AWWA is
keeping a close eye on new developments in the area of chemical security. Last
week, the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee approved legislation to
reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism
Standards program, and to require a study on current exemptions
to the program. The water community is currently exempt from CFATS, because it
is already covered by other protective requirements and regulations such as the
provisions of Clean Air Act section 112(r), the Emergency Response and
Community Right to Know Act, and the Bioterrorism Act. However, the order to
study the exemptions from the CFATS program – while it doesn’t name the water
community specifically – is clearly aimed at water, and comes in response to
increasing pressure from the Obama Administration and certain members of
Congress to bring the water sector into the CFATS program. The full House has
not yet acted on the measure, but CFATS is expected to be reauthorized.
Canadian Water and Wastewater Association