Improving the Nation's Water Security Opportunities for Research (2007) / Chapter Skim
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4 Progress in the Office of Research and Development's Water Security Program
4 Progress in the Office of Research and Development's Water Security Program
Pages 34-70
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From page 34... ...
The committee's review of the EPA water security research program is organized below according to the original Action Plan research categories: 1. protecting drinking water systems from physical and cyber attacks; 2.
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From page 35... ...
PROTECTING DRINKING WATER SYSTEMS FROM PHYSICAL AND CYBER THREATS (ACTION PLAN SECTION 3.1) In Section 3.1 of the Action Plan, the EPA identified priority research and technical support on the topic of physical and cyber security in three areas: 3.1.a.
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From page 36... ...
to develop a software tool -- AT Planner -- that can be used to estimate blast 1 For the purpose of this report, research products reflect those tools, reports, and substantive research articles identified in EPA (2005a) as published or planned outcomes of the Action Plan efforts.
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From page 37... ...
The Action Plan effort contributed to the refinement of two methodologies for conducting vulnerability assessments at water and wastewater utilities: the Risk Assessment Methodology for Water Utilities (RAMW) and the Vulnerability Self Assessment Tool (VSAT)
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IDENTIFYING DRINKING WATER THREATS, CONTAMINANTS, AND THREAT SCENARIOS (ACTION PLAN SECTION 3.2) Priority items for the EPA to accomplish in the area of identifying drinking water contaminants are listed in Section 3.2 of the Action Plan.
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From page 39... ...
Methods and means to securely maintain and transmit information on threats, contaminants, and threat scenarios applicable to drinking water supplies and systems. To address these issues, 10 projects were identified in the EPA Action Plan (see EPA, 2004a)
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From page 40... ...
was among the first surrogates identified for this organism and facilitated research on aerosol transmission of spores. In subsequent studies, it also proved to be an acceptable surrogate for chlorine disinfection studies of spores in drinking water, although it was more resis tant to chlorine than B
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From page 41... ...
The committee considered the information sharing issue to be of paramount importance, and the fact that the resulting EPA framework was not publicly available is illustrative of the problem. Two classified reports have been developed that are related to, but not directly associated with, Section 3.2 of the Action Plan: the Threat Scenarios for Buildings and Water Systems Report and the Wastewater Baseline Threat Document (EPA, 2004b; 2005j)
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From page 42... ...
Drinking water and wastewater utilities, state drinking water and wastewater programs, drinking water and wastewater associations, and federal officials can obtain access. It currently contains information on approximately 50 contaminants.
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From page 43... ...
IMPROVING ANALYTICAL METHODOLOGIES AND MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR DRINKING WATER (ACTION PLAN SECTION 3.3) Methods to detect water contaminants are essential for responding both to deliberate and natural contamination in water systems.
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From page 44... ...
Training exercises, drills, and simulation modules for analytical methodologies and monitoring systems. Thirty-five projects are identified in the Action Plan to address these issues (see EPA, 2004a)
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From page 45... ...
Therefore, it is difficult to justify expenditure of resources for developing an automated detection device consistent with a rapid response system when the health threat is a long-term cumulative one. A chronic radiation threat might, instead, be best addressed through routine monitoring of water samples using existing radiation detection devices.
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From page 46... ...
The committee's view is consistent with the EPA's current nearterm research approach on RTMSs. The EPA's Water Sentinel program emphasizes dual-use applications of RTMSs, using existing, nonspecific water quality monitoring devices for detecting perturbations caused by toxic agents (EPA, 2005g; 2005h; 2005i)
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From page 47... ...
, weather, and other factors may provide a better approach to incident detection. However, the issues associated with RTMSs and data fusion are complex and have not been well studied in the drinking water field.
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From page 48... ...
Assessment Some activity and progress has been made in nearly every area identified in this portion of the Action Plan, but based on the information contains exclusively public consensus methods, NEMI-CBR is password protected and features many methods that have not been validated.
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At least 28 products are anticipated from the projects in this section of the Action Plan. As of May 2006, three documents had been released, providing preliminary guidance on common approaches for treating contaminated water based on a survey
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. The current state of the art for decontamination strategies for pipes within the distribution system is described in Module 6 of the Response Protocol Toolbox (EPA, 2004d)
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. FIGURE 4-1 Research pipe loops at the EPA's Test and Evaluation Center that are used to examine contaminant transport behavior, decontamination strategies, and contaminant monitoring approaches.
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From page 52... ...
Several other guidance documents and databases remain under development as of May 2006. For example, the Drinking Water Treatability Database will eventually be added to WCIT and will include information about the effectiveness of 30 different treatment processes on the WCIT contaminants.
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From page 53... ...
