Development of Online Contamination Warning Systems for Water Distribution and Wastewater Collection Systems

To assist water and wastewater utilities in establishing effective security systems, the Water Infrastructure Security Enhancement (WISE) (Water Infrastructure Security Enhancement) Standards Committee, a cooperative effort among the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Water Works Association (AWWA), and Water Environmental Federation (WEF), used a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to develop a comprehensive three-phased program to address the security needs of water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities. AWWA was the executive agent for the water supply portion of the project, WEF for the wastewater/stormwater portion, and ASCE for the methodology and characteristics portion, focusing on contamination warning. This paper presents the ways in which water utilities can implement the guidance provided in ASCE's Guidelines for Designing an Online Contaminant Monitoring System, giving an overview of the elements required when planning an online contamination warning system for a water utility. These elements include: 1 Contaminants and concentrations of concern, 2 Selection of instruments and platforms, 3 Models for use in data analysis, 4 Siting of instrument platforms, 5 Data analysis requirements, 6 Communications system requirements, 7 Responses to contamination events, 8 Interfacing with existing water quality surveillance systems, 9 Operations, maintenance, and upgrades.