Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards or CFATS is a
program that regulates and identifies high risk chemical facilities to make
sure that the proper security measures are in place. This program was approved
by congress in 2007. The Department of Homeland Security has chemical security
officers in all fifty states to enforce the regulations stated in the CFATS
program. CFAT was put in place to discover the consequence of a successful
attack on a facility (consequence), the likelihood that an attack on a facility
will be successful (vulnerability), and the intent and capability of an
adversary in respect to attacking a facility (threat).
In 2014, the President signed into law the Protecting and
Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2014 (“the CFATS Act
of 2014”), which recodifies and reauthorizes the CFATS program for four years.
This act revises the previous act and adds new regulations that did not
previously exist. The most important change is the establishment of an Expedited
Approval Program. This new program allows existing chemical facilities in Tiers
3 and 4 to move to an approved site security plan more quickly. Chemical facilities
must pass a CFAT inspection to be compliant with the required standard. First,
before the inspection takes place these chemical facilities that are given an
Appendix A Chemical of Interest and ends up above the threshold limit then has
60 days to complete a Security Vulnerability Assessment and submit it to the
Department of Homeland Security. A Security Vulnerability Assessment, which are
vital in identifying chemical facility vulnerabilities in security. After this
is submitted a chemical facility is given an initial Tier rating, 1 through 4. Then,
after this is completed a chemical facility’s next step is to make and
implement a Site Security Plan, which follow the CFATS requirements.
Appendix A, is a list of all the chemicals that are a
security issue. It was first published in 2007 but it has been updated since
then. These chemicals were chosen by the Department of Homeland Security
looking at chemicals covered by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk
Management Program, Chemicals included in the Chemical Weapons Convention, Hazardous
materials, such as gases that are poisonous by inhalation; and Explosives
regulated by the Department of Transportation. These chemicals are also split
into three separate security issues: release, theft or diversion, and sabotage.
Release is for chemicals that are flammable, toxic or explosive and when they
are released from a chemical facility it has the potential to be life
threatening or have severe adverse health effects. A theft or diversion
classification of chemicals are those of which when stolen or diverted have
potential to be used as weapons either directly or being converted into a
weapon to create adverse health effects for humans. Sabotage is for chemicals
that when mixed with other chemicals have the potential to create serious
adverse health effects for humans.
