The Department of Homeland Security released revised security regulations Tuesday to identify facilities that use, store, make or distribute certain levels of dangerous chemicals.
The regulations, posted to the Federal Register, are designed to help federal officials identify facilities and their chemicals that terrorists might target for attack or theft, the department said.
"The goal is to strengthen security at chemical facilities across the country," said Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa.
Under the rules -- released in April, but revised after some groups, including universities, complained -- companies and facilities with any of 300 "chemicals of interest" in amounts that exceed certain thresholds have 60 days to report both the chemical types and quantities on site.
"I understand the reasoning," said Madelyn Miller, director of environmental health and safety at Carnegie Mellon University. "They think that someone could walk around with a bucket and collect enough chemicals to sabotage some target.
"I think realistically that's pretty difficult, given the rarity of these chemicals at this university, (but) all universities are open, so there's a possibility of someone walking in."
If Homeland Security officials decide a facility is a high-level security risk, they can ask for vulnerability assessments and security plans.
Failure to report within 60 days could result in incremental punishments -- a written warning, a $25,000-a-day fine, and, ultimately, forced closure.
Beyond the largest chemical manufacturers and users, it is not clear who might be affected by the regulations, known as Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards, or CFATS.
Possible sites around Western Pennsylvania would include chemical factories, steel mills and water treatment centers.
Officials expect about 50,000 facilities across the country to report their chemicals, said Robert Stephan, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection, during a Nov. 5 news conference in Washington.
Of that total, Stephan estimated that 5,000 to 8,000 will be deemed high-risk facilities.
Some local universities might have chemicals exceeding federal thresholds.
University officials at several campuses said they store and use many chemicals for research projects. To create an inventory would be time-consuming and costly, they said.
Officials from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Penn State and Indiana University of Pennsylvania said they keep records of chemicals, but declined to say what they keep and how much. To comply with the regulations, they said, they intend to ask professors to submit records to see if chemicals in stock exceed thresholds.
"We have already run reports to see if we have some (of the chemicals of interest) on campus," said Miller at Carnegie Mellon.
Science students at Pitt said they believe security in the campus' Chevron Building, which houses many laboratories, is strong.
"If you really wanted to, you could (steal chemicals), but it's pretty safe," said Nathaniel Lempert, 19, a sophomore who takes chemistry in the building. "There are a lot of people in there checking who's taking the chemicals we use."
"It would be very hard," senior Nick Scutella, 21, said. "In labs, they know how much they're allocating. If any is missing, they're going to know. And we're usually using more diluted chemicals."
Homeland Security officials said the regulations are meant to target the largest chemical users and producers, not universities.
Officials believe the likelihood of university laboratories holding large quantities of industrial chemicals that could double as a terrorist's weapon is slight. But they want to make sure that every facility using highly flammable, explosive or toxic substances will monitor what is kept on site and alert law enforcement immediately if chemicals go missing.
Area plants and college labs are inventorying the amounts of common chemicals, including flammable propane, corrosive chlorine and explosive ammonium nitrate, which was used in the 1995 truck bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people.
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