On April 23, USA Today headlined the story, “Chlorine bombs pose new terror risk.” The story began by describing the Homeland Security Department’s warning to U.S. chemical plants and bomb squads to guard against a new form of terrorism, namely, chlorine truck bombs. At least five chlorine truck bombs have exploded in Iraq in recent months, resulting in the deaths of scores of people and injuries to many more as a result of breathing toxic fumes. The 150 lb tanks of chlorine used by the terrorist are extremely common and routinely used for the chlorination of municipal water supplies or the disinfection of wastewater.
The Chlorine Institute, which represents the more than 200 companies that produce and distribute chlorine, recently alerted the FBI to several thefts or attempted thefts of the 150-pound chlorine tanks from water treatment plants in California.
These events motivated members of the House Homeland Security Committee, to send a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff expressing "deep concern" for the potential threat posed by chlorine.
Chlorine gas was among the first chemical weapons to be used as a weapon in modern warfare. On April 15, 1915, German forces released about 160 tons of chlorine gas into the wind near the Belgian village of Ypres. The clouds of the gas drifted into Allied forces, killing some 5,000 soldiers. Two days later, another chlorine attack at the same village killed thousands more soldiers.
Chlorine was first used as a terrorist weapon in 1997, when a serial bomber detonated several chemical bombs containing chlorine across Sidney’s eastern suburbs that injured three dozen people. The universal use of chlorine for municipal water treatment, the relative ease with which the ubiquitous chlorine gas tanks can be obtained and the potential to cause massive casualties makes chlorine an uncommonly attractive weapon for terrorists.
Of course, now that Al Qaeda terrorists have had considerable success in chlorine bombing in IRAQ, much greater security will be required when transporting chlorine in future (whether in 150 lb tanks or railroad tanker cars) – not only in Iraq, but around the world.
However, another approach, which would largely eliminate the threat of chlorine as a terrorist weapon requires a simple modification of the current technology of treating water.
For years now, a great many pool owners have invested in chlorine generators which freshly generate chlorine for direct dissolution into their swimming pools. Starting with sodium chloride, a brine is made which then goes through a low voltage electrolytic cell to produce chlorine.
Using the same principal, John Hays, the water plant superintendent for the city of Washington, IA constructed his own electrolytic chlorine generator to serve the million gallon per day water needs for his town. In fact, his design is now under patent review and is the first fully functional municipal class chlorine generator.
John indicated that he began looking at alternatives to chlorine gas for both safety and cost concerns, and electrolytic chlorination seemed to offer the lowest overall cost of capital investment and ongoing operational cost. In a personal communication to the Salt Institute, John indicated that he could now accomplish the same chlorination levels for one third to one quarter the cost of conventional treatments.
On May 10, 2007, NSF International announced that John’s Hays’ Washington, IA water treatment facility was the first to be certified by NSF International to ensure its chlorination system met all national standard requirements.
The Washington, IA chlorine generator uses conventional evaporated salt as it’s starting material – a commodity that presents no terrorist hazards whatsoever. In fact, with the relatively small capital outlay and the operational cost-effectiveness, this new system can completely eliminate the threat posed by conventional chlorine stockpiles and distribution, while significantly reducing the costs of producing high quality drinking water. If ever there was a win-win situation, this is it.
Communities across America should be encouraged to use their Homeland Security funds just for this purpose.
