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Analysis: Chemical Plant Imbalance

Council on Foreign Relations

December 11, 2006
Prepared by: Eben Kaplan

The 9/11 attacks thrust chemical facilities into the spotlight as another potential high-impact target for terrorists. But security experts say the U.S.government has taken inadequate steps to protect such facilities despite well-documented shortcomings. Though most of America’s 15,000 chemical facilities are reasonably secure, some have displayed such serious shortcomings that they could endanger millions of people. A new Backgrounder assesses these vulnerabilities and efforts to address them.

CFR Senior Fellow Stephen E. Flynn recently graded the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and gave chemical plant security the lowest mark. Flynn called it “totally unsatisfactory in light of the threat that some very deadly chemicals can pose.” His assessment is the latest in a string of negative reports on safeguards for chemical plants, including reviews by the Government Accountability Office (PDF) and the Congressional Research Service (PDF).

Anecdotal evidence also points to lax security. Just months after the World Trade Center fell, Carl Prine, a reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, investigated chemical plant security and found troubling results: He gained access to facilities that could endanger more than a million people and in some cases found employees “gave directions to the most sensitive valves and control rooms.” Two years later, 60 Minutesrepeated Prine’s experiment, reaching similar results.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.