The Cyanic Threat
In this day and age, environmental engineers must be prepared for the threat of terrorism, particularly the threat that the deadly poison cyanide poses to U.S. water supplies.
The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine’s Water Supply Management Program offers an in-depth look at cyanide and the threat it poses to the U.S. water supply.
If the water supply were contaminated with cyanide, people could be exposed to the poison in several ways, with the most dangerous being by ingesting the contaminated water. People who take a bath or shower in contaminated water or who cook with contaminated water could be exposed to the poison through inhalation or through the skin, though these routes are less dangerous than ingestion.
A handful of cyanide-detection kits are available, including one from Loveland, Colo.-based HACH Company that is capable of detecting the presence of cyanide within 30 minutes in amounts as small as 0.24 mg of cyanide per liter of water.
Dissolved cyanide is best removed from drinking supplies via chlorination, reverse osmosis, or ion exchange, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Other forms of cyanide removal that have met with varying degrees of success but have not been approved by the EPA include boiling, ozonation, hydrolysis, aeration, and iron coagulation. Engineers and utility managers can be prepared for the threat of cyanide by familiarizing themselves with the poison and by setting up a warning system that monitors several characteristics, including water pH values, free chlorine residual concentrations, and even the number of customer complaints about the taste or smell of tap water.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Whelton, Andrew J.; Jensen, Janet L.; Richards, Todd E.