 33CFR101 are obsolete and will no longer be used.

“3. The three MARSEC levels will continue to be used as before, except as follows. If the Secretary of Homeland Security issues an NTAS alert, the Commandant will adjust the MARSEC level if appropriate based on commensurate risk, any maritime nexus, and/or CCG consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security.”

It also provides an abbreviated change procedure for approved security plans to reflect the change from the HSAS to NTAS system:

“Pending future regulatory changes to 33CFR101, pen and ink changes in place of submission of a formal amendment per 33CFR104.415, 105.415, and 10.415 (sic) are authorized until the plan is next revised and submitted for review.”

Flexible Response

It is nice to see a regulatory agency exercising this type of flexibility in response to changes in the regulatory environment. Of course, the Coast Guard is also a military organization and the military has always favored this kind of response to changing conditions, allowing local commanders to respond to changing situations while the bureaucratic processes catch up. This is why the MSIB comes from the Captain of the Port rather than the Commandant.

It is extremely unlikely that ISCD, under any Director, would ever provide that sort of command flexibility to their Regional commanders of the CFATS inspection force. It doesn’t have the long history, tradition and training that the Coast Guard has that provides the institution the ability to allow such responsiveness.

In the mean time, CFATS facilities are going to have to try to figure out what to do with their site security plans. Do they address the current RBPS 13 guidance on enhanced security with an adaptation for the NTAS similar to what I wrote in my RBPS 13 revision blog? Or do they take the risk that DHS and their chemical security inspectors will not accept references to the NTAS because it isn’t mentioned in the Guidance document?

I think that CFATS facilities can count on the intelligence of the inspectors to understand that security requires some measure of flexibility. If they can’t, we have bigger problems than can be solved by a document revision. Besides, DHS is required by Congress to allow individual facilities a certain measure of flexibility in determining what security measures are used to secure the facilities.

Revising RBPS 13 for NTAS

I have been mentioning for the last couple of weeks now that ISCD needs to revise the Risk-Based Performance Standards Guidance document to reflect the change from Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) to the new National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) that was implemented earlier this week. Of course it is easy to complain about someone not doing something; it is more productive to actually suggest something so that is what I am going to do.

I’m going to do a minimalist revision of the RBPS 13 section of the Guidance document; keeping as much as possible the DHS-ISCD flavor of the document. I’ll explain the changes as I make them here in the blog and then I will post the revised version on my web site. Then, I’ll open the floor to a public discussion. We’ll do the same with the Metrics at the end of the section in a separate blog.

Cut and Paste

The first thing we will do is to use the cut and paste feature of the word processing program to replace ‘Homeland Security Advisory System’ with ‘National Terrorism Advisory System’. Next we will do the same with ‘HSAS’, replacing it with ‘NTAS’. Then we will replace references to ‘Color-coded Threat Level System’ with ‘National Terrorism Advisory System’. Then we go back and remove redundant references to ‘NTAS and ‘National Terrorism Advisory System’. We also removed the changes made in the name of the ASIS reference at the end of the section.

Explanation of NTAS

Next we would remove the section describing the out-dated ‘Color-coded Threat Level System’ and replace it with a description of the NTAS Alerts from the NTAS Public Guide.

Discussion of Sample Security Measures

We will change the description of the conditions that call for the additional security measures, replacing the ‘High Condition (Orange)’ description with one reflecting an ‘Elevated Threat Alert’. The second category; ‘Severe Condition (Red)’ description will be replaced with one for ‘Imminent Threat Alert’.

Length of Period of Elevated Threat Level

One of the major changes in moving from the HSAS to the NTAS systems is the elimination of open ended periods at elevated threat levels. The NTAS system includes a requirement for specific time limits that are included in the Alert when it is issued. While it is still possible to be at an elevated threat level for a lengthy period of time (probably only measured in weeks), it will remain at the specified level only for the specified time. The discussion under the section for the ‘Length of Period of Elevated Threat Level’ will be revised to reflect this change in philosophy.

References

Finally, we will change the URL for the DHS web site for the advisory system to reflect the new URL for the new NTAS system.

Minimal Revision

The revision described here is a minimal change to the RBPS 13 section of the Risk-Based Performance Standard Guidance document. The only things changed were those necessary to properly reflect the change in the DHS advisory system from the old color-coded system to the new system of National Terrorism Advisory System Alerts

It wasn’t a difficult re-write; it took less than two hours of work. Of course in the ISCD environment there would be multiple levels of approvals that would require at least a couple of additional re-writes. Then there would be the public publishing and comment period that would extend the time necessary to actually require facilities to implement the change.

One would like to think that the work on the RBPS 13 revision was started shortly after Secretary Napolitano signed off on the revised alert system. That would have allowed for the shortest amount of time where there would be discrepancies between the provisions of the advisory system and the requirements for the CFATS site security plan. Maybe this will allow ISCD to catch up.