Damage to the nation’s critical water supply or water quality infrastructure could threaten public health and the environment, disrupt public services and possibly cause loss of life. Since the September 11 attacks, all industry sectors, including water and wastewater utilities in the water sector, have been under heightened security.
How CSC Can Help
CSC is supporting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Water Security Division, within the Office of Water, and National Homeland Security Research Center, within the Office of Research and Development, on multiple initiatives and across multiple scientific, engineering, data management, and policy disciplines. CSC provides the following support to EPA’s water sector homeland security efforts:
Comprehensive support to EPA’s response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 9 (HSPD 9) through the WaterSentinel initiative,a robust monitoring and surveillance system to detect high-priority contaminants. The goal of this initiative is to detect a range of contaminants by integrating data from traditional monitoring approaches with data from less-conventional contamination indicators, such as consumer complaints, public health surveilance and changes in water quality.
Development and implementation of analytical methods for monitoring chemical and biological warfare agents in water and standardization of methods to be used across multiple laboratories in response to an incident to ensure data comparability.
Outreach, communications, and training support to encourage voluntary adoption of active and effective water security practices by the water sector to increase preparedness and response capabilities and make water security “business as usual” for water utilities.
Multidisciplinary research on all aspects of contaminant fate and transport, detection, exposure routes, health effects, and medical treatment. In addition to conducting the scientific research on these issues, CSC is responsible for developing and managing a secure, web-enabled data system to allow rapid access by water utilities and first responders for enhanced preparedness and effective response to contamination incidents
Programmatic support to response to national emergencies affecting water and wastewater utilities, including Hurricane Katrina, and national exercises involving the Agency, such as TOPOFF.
Policy support to the Agency in response to Department of Homeland Security requirements for coordination of national infrastructure protection.
