 |
||||||||||||
|
Water System Security Security News As an outcome of the events of 9-11-2001, there has been an increased effort to protect critical infrastructures at the national, state and local levels. Since Drinking Water has been identified as one of these critical infrastructures it's no surprise that considerable attention is being focused on drinking water system security. Historically, emergency response planning and security have been an integral part of water system operations, with the primary focus on natural disasters, system malfunctions and vandalism. Today, however, intentional acts of sabotage and terrorism must also be thrown into the mix. Whether the threat is international or domestic, water systems must begin to look at the security of their systems and incorporate scenarios and remedial actions into their emergency response planning to reflect these new concerns. The Department of Human Services-Drinking Water Program (DHS-DWP) has developed this site to assist water systems in understanding new regulations that may affect them and to centralize the growing body of information and resources available to assist them in staying current. State Regulations The Drinking Water Program adopted new rules on 10-25-02, requiring all public water systems to have a written emergency response plan which incorporates the results of a security vulnerability assessment. (OAR 333-061-0064) (pdf) (9K). All community water systems with 3,300 or less population and all non-community water systems are required to develop and maintain a written Emergency Response Plan (ERP) that incorporates a Security Vulnerability Assessment using, at a minimum, the State Model ERP (Word) (211K) and ASDWA/NRWA Security Vulnerability Self-Assessment Guide for Small Drinking Water Systems (pdf) (125K). Other tools that may be used can be found under Federal Regulations below. Verification of completion must be provided to your County Health Department by the deadline established in OAR 333-061-0064 (June 30, 2005) using the ERP/VA Proof of Completion form (pdf), or as required by the county. Water systems in direct service counties must provide verification to the DHS-DWP. To maintain water system confidentiality, ERPs and Security Vulnerability Assessments will not be kept on file by DHS-DWP or the counties. Federal Regulations The Bioterrorism Act of 2002 requires all Community Water Systems over 3,300 population to complete Security Vulnerability Assessments and submit them directly to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Do not submit them to DHS-DWP or the counties. Within six months of the federal deadlines, these water systems must also develop or revise an existing ERP and incorporate the results of their vulnerability assessments. See table below for the submittal schedule:
Water Utility ICS Training Free software to view, navigate and print Portable Document files (PDFs) can be downloaded from Adobe (go get Acrobat Reader) |
||||||||||||
