Protecting source water is a critical task for water utilities, and preventing contamination helps reduce treatment costs and may avoid or defer the need for complex treatment. To help utilities with that, EPA has created several resources on source water protection. Members are encouraged to review these resources to help them enhance their operational resilience.
Water Online has published an article summarizing the resources the EPA discussed during the December 2022 webinar “DWSRF Building Capacity in Action.” The primary focus of the webinar was the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), whose mandate is to provide financial assistance that helps water systems and states achieve the objectives of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
EPA has updated its Water Contaminant Information Tool (WCIT) and added a new contaminant profile. WCIT, which was created in 2005, is a secure, online database that provides support to the water sector in its emergency preparedness and response activities by offering information on contaminants of concern to the sector. The updated database implements a responsive design that improves mobile device accessibility.
With the onset of hurricane season, the Chemical Security Analysis Center (CSAC) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reminds partners of actionable information about chemical threats and hazards it can offer.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators have used a new technique to better forecast the level of algal toxins that accumulate in Lake Erie every year, an advancement that could benefit water treatment plants.
The EPA’s Water Security Division recently updated its Water Sector Decontamination (Decon) Program webpage and added additional resources to assist utilities through remediation in response to all-hazards water contamination. The first new webpage, “The Basics of Water Remediation,” gives a high-level overview of the remediation process following a water contamination incident, and is broken down into three phases: Characterization, Decontamination, and Clearance Phases. However, this process is not strictly linear and will likely occur simultaneously with other efforts.
EPA has published a fact sheet of best practices for drinking water utilities to consider in cases when distribution systems have been contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as a result of wildfires. As EPA notes, VOCs like benzene were found in the drinking water for towns impacted by the 2017 Tubbs Fire and the 2018 Camp Fire in California, posing a potential health risk for consumers and loss of consumer confidence. The fact sheet derives much of its examination of the issue and recommendations from these experiences. It specifically discusses:
EPA’s Water Security Division has posted new resources about incorporating Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) into a Surveillance and Response System (SRS) to detect backflow and tampering. The resources include a two-page fact sheet and an updated guidance document about AMI. The documents discuss AMI in the context of security by explaining how AMI backflow and tamper alerts are generated and can be investigated. The guidance document provides an Alert Investigation Template that can be edited and customized in Microsoft Word by drinking water utilities.
The U.S Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General has released a report identifying shortcomings in the BioWatch program, which is intended to help prevent a bioterrorism attack through a nationwide aerosol detection system. But BioWatch is not currently operating a nationwide early warning system, according to the report. Its detection equipment is located in just 22 of 50 states, leaving 28 states without coverage. The report also notes 906 instances in which air samples were not collected due to loss of power that included unplugged portable sampling units (PSUs).
EPA recently released the Underground Storage Tank (UST) Finder, an online mapping tool providing access to localized information on the attributes and locations of leaking underground storage tanks (LUSTs), UST facilities, and USTs across the U.S.
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