Environmental regulation, public safety and national security: Case study of the response management plan program

Under the Community Right-to-Know provisions of the Clean Air Act and SARA, industrial and municipal sites that handle materials that could potentially result in emergency air releases were compelled to produce RMPs or Response Management Plans. These plans were to provide local response agencies and host communities with information on what to do in case of serious releases. These data were to be web published and available to the general public. Concerns were voiced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the implications for access of this information by terrorist groups and individuals. A classic conflict of public policy imperatives arose from conflicting missions of the agencies and their client bodies including the industries and communities in which the RMPs were produced. This paper will look at these conflicts in authorities, the stated positions of the involved agencies, the impacts of the change in Presidential administrations and potential pathways for resolving the conflicts through legal, political and social mechanisms.