I

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 5623

To amend the Clean Air Act to ensure that adequate actions are taken

to detect, prevent, and minimize the consequences of accidental releases

that result from criminal activity that may cause substantial harm to

public health, safety, and the environment and to ensure that the public

has access to information regarding hazardous chemicals in the community and the potential for accidental releases of those chemicals, and

for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

NOVEMBER 2, 2000

Mr. HOLT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee

on Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Clean Air Act to ensure that adequate actions

are taken to detect, prevent, and minimize the consequences of accidental releases that result from criminal

activity that may cause substantial harm to public

health, safety, and the environment and to ensure that

the public has access to information regarding hazardous

chemicals in the community and the potential for accidental releases of those chemicals, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Chemical Security and

3 Right to Know Act of 2000’’.

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

5 Congress finds that—

6 (1) the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the

7 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

8 believe that the possibility of terrorist and criminal

9 attacks on chemical plants poses a serious threat to

10 human health, safety, and the environment;

11 (2) limiting public access to chemical accident

12 information does not address the underlying problem

13 of the vulnerability of chemical plants to criminal at14 tack; on the contrary, providing public access to

15 chemical accident information may create substantial

16 incentives to reduce such vulnerability;

17 (3) there are significant opportunities to pre18 vent criminal attack on chemical plants by employ19 ing inherently safer technologies in the manufacture

20 and use of chemicals; such technologies may offer in21 dustry substantial savings by reducing the need for

22 site security, secondary containment, buffer zones,

23 mitigation, and liability insurance;

24 (4) chemical plants have a general duty to de25 sign and maintain safe facilities to prevent criminal
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1 activity that may result in harm to human health,

2 safety and the environment; and

3 (5) if the Attorney General determines that

4 chemical plants have not taken adequate actions to

5 protect themselves from criminal attack, the Attor6 ney General must establish a program to ensure that

7 such actions are taken.

8 SEC. 3. PREVENTION OF CRIMINAL RELEASES.

9 (a) PURPOSE AND GENERAL DUTY.—Section

10 112(r)(1) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7412(r)(1)) is

11 amended by striking the second sentence and inserting the

12 following: ‘‘Each owner and each operator of a stationary

13 source that produces, processes, handles, or stores such

14 a substance has a general duty in the same manner and

15 to the same extent as the duty imposed under section 5

16 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29

17 U.S.C. 654) to identify hazards that may result from an

18 accidental release or criminal release using appropriate

19 hazard assessment techniques, to ensure design and main20 tenance of safe facilities taking such actions as are nec21 essary to prevent accidental releases and criminal releases,

22 and to minimize the consequences of any accidental release

23 or criminal release that does occur.’’.

24 (b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 112(r)(2) of the Clean

25 Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7412(r)(2)) is amended—
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1 (1) by redesignating subparagraphs (B) and

2 (C) as subparagraphs (E) and (F), respectively; and

3 (2) by inserting after subparagraph (A) the fol4 lowing:

5 ‘‘(B) CRIMINAL RELEASE.—The term

6 ‘criminal release’ means—

7 ‘‘(i) a release of a regulated substance

8 from a stationary source into the environ9 ment that is caused, in whole or in part,

10 by a criminal act; and

11 ‘‘(ii) a release into the environment of

12 a regulated substance that has been re13 moved from a stationary source, in whole

14 or in part, by a criminal act.

15 ‘‘(C) DESIGN AND MAINTENANCE OF SAFE

16 FACILITIES.—The term ‘design and mainte17 nance of safe facilities’ means, with respect to

18 the facilities at a stationary source, the prac19 tices of—

20 ‘‘(i) preventing or reducing the vulner21 ability of the stationary source to a release

22 of a regulated substance through use of in23 herently safer technology to the maximum

24 extent practicable;
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1 ‘‘(ii) reducing any vulnerability of the

2 stationary source that remains after taking

3 the measures described in clause (i)

4 through secondary containment, control, or

5 mitigation equipment to the maximum ex6 tent practicable;

7 ‘‘(iii) reducing any vulnerability of the

8 stationary source that remains after taking

9 the measures described in clauses (i) and

10 (ii) by—

11 ‘‘(I) making the facilities impreg12 nable to intruders to the maximum

13 extent practicable; and

14 ‘‘(II) improving site security and

15 employee training to the maximum ex16 tent practicable; and

17 ‘‘(iv) reducing the potential con18 sequences of any vulnerability of the sta19 tionary source that remains after taking

20 the measures described in clauses (i)

21 through (iii) through the use of buffer

22 zones between the stationary source and

23 surrounding populations (including buffer

24 zones between the stationary source and

25 residences, schools, hospitals, senior cen-
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1 ters, shopping centers and malls, sports

2 and entertainment arenas, public roads

3 and transportation routes, and other popu4 lation centers).

