July 11, 2005
Louis N. Molino, Sr.

In a report to Congress the Congressional Research Service recently ranked states with high numbers of sites that have what the report called 'Pre-Positioned Weapons of Mass Destruction.' Most people call them chemical plants and we all know that Texas has a great many of them. The report details the number of chemical facilities in each state that could make a tempting target for terrorists. The timing of the report is ominous given recent events in the United Kingdom that reminded the entire world of how a terrorist attack can come at anytime and at any place.

To further complicate this issue is that fact that the Bush administration recently admitted that the voluntary approach to securing chemical plants that they had supported has seemingly failed. The Senate, through a committee, is drafting proposed new rules for chemical plant security.

The report concluded that Texas has the most facilities endangering over a million people each with at least 28. It was followed by Illinois (12); California (11); Ohio (8), Florida and New Jersey (7 each).

The report bases the numbers on how many plants are covered by the federal Environmental Protection Agencies "Risk Management Program" and then groups facilities covered by that program according to the number of people they potentially put at risk in the event of a catastrophic toxic release.

To be covered by the program, a facility must use or store a large quantity of one or more chemicals that are extremely toxic to inhale or extremely explosive. In recent congressional testimony Stephen Flynn, a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, described these facilities as "pre-positioned Weapons of Mass Destruction".

The Senates Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee has committed to drafting legislation to provide more stringent and structured federal rules by the end of the summer. To date at least two hearings on this topic have been held. Previous legislation, authored and championed by Senator Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), stalled after a lobbying campaign by the White House and the American Chemistry Council, an industry lobbying group, in 2002.