CISA’s Office of Chemical Security (OCS) has updated their CFATS Monthly Statistics page to provide information on the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. The statistics reported involve activities for the Chemical Security Inspectors in support of the program during the month of March 2022 and the status of the facilities in the program at the end of the month. The number of activities reported continued at an above average level and the number of covered facilities increased for the fourth straight month.
CSI Activities
The table below provides a summary of the data that OCS has been reporting for the last four months concerning the activities conducted by CSI.
The Compliance Inspection numbers continue to be well above the average value we have been seeing since the start of the COVID pandemic restrictions. The other two activities are slightly lower than the average value. We should not read too much into that data; those activities are driven by the number of facilities preparing their site security plans for submission/approval.
Also, we have to remember that OCS is also supporting their ChemLock program with the current staff of CSI, so the numbers are not a good reflection of the workload of those folks.
Facility Status
The table below shows the status of facilities covered by the CFATS program at the end of the month.
While we see a continued increase in the number of covered facilities, the number of facilities with approved site security plans continues to decline. We have an increase in both the number of the new facilities tiered facilities and facilities with authorized site security plans that offsets the decline number of facilities with approved site security plans. It is hard to tell what the actual changes are in each category because of the advancement of facilities through categories as they progress in the writing and implementation of their site security plans.