However, EPA (2005a) emphasizes TEVA's value toward responding to and mitigating the impacts of contamination events by locating the source of contamination, estimating exposure, identifying locations for sampling, and developing decontamination strategies.
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From page 54... ...
Assessment Section 3.4 of the EPA Action Plan comprises an essential and extensive array of projects to improve response and recovery from a water security event, while also providing dual-use benefits applicable to dayto-day operations or to the response to natural disasters. The number of products completed thus far from Section 3.4 is rather modest, representing only about 20 percent of the products proposed.
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From page 55... ...
PLANNING FOR CONTINGENCIES AND ADDRESSING INFRASTRUCTURE INTERDEPENDENCIES (ACTION PLAN SECTION 3.5) The EPA's work to address contingencies and infrastructure interdependencies in this section of the Action Plan is divided into the following three subsets: 3.5.a.
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From page 56... ...
Additionally, these tools might be useful for preparing for or responding to natural contamination events. Development of Guidance, Protocols, and Training Preparation of guidance documents on water supply alternatives is an important near-term activity, considering both the need for back-up supplies in response to a terrorist incident and their dual-use value, such as in the case of natural disasters or system failures.
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From page 57... ...
The projects to evaluate innovative technologies for supplying both long-term and short-term drinking water supplies also seem to offer value to improving emergency response, but no apparent progress to date has been made. These activities may be more appropriate to a long-term research effort, and the findings should be added to the guidance document associated with the evaluation of existing water supply alternatives.
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From page 58... ...
TARGETING IMPACTS ON HUMAN HEALTH AND INFORMING THE PUBLIC ABOUT RISKS (ACTION PLAN SECTION 3.6) Priority items for the EPA to accomplish in the area of risk assessment and risk communication are identified in Section 3.6 of the Action Plan, which is divided into five areas: 3.6.a.
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From page 59... ...
Methods and means to communicate risks to local communities and to respond to customers in case of an attack on drinking water systems. Fifteen projects were identified in EPA (2004a)
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From page 60... ...
The risk assessment framework project, however, appears to be more than a year behind schedule, and it is not clear that the risk assessment/risk management projects are being integrated into the other phases of water security research rather than being isolated. Two major ongoing efforts are being supported to fuse health effects data (syndromic surveillance)
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From page 61... ...
Entities that have received training include water utilities, public health department surveillance and information officers, homeland security managers, public information officers, emergency responders, and on-scene coordinators. The message mapping workshops have not been subjected to actual situations in which water quality is compromised, so the usefulness of this particular communication tool in real-life water security situations is unknown.
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From page 62... ...
The CAT/WCIT tools have gaps with respect to toxicity data for certain chemicals for which low-dose information is not available. In the Action Plan, the use of Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR)
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From page 63... ...
However, progress in this area has been slow, and few if any products have been publicly released. Although progress has been made on several risk communication projects, too little emphasis in the Action Plan has been devoted to investigating and utilizing interdisciplinary behavioral science research to better prepare various stakeholders for water security incidents.
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From page 64... ...
Twenty-two projects are identified in the Action Plan to address these issues. Work is being conducted in all of the above subsets, and as of May 2006 three products had been produced focused on the identification of threats to wastewater systems (EPA, 2005j)
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From page 65... ...
Much of the work being undertaken in the water sector with respect to sensor development may have applications in the wastewater sector with further development specific to the challenges of the wastewater setting. The Action Plan includes a project to test and evaluate existing monitoring and surveillance technologies in wastewater systems.
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From page 66... ...
IMPLEMENTATION (ACTION PLAN SECTION 5.0) Section 5.0 of the Action Plan incorporates several initiatives that relate to implementation of the Action Plan.
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From page 67... ...
Assessing the success of the entire program based on a limited number of products is difficult and may not be representative. Information sharing is one of the most critical issues facing the EPA's water security research program.
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From page 68... ...
These efforts are to be commended, but more work could improve the navigability of the EPA water security Web sites for a broader community of stakeholders. Currently, research products are spread across multiple NHSRC Web pages organized by subject area, and the presence of two separate EPA water security Web sites (Office of Water7 and the NHSRC)
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From page 69... ...
The synthesis step is of critical importance if the information and data developed in the water and wastewater security research program are to be of use to individual utilities and municipal agencies. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Important progress has been made in implementing the EPA's water security research and technical support program described in the Action Plan, but many of the projects have been delayed behind the originally anticipated timelines (see NRC, 2004; Appendix A)
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From page 70... ...
Identifying and assessing the relative importance of physical and cyber threats remains a gap that has critical implications on the prioritization of efforts within the water security research program. Gaps also exist in developing visionary designs for water and wastewater systems and incorporating behavioral science research to better prepare stakeholders for water security incidents.
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