Proposed Rules for Securing Chemical Plants Released

Companies Would Be Required to Submit to the Government Their Plans for Protecting Themselves

The nation's chemical companies would have to submit to new security inspections and provide the government with plans for protecting themselves from terrorist attacks under proposed rules released yesterday by the Department of Homeland Security.

The rules, scheduled to take effect April 4, closely follow the recommendations of the chemical industry and result from legislation President Bush signed into law in October.

Companies would be required to assess their own vulnerabilities and provide the government with plans for fixing them under the new rules, which were released for public comment. Industry representatives welcomed their arrival.

"They are following the structure that Congress outlined," said Scott Jensen, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, which represents the largest chemical makers. "The idea here is to set a security level that they want these facilities to achieve, commensurate with the risk that each facility represents."

The council's 133 members lobbied for the new rules and have spent $3.5 billion on security upgrades at their 2,000 facilities since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Jensen said.

Companies would have to conduct background checks on employees and better control access or face possible fines of as much as $25,000 a day and the risk of being shut down. But they may also contest government disapproval of their security plans.

Congress will probably have more than a little to say about the proposed new rules next month, in view of the reaction yesterday from critics, who included Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the outgoing chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Collins, who co-wrote the legislation calling for the rules with Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), the committee's incoming chairman, said the department is going too far in some areas, such as by assigning itself the power to preempt the legal authority of states and courts.

Democrats, who will take control of Congress next month, view the new rules as too soft on industry and have sought to require manufacturers, in some cases, to replace toxic materials with safer but more expensive substitutes.

Department of Homeland Security officials, however, say that the proposed rules, along with tighter security and the tracking of rail shipments of highly toxic materials, would reduce the likelihood of a chemical attack by terrorists.