Security for Sale

On 9/11, we were told that nothing would be the same again. But in the Washington money game, where policy is shaped by the highest bidders, nothing has changed. Six months after 9/11, reporter Carl Prine of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review decided to find out how well chemical plants were protected from intruders. Not far from Pittsburgh, at a warehouse in Forward Township owned by Vopak, a leading chemical distributor, he spent more than an hour onsite without being accosted, even climbing atop chemical tanks and rail cars storing highly toxic chlorine. Vopak's warehouse is one of at least 123 plants nationwide where an accident or attack involving lethal chemicals could endanger more than 1 million people living nearby.

Over the next two months, Prine visited another thirty chemical factories, shippers and warehouses in Baltimore, Chicago and Houston. He found "safeguards so lax that a potential terrorist can easily reach massive tanks of toxins that endanger millions." Not only could a stranger enter unmolested, workers often gave him directions to the most sensitive valves and control rooms. More than half the plants had "no noticeable [security] cameras, fences or locks at all." A return investigation found few improvements.

For all the talk about terrorists getting their hands on WMDs overseas, huge stocks of highly dangerous and accessible chemicals are right here. But while nuclear power plants are already subject to tough federal security requirements, there are no mandatory federal security standards for chemical plants. The industry regulates itself.

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