[iwar] [fc:Water.regulators'.struggle:.Information.or.security?]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-11-13 19:09:09


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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Water.regulators'.struggle:.Information.or.security?]
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Water regulators' struggle: Information or security?   
Water Technology Online, 11/13/2001
<a href="http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?mode=4&N_ID=27166">http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?mode=4&N_ID=27166>

WASHINGTON - Environmental regulators are struggling with the issue of
how to give the public information about chemical and biological
hazards, while at the same time prevent that information from getting
into the hands of terrorists. 
Jeremiah Baumann, an environmental health advocate for the US Public
Interest Research Group, told a House subcommittee on water resources
and environment that the right to know is a proven tool for increasing
public safety, the Associated Press reported.

But Amy E. Smithson, a chemical and biological weapons analyst for the
Henry L. Stimson Center think tank, said information should be made more
difficult to obtain, the news service said.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) two years ago created the
Office of Environmental Information (OEI) to work out such difficulties. 
But the 11 September terror attacks have made things that much harder,
regulators are finding. 
EPA spokeswoman Elaine Stanley said the agency is aware that a balance
is needed between protecting sensitive information in the interest of
national security and maintaining access to the information that
citizens can use to protect their health, AP reported.

To date, the only information the EPA has removed from its Web site
deals with risk management plans for industrial plants that handle
hazardous chemicals, Stanley said in the article. Those plans are
required under the Clean Air Act. 
But according to Smithson, the EPA's decision during the Clinton
Administration to post those plans on the Internet for some 15,000
plants was a bad one.

Stanley, who heads OEI's efforts on information analysis and access,
said EPA has developed four criteria since the terrorist attacks to
judge how delicately its information should be handled, AP reported.
Some of its information is now restricted to reading rooms requiring
proper identification. 
According to AP, the first criteria, based on "type," includes a plant's
location and what types of chemicals it has. The second, "specificity,"
assesses the level of detail available for a plant. Third,
"connectivity," is used to examine how well separate pieces of
information can be applied to a particular disaster scenario. And
fourth, "availability," accounts for how much control EPA has over the
information.

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