II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1470

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.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 30, 1999

Mr. LAUTENBERG introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

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.

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Chemical Security Act

5 of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress finds that—
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1 (1) the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the

2 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

3 believe that the possibility of terrorist and criminal

4 attacks on chemical plants poses a serious threat to

5 human health, safety, and the environment;

6 (2) limiting public access to chemical accident

7 information does not address the underlying problem

8 of the vulnerability of chemical plants to criminal at9 tack; on the contrary, providing public access to

10 chemical accident information may create substantial

11 incentives to reduce such vulnerability;

12 (3) there are significant opportunities to pre13 vent criminal attack on chemical plants by employ14 ing inherently safer technologies in the manufacture

15 and use of chemicals; such technologies may offer in16 dustry substantial savings by reducing the need for

17 site security, secondary containment, buffer zones,

18 mitigation, and liability insurance;

19 (4) chemical plants have a general duty to de20 sign and maintain safe facilities to prevent criminal

21 activity that may result in harm to human health,

22 safety and the environment; and

23 (5) if the Attorney General determines that

24 chemical plants have not taken adequate actions to

25 protect themselves from criminal attack, the Attor-
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1 ney General must establish a program to ensure that

2 such actions are taken.

3 SEC. 3. PREVENTION OF CRIMINAL RELEASES.

4 (a) PURPOSE AND GENERAL DUTY.—Section

5 112(r)(1) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7412(r)(1)) is

6 amended by striking the second sentence and inserting the

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

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

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

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

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

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

13 accidental release or criminal release using appropriate

14 hazard assessment techniques, to ensure design and main15 tenance of safe facilities taking such actions as are nec16 essary to prevent accidental releases and criminal releases,

17 and to minimize the consequences of any accidental release

18 or criminal release that does occur.’’.

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

20 Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7412(r)(2)) is amended—

21 (1) by redesignating subparagraphs (B) and

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

23 (2) by inserting after subparagraph (A) the fol24 lowing:
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1 ‘‘(B) CRIMINAL RELEASE.—The term

2 ‘criminal release’ means—

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

4 from a stationary source into the environ5 ment that is caused, in whole or in part,

6 by a criminal act; and

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

8 a regulated substance that has been re9 moved from a stationary source, in whole

10 or in part, by a criminal act.

11 ‘‘(C) DESIGN AND MAINTENANCE OF SAFE

12 FACILITIES.—The term ‘design and mainte13 nance of safe facilities’ means, with respect to

14 the facilities at a stationary source, the prac15 tices of—

16 ‘‘(i) preventing or reducing the vulner17 ability of the stationary source to a release

18 of a regulated substance through use of in19 herently safer technology to the maximum

20 extent practicable;

21 ‘‘(ii) reducing any vulnerability of the

22 stationary source that remains after taking

23 the measures described in clause (i)

24 through secondary containment, control, or
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1 mitigation equipment to the maximum ex2 tent practicable;

3 ‘‘(iii) reducing any vulnerability of the

4 stationary source that remains after taking

5 the measures described in clauses (i) and

6 (ii) by—

7 ‘‘(I) making the facilities impreg8 nable to intruders to the maximum

9 extent practicable; and

10 ‘‘(II) improving site security and

11 employee training to the maximum ex12 tent practicable; and

13 ‘‘(iv) reducing the potential con14 sequences of any vulnerability of the sta15 tionary source that remains after taking

16 the measures described in clauses (i)

17 through (iii) through the use of buffer

18 zones between the stationary source and

19 surrounding populations (including buffer

20 zones between the stationary source and

21 residences, schools, hospitals, senior cen22 ters, shopping centers and malls, sports

23 and entertainment arenas, public roads

24 and transportation routes, and other popu25 lation centers).
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1 ‘‘(D) USE OF INHERENTLY SAFER TECH2 NOLOGY.—

3 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘use of

4 inherently safer technology’ means use of a

5 technology, product, raw material, or prac6 tice that, as compared to the technology,

7 products, raw materials, or practices cur8 rently in use—

9 ‘‘(I) reduces or eliminates the

10 possibility of release of a toxic, vola11 tile, corrosive, or flammable substance

12 prior to secondary containment, con13 trol, or mitigation; and

14 ‘‘(II) reduces or eliminates the

15 hazards to public health and the envi16 ronment associated with the release or

17 potential release of a substance de18 scribed in subclause (I).

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

20 inherently safer technology’ includes input

21 substitution, process redesign, product re22 formulation, procedure simplification, and

23 technology modification so as to—

24 ‘‘(I) use less hazardous or benign

25 substances;
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1 ‘‘(II) moderate pressures or tem2 peratures;

3 ‘‘(III) reduce the likelihood and

4 potential consequences of human

5 error;

6 ‘‘(IV) improve inventory control

7 and chemical use efficiency; and

8 ‘‘(V) reduce or eliminate storage,

9 transportation, and handling of haz10 ardous chemicals.’’.

11 (c) DETERMINATION AND REGULATIONS.—Section

12 112(r) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7412(r)) is amend13 ed by adding at the end the following:

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

15 ‘‘(A) DETERMINATION OF ADEQUACY.—

16 Not later than 1 year after the date of enact17 ment of this paragraph, the Attorney General,

18 in consultation with the Administrator, shall de19 termine whether the owners or operators of sta20 tionary sources have taken adequate actions, in21 cluding the design and maintenance of safe fa22 cilities, to detect, prevent, and minimize the

23 consequences of criminal releases that may

24 cause substantial harm to public health, safety,

25 and the environment.
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1 ‘‘(B) CHEMICAL SECURITY REGULA2 TIONS.—If the Attorney General determines,

3 under subparagraph (A), that adequate actions

4 have not been taken, the Attorney General, in

5 consultation with the Administrator, shall pro6 mulgate, not later than 2 years after the date

7 of enactment of this paragraph, requirements to

8 ensure that owners or operators of stationary

9 sources take adequate actions, including the de10 sign and maintenance of safe facilities, to de11 tect, prevent, and minimize the consequences of

12 criminal releases that may cause substantial

13 harm to public health, safety, and the environ14 ment.’’.

15 SEC. 4. REGULATIONS.

16 The Administrator of the Environmental Protection

17 Agency and the Attorney General may promulgate such

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

19 amendments made by this Act.

20 SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

21 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Ad22 ministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and

23 the Attorney General such sums as are necessary to carry
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1 out this Act and the amendments made by this Act, to

2 remain available until expended.

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