SOCMA: Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates

The Department of Homeland Security announced it has revised tiering assignments for a number of chemical facilities covered under CFATS, affecting some 500 plants, including SOCMA member operations.

Speaking at the Chemical Sector Security Summit last week in Baltimore, DHS’ Rick Driggers said that a review of the risk assessment computer programs, which DHS uses to help identify facilities that are high risk, revealed some anomalies. As a result, the department replaced modeling data in one part of the tool, potentially affecting the tiering assignments for facilities with certain chemical holdings. DHS subsequently re-evaluated the tiering assignments for those facilities and adjusted the tiering in some cases.

These changes affected 500 chemical facilities with Site Vulnerability Assessments based on Sabotage and Release Toxic scenarios, not Theft and Diversion, and the affected facilities represent 10 percent of all CFATS regulated facilities, Driggers said. The affected facilities were notified about the changes via an electronic letter on June 27. To read more about the tiering issue, click here.

For more information on CFATS tiering, contact Alexis Rudakewych at (202) 721-4198.