Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:37:16 -0400
Reply-To: "Erik A. Talley" <erikt**At_Symbol_Here**ETALLEY.COM>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: "Erik A. Talley" <erikt**At_Symbol_Here**ETALLEY.COM>
Subject: DHS Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards
Below is a recent AP article on the new Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism
Standards that has been published in papers throughout the US. I've heard
the new Appendix A is supposed to be released soon.

Regards,

Erik Talley
CHAS Chair-elect

------------------------------------------------

Terror rules won't hurt chicken farmers

By Kristen Wyatt and Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press Writers  | October
17, 2007

WASHINGTON --Chicken farms aren't terror targets after all.

The Homeland Security Department is close to releasing a list of chemicals
to be included in new reporting regulations intended to keep dangerous
materials out of the hands of terrorists.

Under the revised list, poultry growers won't have to file complex risk
assessments for the propane they use to heat their chicken houses, two
sources familiar with the regulations said.

An original list of 344 chemicals -- some with specific weight thresholds --
was proposed in April and caused an uproar among businesses that assumed
they would be exempt from such terror-related reporting laws. Chicken farms
fell under the umbrella of any business with more than 7,500 pounds of
propane.

"It's just silly," said Pocomoke City, Md., chicken farmer Gary Pilchard who
has more than 7,500 pounds of propane at each of his six chicken houses.
"That's the problem sometimes in Washington. You get folks sitting behind a
desk, that might sound like a lot of propane, but in our world, that's not."

The rule ruffled other feathers as well.

Many of the chemicals on the department's list are found on college
campuses, but in small amounts. For instance, hydrogen chloride is used in
chemistry experiments in several Yale University labs, said Peter Reinhardt,
the school's director of environmental health and safety. 
Each lab could carry between 3 and 5 pounds of hydrogen chloride at any
given time, Reinhardt said. But on the Homeland Security chemicals list, any
amount of hydrogen chloride would need to be reported. Of the 344 chemicals
on the original list, businesses would have to report any amount of 105 of
them, including hydrogen chloride.

Toby Smith, a lobbyist with the Association of American Universities, said
he expects the list will change to include a threshold for all the
chemicals. "We do not expect to see any chemical have a threshold of 'any
amount,'" Smith said based on recent conversations with department
officials.

The department received about 4,000 comments on the original rule.

Lawmakers got behind the chicken farmers and fought for changes in the
reporting requirements. At least five senators, including Iowa's Republican
Chuck Grassley, wrote Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking
for the propane threshold to be raised or waived for farmers.

"To require farmers and small businesses to comply with these strict
requirements and burdensome costs seems ridiculously disproportionate to the
likelihood of a terrorist attack on an individual farm," Grassley wrote in
June.

Many felt the initial intent of the rule was aimed at major companies with
large amounts of chemicals.

"It was the kind of thing that would be in the regular course of business
for a Dow chemical plant, but it would've been completely befuddling for the
poultry farmer," said Richard Lobb, spokesman for the Washington-based
National Chicken Council.

A year ago Congress passed a law that gave the Homeland Security Department
the authority to regulate the nation's most hazardous chemical plants. The
list of chemicals is part of the regulations.

------

On the Net:

Homeland Security list of chemicals:

http://www.dhs.gov/xprevprot/laws/gc_1175537180929.shtm

(c) Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

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