Some 300 chemical industry representatives and government officials were on hand in Bethesda, Md., for the 2nd Annual Chemical Sector Security Summit July 21-23. The three-day event, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Chemical Sector Coordinating Council, offered numerous presentations detailing the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), including several seminars offering step-by-step instructions for completing security vulnerability assessment (SVA) and site security plan (SSP) requirements.
The initial CFATS security standards approved last year will be sunsetted by October 2009, so the next Congress will consider legislation to reauthorize the requirements and make them permanent. Preliminary tiering estimates based on the first round of submitted SVAs have just recently been sent out to chemical companies around the country.
The first day’s sessions included a panel discussion on risk-based performance standards for SSP requirements that featured representatives from PotashCorp and Agrium Inc. In another panel discussion, DHS Congressional staff speakers referred to the current CFATS structure as basically sound, but said refinements are necessary in several areas, including the federal preemption of state laws, protection of sensitive information, and whether water and waste water treatment facilities should fall under the CFATS requirements.
Conference attendees raised several concerns about the regulations, including worries about overlapping requirements and competing jurisdiction between government agencies; whether language would be included in the reauthorization bill addressing tax credits to help pay for mandated security measures; and whether the issue of inherently safer technologies (IST) would resurface when the bill is reauthorized.
The chemical industry, including The Fertilizer Institute, has been vocal in its opposition to an IST mandate in any chemical security legislation. DHS staff noted that legislating IST “is one of the toughest challenges of the bill,” and said IST language in the final bill would likely consist of a requirement to simply “look at or consider lower consequences in your overall effort to lower risk.” Staff members repeatedly observed that the CFATS requirements must be risk-based, and that DHS “needs the authority to require some consequence reduction activities.”
DHS Infrastructure Security Compliance Division staffers Wade Townsend and Travis Walker talked about the facility inspection process mandated by CFATS, stressing that DHS favors a partnership with chemical businesses. “We understand that you guys are here to do business, and we’re not going to get in the way of that,” Walker said.
Representatives from DHS, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Department of Transportation Office of Hazardous Materials Standards also held a panel discussion on the railroad transportation of toxic-by-inhalation commodities such as anhydrous ammonia. DHS’s Gil Kovar noted that there are 110,000 to 125,000 shipments of TIH commodities by rail each year, but the “single greatest threat” represented by these shipments was TIH cars left unattended in high-threat urban areas while awaiting transition from one railroad carrier to another.
As of July 1, railroads are now required to complete their own type of SVA analyzing the routes they use, considering a minimum of 27 factors that may affect the possibility of a catastrophic TIH release along specific routes. Attendees were again assured that federal regulators are “flexible folks,” as DOT’s Susan Gorsky stated, but she cautioned that the Federal Railroad Administration “may require the use of alternate routes based on the carriers’ analysis.”
Ed Chapman of BSNF discussed the difficulties railroads face in weighing the security risk posed by alternate routes, asking regulators to consider what the attributes are of the “best” and “safest” routes. He also raised the specter of the railroad industry’s increasing reluctance to transport TIH commodities. “Whatever we can to do eliminate the total amount of TIH transported … is our best road to safety and security,” he said.
The railroads’ common carrier obligation to transport commodities such as anhydrous ammonia was also the topic of a July 22 hearing before the Surface Transportation Board. TFI President Ford West testified at the hearing, and was joined by representatives from CF Industries Inc., the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association, The McGregor Co., and Terra Industries Inc.
West stressed the public need for rail transportation of ammonia due to its essential role in the production of nitrogen fertilizers and its significant contribution to the agricultural and industrial sectors. “Without fertilizer in general and in particular ammonia, our nation’s food and energy supply would be adversely affected and the world would be without 40 to 60 percent of today’s harvest,” he said.
Tuesday’s hearing was the second held by the STB on this issue, and offered TFI another opportunity to press for a business solution to address the railroads’ concerns about transporting anhydrous ammonia. West noted the importance of rail transportation to the fertilizer industry. “One railroad tank car can transport as much ammonia as four trucks,” he said. “Rail transportation is not only more efficient than trucks; it takes a highly hazardous commodity off our nation’s highways, where the potential for accident and public release are many times greater.”
West’s testimony also addressed issues related to the rail industry’s suggestion that the agricultural sector replace anhydrous ammonia with other nitrogen fertilizers, which West said is not realistic because ammonia is a primary ingredient needed to produce other nitrogen and most phosphate fertilizers.
In addition, West reminded STB members of a proposal whereby TFI members would be willing to enter into an agreement with Class I railroads, under which shippers would assume part of the cost of excess liability insurance for the rail transportation of anhydrous ammonia. The proposal, which received praise from STB Chairman Charles Nottingham during the hearing, has facilitated individual meetings between TFI and five of the seven Class I railroads, with the final two meetings taking place late last week.
West encouraged STB members to consider statutory provisions recently enacted by Congress that expand the railroads’ liability for damages resulting from their own negligence for accidents, including those involving the release of TIH materials, and reminded the board of the critical need for the railroads’ common carrier obligation to be upheld.
“There is no existing or economical substitute for anhydrous ammonia in the Cornbelt and in the production of phosphate fertilizer and no safer or more efficient mode of transportation for ammonia than by rail, and as a result it is imperative that STB recognize and maintain the obligation of the railroads to continue transporting this essential commodity,” he said.