INSIDE WASHINGTON/Locals push to heighten water system security

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, police and sheriffs’ departments nationwide have added guarding the nation’s water supply to their list of duties. Since the attacks, the nation’s water facilities have been on “heightened alert,” a designation that calls for a renewed review of water infrastructure security. Local, state and federal officials are putting their heads together to determine whether — and how — the nation’s water infrastructure could be threatened.

“America’s wastewater utilities, water resources and the environment are at risk from future terrorist attacks,” Patrick Karney, director of the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, told a Congressional subcommittee last month. Karney, who also is a member of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies Wastewater Infrastructure Task Force, noted that the events of Sept. 11 “have revealed how little our industry knows about the unique risks posed by terrorist threats and how we can better prepare ourselves.”

The FBI is concerned but not panicking. According to one bureau report, “There are no specific credible threats to major waterways or distribution networks at this time.”

Still, Ronald Dick, deputy assistant director of the bureau’s Counter Terrorism Division and director of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, says the FBI takes any threats seriously because of “the vital importance of water to all life forms.”

Water safety and the security of the national water infrastructure have not been high priorities in the past, according to John Duncan (R — Tenn.), chairman of the House Water Resources and Environment subcommittee. “We hope to get more cities and water agencies to look more seriously at this,” Duncan said in a hearing convened to investigate water system safety. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are about 168,000 public water systems nationwide.

In Washington, local government organizations, such as the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities and the United States Conference of Mayors, are taking steps to help their members protect the nation’s water infrastructure. The groups are backing cities, counties and water system operators in calling for an immediate appropriation of $5 billion for that purpose.

Long Beach, Calif., Mayor Beverly O’Neill told Congress that the gap between available federal funding for water infrastructure improvements and nationwide needs would widen unless action was taken. “It is evident that this funding gap will increase due to added demand occasioned by new national anti-terrorism priorities,” she said.

NACo President Javier Gonzales supports an infusion of federal cash, but he says that it needs to be spread out to all counties and cities. “Congress needs to make sure funds do not go solely to large municipalities,” says Gonzales, a Santa Fe County, N.M., commissioner. “Funds must also be made available to rural counties and smaller communities.”

To help local governments in the short term protect the nation’s dams, reservoirs, rivers and treatment plants, EPA has created a task force. “Our goal is to ensure that drinking water utilities in every community have access to the best scientific information and technical expertise and know what immediate steps to take and to whom to turn for help,” EPA Administrator Christine Whitman says. The task force will help local utilities undertake vulnerability assessments and establish proper steps to take if a terrorist act takes place.

A notification system that will allow EPA to share vital emergency instructions with water providers already is in place. EPA partnered with the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies to create the system, and it was effective on Sept. 11, according to the agency.

The author is Washington correspondent for American City & County.