Environmental Protection Agency Focus Meeting

The technical problems to be overcome were certainly formidable. The success of the symposium as well as the use of the converter on 1975 model year vehicles attest to the ingenuity and dedicated research effort put forth by the auto makers, catalyst companies, universities, and chemical and petroleum companies. The interaction of the representatives of these groups with the Environmental Protection Agency was also significant in that an appreciation of the EPA s assignment, as well as that of the auto companies, was brought into focus and resulted in a synergistic effort oriented to define a best possible solution to meet the 1975 deadline. 

I met with DHS S T representatives several times early in the study process to discuss the statement of task, data availability, and the departments objectives in commissioning this study. Based on these discussions and from discussions with DHS representatives at the committee s first meeting, it was agreed that this study should complement and not attempt to duplicate other ongoing activities such as the DHS Risk Analysis and Management for Critical Asset Protection (RAMCAP) and Environmental Protection Agency s (EPA s) Off-Site Consequence Analysis. Thus, the committee did not attempt to assess the effectiveness of current protective measures although called for in the statement of task this was a part of the DHS RAMCAP effort, which DHS representatives made clear should not be duplicated. As the statement of task indicates, the focus of this review is on the vulnerabilities of the supply chain as a whole rather than the vulnerability of individual chemical plants. 

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