5 ‘‘(D) USE OF INHERENTLY SAFER TECH6 NOLOGY.—

7 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘use of

8 inherently safer technology’ means use of a

9 technology, product, raw material, or prac10 tice that, as compared to the technology,

11 products, raw materials, or practices cur12 rently in use—

13 ‘‘(I) reduces or eliminates the

14 possibility of release of a toxic, vola15 tile, corrosive, or flammable substance

16 prior to secondary containment, con17 trol, or mitigation; and

18 ‘‘(II) reduces or eliminates the

19 hazards to public health and the envi20 ronment associated with the release or

21 potential release of a substance de22 scribed in subclause (I).

23 ‘‘(ii) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘use of

24 inherently safer technology’ includes input

25 substitution, process redesign, product re-
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1 formulation, procedure simplification, and

2 technology modification so as to—

3 ‘‘(I) use less hazardous or benign

4 substances;

5 ‘‘(II) moderate pressures or tem6 peratures;

7 ‘‘(III) reduce the likelihood and

8 potential consequences of human

9 error;

10 ‘‘(IV) improve inventory control

11 and chemical use efficiency; and

12 ‘‘(V) reduce or eliminate storage,

13 transportation, and handling of haz14 ardous chemicals.’’.

15 (c) DETERMINATION AND REGULATIONS.—Section

16 112(r) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7412(r)) is amend17 ed by adding at the end the following:

18 ‘‘(12) PREVENTION OF CRIMINAL RELEASES.—

19 ‘‘(A) DETERMINATION OF ADEQUACY.—

20 Not later than 1 year after the date of enact21 ment of this paragraph, the Attorney General,

22 in consultation with the Administrator, shall de23 termine whether the owners or operators of sta24 tionary sources have taken adequate actions, in25 cluding the design and maintenance of safe fa-
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1 cilities, to detect, prevent, and minimize the

2 consequences of criminal releases that may

3 cause substantial harm to public health, safety,

4 and the environment.

5 ‘‘(B) CHEMICAL SECURITY REGULA6 TIONS.—If the Attorney General determines,

7 under subparagraph (A), that adequate actions

8 have not been taken, the Attorney General, in

9 consultation with the Administrator, shall pro10 mulgate, not later than 2 years after the date

11 of enactment of this paragraph, requirements to

12 ensure that owners or operators of stationary

13 sources take adequate actions, including the de14 sign and maintenance of safe facilities, to de15 tect, prevent, and minimize the consequences of

16 criminal releases that may cause substantial

17 harm to public health, safety, and the environ18 ment.’’.

19 (d) PUBLIC RIGHT-TO-KNOW.—Effective 3 years

20 after the enactment of this Act section 112(r)(7)(H) of

21 the Clean Air Act is amended to read as follows:

22 ‘‘(H) PUBLIC ACCESS TO RISK MANAGE23 MENT PLANS.—The Administrator shall make

24 each risk management plan submitted to the

25 Administrator by an owner or operator of a sta-
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1 tionary source under subparagraph (B) avail2 able to the public in electronic form on the

3 Internet. The Administrator shall also make a

4 paper version of each such plan available to the

5 public at appropriate offices of the Environ6 mental Protection Agency and permit members

7 of the public to make copies of such plan or any

8 portion thereof.’’.

9 SEC. 4. REGULATIONS.

10 The Administrator of the Environmental Protection

11 Agency and the Attorney General may promulgate such

12 regulations as are necessary to carry out this Act and the

13 amendments made by this Act.

14 SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

15 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Ad16 ministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and

17 the Attorney General such sums as are necessary to carry

18 out this Act and the amendments made by this Act, to

19 remain available until expended.

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