N.J. first to regulate chemical plant security

Here is a story I wrote back in December for a project about New Jersey's preparedness for an attack of chemical terrorism. Here is an information graphic I made prior to the mandate, which explains why a mandate like this took so long, and why it is such big news.

On Nov. 29, the governor's office announced that the New Jersey state government will mandate security requirements at private chemical plants.

It is the first order like it in the nation.

Bradley M. Campbell, the state's environmental protection commissioner, said companies that do not comply can be taken to court and assessed monetary penalties, the Associated Press reported.

"Gov. Codey's action makes it clear that domestic security measures are requirements, not voluntary measures," Campbell said, according to the Associated Press.

The plant security order came four years after Senator Jon S. Corzine, D-N.J., proposed the Chemical Security Act to regulate chemical plant security on a national level — in October of 2001. Until this order, the chemical industry had successfully lobbied against similar legislation.

New Jersey's chemical industry is not pleased.

"Here you have an industry that has been cooperating with the state and acting on our own," Elvin Montero, a spokesman for the Chemistry Council of New Jersey, said according to the Associated Press. "Prior to 9/11, we were working on this, and since then we've spent over $100 million doing it. They are ending that spirit of cooperation by mandating things."

Evan Gottesman, legislative assistant to Corzine who has worked on federal chemical security legislation, said in an e-mail on Nov. 10 that federal chemical plant security legislation has recently gained political support and momentum. "The importance and urgency of this issue has been recognized by national security experts, members of Congress from both parties, and by the Administration," he said.

However, the four year delay has left Americans at risk. "Delays in enacting chemical security legislation are indeed dangerous," Gottesman said. "Unsecured toxic chemicals are the equivalent of prepositioned weapons of mass destruction which could be used by terrorists to kill tens of thousands of Americans."

Gottesman said, "The main problem now is that, while there are many facilities that have taken steps, in the absence of federal legislation, there is no way to require facilities to act, or even a way to know the full extent of the problem." New Jersey is the first state in the United States to no longer have this problem.

Still, more problems remain. The New York Times ran a story in May where a team of reporters wandered into a chemical plant without being stopped.

Mike Kelly wrote for The Bergen County Record on Oct. 1, "In the wake of London's subway bombing, we hear much about bomb-sniffing dogs in New York's subways, rapid-response teams at the U.S. Capitol, and all manner of high-tech gadgetry, costing millions. But in another sense, America's war on terror is being fought by cops in small towns like Kearny on the western edge of Hudson County."

A cop there, he reported, said, "It's basically a shell game we play" and "You can't cover all the bases all the time."

Another cop told him that they should have more officers patrolling the Kuehne Chemical Plant, but homeland security funding ran out. Kelly reported, "Even though security throughout America was upgraded after the London attacks, no extra Kearny cops were assigned to guard Kuehne. The town has no extra money." To read about more problems with homeland security funding, click here.

Kelly also quoted Kuehne's risk management plan, which was filed with the federal government in 1999. It described a worst-case scenario, which explains why so many are concerned about attacks of chemical terrorism: "Fully loaded railroad tank car releases all its chlorine within 10 minutes. The resulting cloud of chlorine vapor would be immediately dangerous to both life and health for a distance exceeding 14 miles. The total population within this radius is approximately 12 million."

"Terrorists could kill more than a million people through an attack on any of seven New Jersey chemical plants, according to a new congressional study that found deadly threats from lax security in general at chemical facilities across the country," The Star-Ledger reported on July 6.

Some say the disaster planning for an attack on a chemical plant is adequate. When there was a harmless chlorine gas leak at a chemical plant in Kearny at the end of September, the plant workers and local health officials put their disaster plan into action.

Neal Buccino, spokesman for the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, said, according to The Jersey Journal, "You can look at this as a chance to practice the local emergency action plan and it went well."

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Sources:
The Associated Press, Wayne Parry, "NJ, chemical plants tussle over security requirements," November 29, 2005.

The Jersey Journal, Michaelangelo Conte, "Went to Disaster Plan," October 1, 2005.

The Record (Bergen County, N.J.), Mike Kelly, "One town's war on terror," July 17, 2005.

The New York Times, David Kocieniewski, "Facing the City, Potential Targets Rely on a Patchwork of Security," May 7, 2005.

The Star-Ledger, Robert Cohen and J. Scott Orr, "113 chemical plants (7 in N.J.) deemed deadliest if attacked," July 6, 2005.