What is Being Done to Protect the
Nation's Water Infrastructure?

EPA's Water Protection Task Force and Regional Offices, working with many partners, are taking actions to improve the security of the nation's drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. The actions underway are to:

• Provide direct grant assistance to large, publicly owned drinking water facilities;
• Support development of tools, training and technical assistance for small and medium drinking water, and wastewater utilities; and
• Promote information sharing, and research to improve treatment and detection methods.

Financial Assistance

U.S. EPA received supplemental appropriations from Congress this fiscal year, to support counter terrorism activities in the states and at drinking water and wastewater utilities.

Assistance to Large Drinking Water Systems - EPA is providing grant assistance to large (regularly serving over 100,000 people) publicly owned and now privately-owned systems, for up to $115,000 to develop a vulnerability assessment (VA), emergency response/operating plan (EOP), security enhancement plans and designs, or a combination of these efforts.

More information is available:

• New  --  Request for Grant Applications (RFA) (PDF, 135KB) for Grants from Large, Privately-Owned Drinking Water Utilities,
• Revised  --  Fact Sheet: with more information on the grant program,
• Updates on What You Need to Know for grant applicants and recipients,
• The Request for Grant Applications (RFA) from Large, Publicly-Owned Drinking Water Utilities,
• List of utilities awarded grants

Financial assistance to implement security measures may also be available from state Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) programs. See a Fact Sheet (PDF, 78KB) for more information.

Training

-- The Water Environment Federation (WEF) will be providing training to facilitate understanding and application of tools and resources, including Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies' (AMSA) new wastewater security training software or VSAT and the development and upgrade of emergency response plans.

• Twelve 2-day training sessions workshops with representatives from up to 30 POTWs per location (2 people per facility) to receive hands-on training based on their facilities vulnerability assessment and emergency response plan development, upgrade, and implementation needs with a focus on the new wastewater security training software. The focus will be on wastewater treatment plants that discharge greater than 15 million gallons per day (mgd), these sessions will be by invite only.



• Two web-based "Click, Listen, and Learn" training sessions co-sponsored by WEF and the American Public Works Association. The first session will both summarize the principles covered in the general security training, introduce the AMSA VSAT software, and raise awareness of EPA’s Water Utility Response, Recovery and Remediation Guidance for Man-made and/or Technological Emergencies. Following the initial training session a second session will be held to provide more detailed training on the VSAT and provide case studies from use of the software.



• Ten "train the trainer" sessions that will briefly summarize the general security training materials before dedicating the majority of the session to training utilities on the VSAT software and emergency response plan development and upgrade. Each session would train 15-20 individuals per site who would then be a resource for smaller to medium size utilities in need of hands-on training to conduct vulnerability assessments with the AMSA VSAT tool. These sessions will be by invite only.
  
  For more information, visit http://www.wef.org/publicinfo/wefsecurity.jhtml

Private sector firms provide training on the vulnerability assessment methodology for water infrastructure protection (pdf 91 KB). Sandia National Laboratory, under an Interagency Agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Energy, provided training to selected firms in the performance of a vulnerability assessment methodology – known as Risk Assessment Methodology for Water Utilities (RAM-WSM).

General Security Overview - training developed through partnership with American Water Works Association (AWWA) covers the entire spectrum of security issues including assessing vulnerabilities, emergency response plans and risk communication:

• The American Water Works Association (AWWA) will host an online water security course titled "Security Planning for Drinking Water Systems: An Operational Approach." The course is designed to help water professionals evaluate and prepare appropriate security measures in the water industry. Hypothetical hazardous situations are addressed, and step-by-step checklists are offered to keep industries, and their customers, safe from possible harm. The course will be available via the Web starting September 1, 2002. Please contact AWWA's Online program at online@awwa.org for further information and registration instructions.



• Web-cast training was held on May 9, 2002. Entitled, "Emergency Response Planning: Counter Terrorism and Security in the Water Industry," the presentations emphasize identifying and contacting resources available to support utility's security efforts. The Power Point presentations viewed during the Web-cast are available at http://www.greenworks.tv/events/awwawebcast.htm.



