DHS to Consider Chemical Data When Selecting Water Systems to Assess

In a recent report to Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should prioritize “high risk facilities” when planning voluntary on-site critical infrastructure vulnerability assessments for water and wastewater systems. GAO found that most water and wastewater facility surveys were not conducted at facilities with the largest amounts of threshold quantities of chemicals of interest. Therefore, GAO recommended that DHS consult Environmental Protection Agency data regarding water facilities that possess quantities of chemicals under thresholds set by the DHS Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program (e.g., 500 pounds for gaseous chlorine under one scenario). In a reply, DHS agreed to take such chemical data into consideration when determining which facilities to reach out to and assess.

The GAO report arose out of evaluation of sectors, such as the water sector, that are not regulated by DHS’s CFATS program. By statute, water and wastewater facilities are excluded from CFATS, but there are some who believe that should change, claiming that current programs are not protective enough. However, in further analysis in the report, GAO compared CFATS against requirements under America’s Water Infrastructure Act and the Risk Management Program that apply to the water sector. The report found that “these two programs do contain requirements or guidance that align with over half of the 18 CFATS program standards.” When combined with industry standards, all 18 are covered.

Read the report at GAO.