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Although government officials and lawmakers moved swiftly after the attacks on New York and Washington to address security lapses at airports, municipal water facilities and nuclear power plants, the government has done little to shore up security at thousands of chemical plants and has left it up to industry leaders to make changes as they see fit. Efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency and a homeland security interagency task force to devise security ground rules for the chemical industry have been frustrated by divisions within the administration and strong opposition from the industry, according to administration sources and environmental activists.

Moreover, congressional Democrats and the Natural Resources Defense Council say the Justice Department is far behind schedule in preparing a detailed assessment of vulnerabilities in the operation of chemical plants and the transportation of hazardous chemicals. Justice officials sent Congress a sketchy, top-secret interim report last week affirming widespread security problems, according to sources, but the department won't be able to meet an August deadline set by Congress for the final report.

"I find it very worrisome that the administration will not meet the August deadline," Rep. John D. Dingell (Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said this week. Administration officials said that, despite delays, they were confident the government would act this year. "This is a matter of concern and we expect to address it in a timely and appropriate fashion," a senior EPA official said.

Experts and lawmakers say there is little doubt that the chemical industry remains a large target of opportunity for terrorists.

At least 123 plants keep amounts of toxic chemicals that, if released through explosions or other mishaps, could form deadly vapor clouds that would put more than 1 million people in danger, an EPA analysis found. More than 700 plants could put at least 100,000 people at risk.

The chemical industry has beefed up security -- mostly building new fences, hiring more guards and eliminating stockpiles of deadly chlorine gas and other hazardous materials. Recently, industry officials adopted guidelines for assessing and correcting vulnerabilities at about 1,000 plants, a fraction of the facilities with potential security problems. Yet there is no federal counterterrorism security standard for chemical plants or refineries, and there is no way to assure citizens that chemical and oil companies are taking adequate precautions, according to environmental and community groups. "We need a vigorous federal program to reduce chemical hazards and improve site security," said Paul Orum, director of the Working Group on Community Right to Know.

Chris VandenHeuvel, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, an Arlington-based trade group that represents firms such as Dow Chemical Co. and ExxonMobil Corp., said new legislation or government mandates would merely "slow down our efforts."

Initially, the administration was inclined to leave security matters to the chemical industry, but subsequently an interagency group chaired by the Office of Homeland Security and EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman began developing a set of security principles.

The principles are similar to those mapped out by industry officials, but they would cover a much larger universe -- the 15,000 chemical, water and waste-treatment plants that handle large quantities of dangerous chemicals. The plants would be required to conduct vulnerability assessments and then develop and implement steps for tightening security and reducing hazards, all subject to EPA certification. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge was so pleased with the proposals that two weeks ago he suggested an immediate media "rollout," saying the industry should support them because "we're not asking them to do anything they're not already claiming to do," according to an administration source. But the announcement was temporarily delayed in the face of resistance from the Justice Department and the chemical industry.

So far, the only measure the Justice Department has been willing to support is a bill drafted by Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) that would strictly curtail future public access to detailed information about the risks posed to people living near chemical plants. Bond, an industry ally, contends that the community-right-to-know law, requiring chemical plants to disclose their worst-case scenarios for accidents, would enable terrorists to obtain "a virtual blueprint for their attacks."

But environmentalists say Bond hasexaggerated the sensitivity of information now made public. They also say Bond and Justice Department officials are working together to kill Corzine's bill, which would mandate vulnerability assessments and industry action.

Source: The Washington Post Company