On November 25, 2002, President Bush signed the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (Pub.L.No.107-295 MTSA).  This new law will become effective by early July and requires structures or facilities located adjacent to any waters to conduct a security vulnerability assessment and submit a facility security plan to the United States Coast Guard by the end of 2003. 

Mr. James W. Conrad, Jr., American Chemistry Council, has written an insightful article about this new law, Summary of New and Existing Port Facility Security Legislation.  The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has established a docket (14069) for all comments generated which can be viewed at  http://dms.dot.gov/search/searchFormsSimple.cfm.  

Key documents to view include:

Watch this website for future updates and links to additional NVICs.