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| Volume 13, No. 22 May 26, 2004 |
| Highlight story from the current issue of WaterWeek |
USEPA, AWWA announce security initiatives
In their continuing efforts to strengthen water system security, USEPA and AWWA this month announced initiatives to develop and provide real-time monitoring technologies and training for the rapid detection and identification of hazardous contaminants in distribution systems. USEPA's National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) last week announced research agreements with three companies to develop such early warning water quality sensor technologies and software. Made under terms of the Federal Technology Transfer Act, the Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) with Ohio-based YSI, California-based PureSense Environmental and Colorado-based Hach Company allow private industry and state/local governments access to federal laboratories to exchange agency personnel, equipment or services for a particular project. USEPA said the targeted technology "would respond to the presence of a contaminant in drinking water and produce readings that can be interpreted by the software, together forming an early warning system" that would allow utilities to "contain a problem before it migrates through the water distribution system." The CRADA announcement came just days after the NHSRC joined with the US Army's Edgewood (N.J.) Chemical and Biological Center to demonstrate a related project?a 2,000-ft pipe loop designed to test how different types, ages and conditions of water distribution systems can influence the transport of chemical and biological warfare agents. Jointly funded by the agency and the Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, the test pipe loop is being used to determine how agents such as cyanide salts, ricin and sarin behave within distribution lines and affect basic water chemistry measures such a pH, conductivity and corrosion control. The only one of its kind capable of testing pure chemical warfare agents at both high- and low-density concentrations, the modular system features piping of varying age, size and material and offers the ability to manipulate residence timing. Training events. AWWA will conduct its first of a series of Contamination Monitoring Technologies seminars May 25-26 in Richmond, Va. Designed to provide a forum for treatment and distribution managers, water quality specialists and security specialists and consultants to explore the capabilities of contamination monitoring technologies and discuss emerging technologies, such seminars will also be held in Chicago this July and in Las Vega, Nev., this September. AWWA is also offering security-minded seminars on security hardware (in Nashville, Ky., July 8-9 and Syracuse, N.Y., July 28-29), emergency response planning (in Kansas City, Mo., Aug- 4-5; Edmonton, Alberta, Oct. 5-6; and Denver, Nov. 16-17), cyber security (in Harrisburg, Pa., July 14-15 and Peoria, Ariz., Oct. 7-8), maintaining and securing distribution systems (in Richmond, British Columbia, July 8-9 and Chicago, Sept. 23-24) and continuous water quality monitoring (in Brampton, Ontario, July 28). Security will also be a hot topic at AWWA's Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando June 13-14. Also on the training front, USEPA will host free workshops in six cities in June on its recently released guidance on emergency response planning for small and medium-size water systems. The course will also review USEPA's Response Protocol Toolbox on planning for and responding to drinking water contamination threats as well as some other agency security tools such as an online compendium for selecting analytical labs for handling emergency response samples and the agency's security product guides. The workshops will be held June 11 in Hartford, Conn.; June 21 in Charlotte, N.C.; June 23 in Sacramento, Calif.; June 25 in Milwaukee, Wis.; and another (date to be announced) in Tulsa, Okla.
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If you wish to comment on WaterWeek or its contents, contact the Editor, Mark Scharfenaker, by phone at (303) 347-6263; or by e-mail at mscharfe@awwa.org; or by mail at WaterWeek, 6666 W. Quincy Ave., Denver, CO 80235. You may also contact the Associate Editor, Carol Carpenter, at (303) 347-6297; by fax at (303) 794-7310; or by e-mail at ccarpenter@awwa.org.
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