Survey of Water and Wastewater Utility Security Standards

A primary responsibility of water utilities is the protection of their water and wastewater infrastructure from significant threats created by natural disasters, malicious actions, and accidents. Following the events of September 11, 2001, water utilities placed additional emphasis on protecting their infrastructure from malicious threats, and security standards and guidelines were developed by various organizations across the world. A noteworthy set of guidelines was developed through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) Water Infrastructure Security Enhancements (WISE) project, which was cooperatively executed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Water Works Association (AWWA), and the Water Environment Federation (WEF). In this project, both guidance documents that cover all aspects of water security (design, management, operations) and voluntary standards that cover physical security were developed. During the execution of this project a very thorough review of national and international guidances and standards was conducted. It was found that efforts by various organizations were at different stages of development and few, if any, had reached the stage of the WISE documents.