Jon S. Corzine: “the primary topic I will talk about today is the markup tomorrow with regard to chemical plant security. The…”

“the primary topic I will talk about today is the markup tomorrow with regard to chemical plant security. The Environmental and Public Works Committee will take up legislation dealing with one of the most serious security threats to our Nation. According to statistics by EPA, there are 123 facilities in 24 States where a chemical release could expose more than a million people to a toxic chemical, and nearly 3,000 facilities spread across 49 States where 10,000 people could be exposed. This is a serious issue that can create real health and safety hazards to our community, particularly in a time when we know we are under potential terrorist attack at home. This is an issue that has been identified by the Department of Homeland Security and by almost every security expert as one of the most serious exposures we have in our infrastructure. When we go from code yellow to code orange, chemical plants are identified as part of the infrastructure that needs to be hardened in those events. It seems to me we need to be addressing this matter.”