Standing in front of fuel tanks in Rochester, Schumer said that chemical facilities posed a major terrorism risk to the state, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported.

"Except for -- God forbid -- nuclear, the danger coming from these chemical plants is probably the worst that we face here. We're not here to point fingers at the chemical industry. ... They've received no guidelines from the federal government," Schumer said according to the report.

Schumer barnstormed throughout western New York State, pushing the case for far stronger federal legislation on chemical security. His campaign came only six days after the Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives gave a boost to legislation strengthening security at chemical plants around the United States.

The whole committee, apart from two Democratic members, voted in favor of the measure. The bipartisan bill, H.R. 5695, was approved 16-2. It came just weeks after similar legislation was approved by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The two pieces of legislation will have to be reconciled in a Capitol Hill conference.

In general, congressional Democrats have worked in a bipartisan manner with their Republican counterparts in preparing the new legislation on chemical security. Also, the U.S. chemical industry has taken voluntary actions in recent years to boost the security of chemical plants around the United States.

However, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report earlier this year said the voluntary activities did not remotely go far enough towards beefing up chemical plant security around the Untied States.

In fact, Republican lawmakers have also been pushing for federal, as opposed to individual state, safety standards being set for the inspection of chemical plant security around the nation. But critics charge that the Bush administration and its Department of Homeland Security have been too slow in taking action on the issue. The GAO report gave impetus to the legislation that has been making its way through Congress.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 123 U.S. facilities handling hazardous materials could threaten more than a million people if they were attacked, and another 700 smaller ones could threaten more than 100,000 people each.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee wanted to boost funding for security and first responder preparations in the event of any chemical attack. But his amendment to boost DHS funding to $40.8 billion to cover this and other security programs was defeated by 16 votes to 13 along straight Republican versus Democratic party lines.

The House measure, introduced by Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., and by Thompson would allow the DHS to regulate companies that work with chemicals, and require that they conduct vulnerability assessments to be reviewed by the DHS.

The DHS would also rank chemical facilities into one of four tiers based on risk. Facilities would be able to determine what measures to take in order to meet the new safety standards set by the Homeland Security secretary.

The legislation would still allow state and local governments to enforce stricter chemical safety laws, but only if those requirements do not "frustrate" federal requirements.

On July 7, the DHS announced it would release $400 million in Fiscal Year 2006 funding to protect critical infrastructure sites across the United States, including chemical facilities, through the Infrastructure Protection Grant Program.

However, chemical security remained the Cinderella issue in that funding program. The DHS said it would distribute about $136 million for transit systems across the country; $168 million for seaports; $48 million in so-called buffer zone protection grants; and only $25 million in chemical sector grants.

Yet experts agree that the potential danger of terrorist attacks at chemical plants across the United States is almost as great -- and is even more widespread -- than attacks on civilian nuclear reactors.

The study was performed at the request of Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who asked the Congressional Research Service to analyze risk-management plans and maps that plants provide to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The study estimated that half of Utah's population could be harmed by toxic gas if terrorists attacked a state chemical storage facility.

Most of the concern in recent months in the chemical safety debate has focused on the potential dangers posed by so-called toxic-by-inhalation chemicals like chlorine gas. A successful attack on one of the 90-ton chlorine rail cars that ply the line through downtown Washington during a major public event on the Mall could kill tens of thousands of people, according to a study by the U.S. military.

Chlorine was one of the poison gases most used in World War I. Some 650,000 British, French and German troops were killed or seriously injured by it.

Many U.S. water and sewer utility companies have abandoned toxic chlorine and switched to safer laundry bleach to keep their facilities free of harmful infections and bacteria. However, this so far has been a voluntary and patchwork response.

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