1 / 19

Presentation Overview

“EPA’s Water Security initiative : Integrating the Water Sector and Public Health” Wednesday June 20, 2012 Healthy and Safe Community Environments (Track 1 ). Presentation Overview. Background on the Water Security Initiative Conceptual design Partnering and Public Health

nika
Download Presentation

Presentation Overview

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. “EPA’s Water Security initiative : Integrating the Water Sector and Public Health” Wednesday June 20, 2012 Healthy and Safe Community Environments(Track 1)

  2. Presentation Overview • Background on the Water Security Initiative • Conceptual design • Partnering and Public Health • Conclusions and Resources

  3. Background • Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-9 • Establishes a national policy to defend the agriculture and food system against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. • Signed January 30, 2004 • HSPD-9 requires EPA to • “develop robust, comprehensive, and fully coordinated surveillance and monitoring systems . . . for . . . water quality that provide early detection and awareness of disease, pest, or poisonous agents,”

  4. Programmatic Approach of the Water Security Initiative

  5. Conceptual Design

  6. Distribution System Vulnerabilities • Large, complex, and accessible: • Commercial & residential service connections • Fire hydrants • Finished water storage • Difficult to contaminate an entire city via the distribution system, but • fairly easy to impact small sections or individual buildings

  7. Primary Design Objectives • Detection of a broad spectrum of contaminant classes • Achieve spatial coverage of the entire distribution system • Detect contamination in sufficient time for effective response • Reliably indicate a contamination incident with a minimum number of false-positives • Provide a sustainable architecture to monitor distribution system water quality

  8. Dual Use Objectives • Expanded laboratory capability for emerging source water contaminants • Enhanced knowledge of distribution system water quality leading to improved operations • Early detection of undesirable events such as nitrification or corrosion problems • Improved relationship with public health agencies • Increased ability to respond effectively to a variety of emergencies

  9. Customer complaint surveillance Water quality monitoring Enhanced security monitoring Integrated Contamination Warning System Public health surveillance Monitoring Components Sampling and analysis

  10. System Architecture

  11. Partnering and Public Health

  12. Partner Organizations

  13. Public Health Surveillance

  14. Public Health Surveillance PHS Communicator Protocol *This is an example of a communication protocol (used in Cincinnati) *The User's Group for the Cincinnati Pilot included the local public health departments, poison control, water utility, fire department, US EPA, and FBI.

  15. Public Health Surveillance (Based on Feedback from the Cincinnati Pilot User’s Group)

  16. Conclusions to Date • The Water Security initiative contamination warning system design is technically feasible for a utility to deploy and sustainable for a utility to operate • Public Health Surveillance exemplifies the need for partnering • Evaluating alerts requires coordination • A major future challenge will be promoting national adoption of drinking water contamination warning systems • All utilities can benefit from development of plans and procedures to utilize the data already being collected more effectively for contaminant detection

  17. Community-Based Water Resiliency Initiative • Increases community preparedness by: • Improving integration of Water Sector into community emergency preparedness • Increasing understanding of critical interdependencies • Highlighting benefits of preparedness • Fosters collaboration between utilities and all community members: • City/county managers • Public works officials • Emergency responders • Business community • Citizens • Electronic toolgives communities over 400 resources to develop and implement water resiliency plans • Website: http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/communities/index.cfm 17

  18. Published Documents • Available on the Water Security initiative website: • http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/lawsregs/initiative.cfm • WaterSentinel System Architecture, EPA-817-D-05-003, December 2005 • Water Security Initiative: Interim Guidance on Planning for Contamination Warning System Deployment, EPA-817-R07-005, May 2007 • Water Security Initiative: Interim Guidance on Developing an Operational Strategy for Contamination Warning Systems, EPA-817-R-08-002, September 2008 • Water Security Initiative: Interim Guidance on Developing Consequence Management Plans for Drinking Water Utilities, EPA-817-R-08-001, September 2008 • Water Security Initiative: Cincinnati Pilot Post-Implementation System Status, EPA-817-R-08-004, September 2008 • Available in the Journal of the American Water Works Association: • Optimizing operational reliability of the Cincinnati contamination warning system, J. AWWA, Volume 103, Issue 1, January 2011 18

  19. Questions? • For more information on the Water Security Initiative: • http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/lawsregs/initiative.cfm • US EPA, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, Water Security Division Chrissy Dangel, MPH Phone 513-569-7821 E-Mail dangel.chrissy@epa.gov CAPT Nelson Mix, PE, CHMM

More Related