Last week, I was in Houston, TX at the 2012 American Fuel & Petrochemicals Manufacturers (AFPM) Security Conference and Exhibition, formerly known as NPRA. The three-day Conference included exhibitors, attendees from both industry and government, and speakers who covered topicslike chemical security, safety and terrorism.
David Wulf, Deputy Director, Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), provided an update on the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. Mr. Wolf noted that ISCD has conditionality authorized 55 Tier 1s Site Security Plans (SSPs) is going to start reviewing Tier 2, 3, 4 SSPs and in the next few months. It intends to have all Tier 1 SSPs conditionally approved by the end of the year.
ISCD continues to incorporate lessons learned from the current SSP reviews to determine and better communicate the level of detail and clarity needed in each SSP. Mr. Wolf also explained that using an Alternate Security Program (ASP) is a good alternative to the SSP in some cases, and may be a way to move inspections and approvals along more quickly.
ISCD has also commissioned a chemical inspector working group to determine what a CFATS Authorization Inspection (AI) will look like and what tools inspectors need to conduct an AI. Those findings will then be utilized in chemical inspector training starting this summer.
I was pleased to see that ISCD is picking up the pace of Tier 1 SSP approvals and AIs and plans to move on to Tier 2, 3, and 4s in the coming months. Ensuring that chemical inspectors are properly trained will be essential to conducting AIs in an efficient and consistent manner. I’ll continue to follow all CFATS-related news, so be sure to visit the blog regularly for updates.
Ryan Loughin is Director of Petrochemical & Energy Solutions for the Advanced Integration division of ADT- www.adtbusiness.com/petrochem. He provides security education to CFATS and MTSA-affected companies and is a member of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA), Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Associates (SOCMA), Energy Security Council (ESC) and American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS). Loughin has also completed multiple levels of CVI Authorized User training (Chemical-Terrorism Vulnerability Information) which was authored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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