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Security Guide for Wastewater Plants
Published by West Virginia University
A guide to help wastewater systems identify potential threats and prioritize
action to address them was announced by a West Virginia university Sept. 25.
Protecting Your Community's Assets: A Guide for Small Wastewater Systems is
targeted for systems serving fewer than 10,000 people but may be useful to
larger systems as well, according to the University of West Virginia, in
Morgantown.
Wastewater plants may be vulnerable to a variety of threats that can affect
operations, including natural disasters, operator errors, vandalism, and
terrorism, according to the university's National Environmental Training Center
for Small Communities, which developed the guide.
Funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, the guide is an "asset-based
tool," according to the center. Assets include physical structures, such as the
treatment plant and the collection system, as well as the staff, system records,
and the system's customers, the guide said.
Each of these should be examined in a "vulnerability assessment" for potential
threats that could affect the system, according to the publication.
In the final step of the assessment, potential corrective actions are
prioritized.
Legislation Pending
As of yet, there is no federal law requiring the nearly 16,000 wastewater
treatment plants in the United States to conduct vulnerability assessments and
make needed improvements, as there is for drinking water utilities.
The House passed legislation (H.R. 866) May 7 that would require treatment
plants to conduct such assessments, and would provide about $235 million for
security-related activities (89 DEN A-1, 5/8/03 ).
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee cleared a similar measure (S.
1039) May 15 (95 DEN A-2, 5/16/03 ).
Under both bills, no more than $150,000 would go to any one plant.
Many utilities have begun already to conduct assessments, according to Adam
Krantz, a spokesman for the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.
EPA provided about $1 million in funding to help the association to develop
three self-assessment computer software tools, which are now provided free to
utilities (13 DEN A-10, 1/21/03).