• Vulnerability Assessment Overview - This detailed satellite teleconference on what constitutes an effective vulnerability assessment for drinking water utilities was aired on November 27, 2001 reaching 3,000 participants. Videotapes are available through AWWA.

First Responder Training - EPA is supporting coordination and training activities for first responders (law enforcement, public health, utilities and all levels of government).

Vulnerability Assessment Tools

Vulnerability Assessments and Remediation Plans - A methodology for large drinking water utilities has been developed by Sandia National Laboratory and tested at several large utilities. It is available through the American Water Works Association

Vulnerability Self Assessment Tool (VSAT) - This tool provides a comprehensive, intuitive system for wastewater utilities seeking to analyze their vulnerability to both intentional threats and natural disasters. This software tool includes reference libraries of both potential threats and countermeasures, and provides a method for managing the information generated by security vulnerability assessments. Developed by the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, (AMSA) - in collaboration with PA Consulting Group and SCIENTECH, Inc. – the software is available free of charge to all public wastewater utilities. The Vulnerability Self Assessment Tool may be ordered online. For technical assistance regarding this software please visit http://www.vsatusers.net/contact.html or call 1-888-340-8830.

The Security Vulnerability Self-Assessment Guide is targeted for drinking water systems serving less than 3,300 people and is designed to help these systems assess their critical components and identify security measures that should be implemented. The document includes an emergency contact list, a phone threat identification checklist, and guidance for emergency response plans.

Emergency Response Tools

Model Emergency Response Guidelines (PDF, 96K) - This document provides uniform response, recovery and remediation guidance for water utility actions in response to man-made and/or technological emergencies. The guidance was developed as an initiative of the Water Protection Task Force with input from water utilities and associations, EPA Regions, EPA Office of Water and other federal agencies. The intent of this guidance is to provide the minimum actions that EPA recommends be carried out by a water utility for the events described.

Technical Assistance

EPA is working with the States, tribes, and utility organizations to determine the best ways to meet small and medium system needs. EPA will use a significant portion of the FY'02 funds to provide training, development and distribution of tools, and technical assistance. The plan for assistance is outlined in the document, Water Security Strategy for Systems Serving Populations Less than 100,000/15 MGD or Less. (PDF, 26KB)

Information Sharing

Water Incident Reporting - The Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Water ISAC) and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, with cooperation from EPA and other water organizations, has worked with the National Infrastructure Protection Center to develop a process for voluntary reporting of malicious water and wastewater incidents. The collection of this information will facilitate analysis of trends with the objective of providing timely and actionable warnings to utilities. To aid efforts to strengthen the security of the nation's water infrastructure, utilities are encouraged to report incidents of malicious or unknown origin. Such incidents may involve security breaches, threats of attack, events of surveillance and damage to equipment, among others. Details of reportable incidents and a reporting form may be obtained from water and wastewater membership associations. Questions may be directed to WaterISAC@amwa.net.

Research and Technology

EPA works with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the FBI and the Department of Defense to develop information for the Homeland Security Office on biological, chemical and radiological contaminants, and how to respond to their presence in drinking water. This information builds the state of knowledge on:

• Technologies to detect contaminants.
• Monitoring protocols and techniques.
• Treatment effectiveness.

Water Security Technology - The Water Protection Task Force is working with EPA's Office of Research and Development to support the verification of water security technologies under the Environmental Technology Verification Program (ETV). Verification of monitoring technologies will be conducted under the Advanced Monitoring System Center. Also see the vendor solicitation under "Vendor Announcements" - scroll down to "Homeland Security Monitoring Technologies." Three technology areas will be considered for evaluation: water monitoring systems, POU/POE treatment devices, and water/wastewater decontamination technologies. The ETV program is also initiating an effort to verify detection and decontamination technologies for safe buildings.

Rutgers University, with support from EPA, hosted a Workshop on Advanced Technologies in Real-Time Monitoring and Modeling for Drinking Water Safety and Security. This was a forum where water utilities, regulatory agencies and scientific researchers discuss needs and solutions to issues in water safety and security related to real-time monitoring and modeling. The workshop was held June 27 and 28, 2002 in Newark, New Jersey. The web site contains abstracts and presentations from the workshop.

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