A just released report from the Majority Staff of the U.S House Homeland Security Committee examines the threat posed to the country by “Special Interest Aliens (SIAs)” and efforts taken by the federal government to address the situation. The Committee defines an SIA as “a non-U.S.
An article from Homeland Security today explores some of the themes that emerged in terrorist groups’ messaging over the past year, which may reveal how they and their supporters intend to carry out future attacks. Among these is a curiosity into branching out into biological or chemical attacks, with one media outlet that is supportive of the Islamic State releasing a video in July about how to execute a bioattack in the West “that cannot be detected or tracked” by authorities.
The partial government shutdown that began on Saturday has resulted in furloughs for nearly 33,000 federal employees from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which represents about 13 percent of the organization’s approximately 245,000 person workforce. DHS’s law enforcement and emergency management functions are largely unaffected by the shutdown, with most employees exempt from furloughs at components like Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, among others.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has issued an updated national volcanic threat assessment to identify U.S. volcanoes in need of research, monitoring, and mitigation efforts based on objective measures of volcano hazards and exposure of people and infrastructure to those hazards. Compared to the previous national volcanic threat assessment that was published in 2005 (which was also the first), the current assessment has added seven and removed 20 volcanoes.
U.S. EPA has published a document providing steps for drinking water utilities to plan for a distribution system contamination incident. It includes a template to help utilities create a response procedure for their Emergency Response Plan and several forms to complete specific planning tasks. The template includes a skeleton procedure, instructions for completing the content of each section, and example tables, figures, decision trees, and response forms that can be customized by individual utilities.
This guidance document from the U.S. EPA provides information on how drinking water utilities can manage distribution system contamination incidents. It discusses a framework for responding to a contamination incident, highlights the need for coordinating efforts with local, state, regional, and federal response partners, and describes the use of training and exercises for learning and improving response procedures.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019; 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET; webinar
California Watershed Emergency Response Teams (WERTs), which consists of representatives from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the California Department of Water Resources, and California Water Boards, among other partners, have completed reports on the effects of the Camp Fire and of the Woolsey and Hill Fires on watersheds, which raged in California in November. The Camp Fire burned over 150,000 acres in an area about 80 miles north of Sacramento.
The White House has published its National Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism, which is intended to achieve a set of objectives whose common purpose is to greatly reduce the probability extremist groups and individuals will conduct attacks using weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has compiled into single report various long-range emerging threats to the U.S. independently identifed by the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. GAO grouped the threats into four broad categories, which include adversaries’ political and military advancements, dual-use technologies, weapons, and events and demographic changes. There are threats within each of these categories that could have direct impacts on water and wastewater utilities.
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