Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Security Issues: Impacts on Environmental Engineering Research and Design

On September 11, 2001, the possibility of an international terrorist attack within the continental United States became a reality. The most recent terrorist attacks targeting the United States have been directed at constructed facilities and infrastructure (e.g., the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon, selected postal facilities and congressional offices). Although these attacks seemed to initiate terrorism in the continental United States, numerous domestic terrorism attacks and incidents have occurred in the United States since the early 1950s.

Terrorism can be defined as the unlawful use of force or violence, or threatened use of force or violence, against persons and places for the purpose of intimidating and/or coercing a government, its citizens, or any segment thereof for political or social goals. This definition highlights the following concepts:

Among the most critical infrastructure areas needing protection are potable water treatment, storage and distribution systems, and wastewater collection and treatment systems. It would be difficult to explain the fear and panic that the people of a community would experience if they were to wake up one morning and find out that they could not use the drinking-water system or wastewater system because of a terrorist attack or vandalism. During such natural disasters as hurricanes, local areas have had to resort to using bottled water and portable toilets for relatively brief periods of time. However, during a widespread terrorist attack, large population areas—including hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and prisons—could be severely affected for extended periods of time.

Congress included a drinking-water component in PL 107-188, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act, passed in June 2002. This legislation required drinking-water systems serving more than 3,300 people to conduct a vulnerability assessment to help them determine their vulnerability to various threats, including intentional contamination. In addition, this legislation required utilities to revise or prepare an emergency response plan that incorporated the results of the vulnerability assessment.

On January 30, 2004, President Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive-9 (HSPD-9). This directive established a national policy to defend the agriculture, water, and food system of the United States against terrorist attacks and other emergencies. It also called on the federal agencies responsible for agriculture, food, and water security to “develop robust, comprehensive and fully coordinated surveillance and monitoring systems, … that provide early detection and awareness of disease, pest or poisonous agents.”

The environmental science and engineering community has both a public and federal mandate to develop, design, and use analytical techniques and integrated physical protection systems to protect water and wastewater infrastructure systems against intentional contamination, damage, or destruction. It also has a federal mandate to develop a surveillance and monitoring network that will ensure the protection of the water and wastewater infrastructure. The question is, How will we as scientists and engineers respond to this mandate?

Although security monitoring and measurement technology is a rapidly developing field, environmental scientists and engineers must understand and be able to use that technology for environmental infrastructure applications. The results of broad spectrum monitoring and analytical techniques must be interpreted with caution. Scientists and engineers must understand that negative results do not guarantee safety, whereas positive results merely indicate the need for additional testing and communication with regulators and other officials.

One of the primary issues to be resolved in the design of infrastructure security systems is the wide variation in size of water treatment, storage, and distribution systems and wastewater collection and treatment systems in the United States. Designing a physical protection and monitoring system for a small facility may be relatively simple. But how does one design a cost-effective physical protection and monitoring system for a drinking-water distribution system (or a wastewater collection system) containing $\mathrm{1,000}\text{miles}$ of pipe and 4 reservoirs and still allow access for maintenance and monitoring?

Other important questions include the following:

The class of civil and environmental engineering students that were beginning their education in September 2001 graduated this spring. Security issues have influenced the problems that these students addressed in school and that they will continue to address during their professional careers. These students are the first new class of graduates that will be called on to actively incorporate security concerns in all aspects of their design and research work throughout their professional careers. The engineering judgment that they developed during their undergraduate education and the resources made available to them will determine their ability to properly exercise their professional responsibility in regard to the security of the nation’s infrastructure. As individuals, and through our institutions and agencies, we must continue to provide the necessary educational opportunities and resources for infrastructure protection.