By Mickey McCarter, HSToday Senior Washington Correspondent

The US federal government has not been terribly effective tackling issues of transit and freight rail security, partly because it is difficult to separate the two under the jurisdictional authorities of Congress and federal agencies, according to P.J. Crowley, director of homeland security at the Center for American Progress.

While Crowley believes chemical security standards should address freight security issues, Congress and DHS have not moved to make a comprehensive link between the two. In its Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards released April 9, DHS is silent on the transportation of hazardous materials, which creates a gap in infrastructure security, Crowley argued.

"Looking at freight rail, DHS has implemented some additional rulemaking on that," Crowley noted. "It deals with restricting loiter time and improving the tracking of hazardous material and the hand-offs from one interchange to another. That's all useful, but it doesn't really solve the problem."

Congress and DHS must work together to minimize the possibility of an attack that could come from scenarios such as a HAZMAT rail car exploding by the US Capitol, Crowley said. One idea to explore, he added, is the use of inherently safer technology. Inherently safer technology involves switching the use of volatile chemicals in specific systems to those that would cause fewer deaths if released under a terrorist attack.

"Switching from chlorine gas to liquid bleach is the simplest example of that in terms of water disinfection," Crowley offered.

Some organizations, such as the American Chemistry Council oppose the application of inherently safer technology standards, arguing they are not cost-effective. Others, like the Association of American Railroads, see it as a means of improving security on freight rail systems through the removal of as much HAZMAT from rails as possible.

Rail Test Center

That's not to say the problem does not continue to weigh on the minds of DHS experts. The department announced May 11 that it would establish a Rail Test Center at the Port of Tacoma, Wash., to test technologies that would detect radiation in cargo that transfers from ship to rail.

"The deployment of radiation portal monitors can be much more challenging at seaports where cargo containers depart the port by rail," Vayl Oxford, director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), said in a statement. "DNDO is particularly interested in testing the operational needs as well as evaluating innovative technical solutions to fit the unique radiological and nuclear detection requirements of intermodal terminals. Advances in this area will provide greater capabilities to our partners such as the Customs and Border Protection, the United States Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration."

The SAFE Port Act of 2006 required DHS to establish the Rail Test Center, which may extend its testing capabilities to screening for cargo at other junctures, such as scanning cargo on the dock, while it is in transit to the rail yard, as it enters the rail yard, while it is in container storage, during train assembly, and as the train leaves the port, according to DHS.