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Chapter 2
Organizing Principles for Water Security
The Water Security Research and Technical Support Action Plan (Action Plan)
includes a broad suite of research and technical support topics that address many issues of
pressing importance for preventing and managing serious attacks on the nation's water
systems. Given the urgency and short time frame under which the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has been working on water security issues, the panel
commends the agency for the speed and diligence of its efforts. Nevertheless, the
development of the EPA's water security plans has reached a critical juncture, as
implementation is just getting underway. The EPA will need to prioritize its efforts to
meet urgent needs while simultaneously preserving a longer-term research and technical
support strategy for water security and remaining mindful of the agency's other essential
tasks that contribute to the public health and security.
Given the time and resource constraints on the water security program, it is clear that
some kind of overarching prioritization is needed. It will be impossible to harden water
infrastructure to the extent needed to eliminate all vulnerabilities, and the expense of
many preventive actions and technologies may be high relative to the risk reduction
generated. Moreover, if an event were to happen tomorrow, water systems, local and
state health departments, and emergency response agencies would have to respond on the
basis of whatever information was available. Thus, the basic organizing principles of the
EPA water security research and technical support agenda should be to emphasize a
continuing increase in the effectiveness and efficiency of our response and recovery
capacity while identifying cost-effective preventive or mitigative countermeasures.
Central to this objective is the development of a continually evolving integrated
prevention and response guidance for utilities and responders, as recommended in the
panel's first report (see Part I), which would weave together protocols, databases,
training, and methodologies developed in the Action Plan effort.
The Action Plan recognizes that information is an essential component of effective
response and recovery programs, but there should be additional emphasis on making this
information immediately useful. The information needed to respond to a water security
event should be gathered and made available to those who might need it at every step—
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Organizing Principles for Water Security
65
not just the final step. The ability to respond and recover will be a process of successive
approximations that will improve as information and methods improve. The Action Plan
should be implemented with this iterative process in mind.
il
The implications of the above are that key tasks that have relatively quick and
mmediate value should be given higher priority over longer-term projects that, while
worthwhile, compete for human ant! financial resources. An example of a short-term,
immediately valuable project is the harvesting of peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed
scientific and technical literature (e.g., unclassified military documents) for pertinent
information and the assembling of that information in a database that allows unimpeded
access and use by any personnel who might need it (e.g., rapid response teams from the
EPA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], or local and state public health
personnel). Within this project, the most useful and relevant information should be made
available as soon as possible. For most chemical or biological agents, the most important
information pertains to an agent s removal or inactivation by water treatment processes
already in use. In some cases, responders may only need to know whether a specific
agent (e.g., a virus) is more or less resistant than the agents for which current water
treatment technologies are already designed. Other valuable information includes
potential health impacts, relevant routes of exposure, decay rates for chemicals, and
survival time for microorganisms. Where feasible, similar contaminants can be lumped
into categories to hasten the production of usable information. An example of a longer-
term activity that should proceed on a less urgent schedule is the development of a master
contaminant database with comprehensive, experimentally determined information on
each contaminant.
In keeping with this strategy, the EPA should identify a minimum required data set
for response and remediation at present and then gradually work to improve the levels of
knowledge. A potential danger of the Action Plan, as it is currently expressed, is that
some areas could generate information that is too detailed for our present state of
response capabilities while other projects that could produce more general but useful
results, such as risk communication strategies and information dissemination, lag behind.
The EPA should strive to keep the production of useful water security projects in phase
with current response capabilities, so that responders can be as effective as possible at
any given point in time.
The following bullets constitute organizing principles for water security
recommended by the panel.
Overall goal.
To improve the security of the nation s water systems.
Strategy.
Develop a practical program of water security research and technical support,
emphasizing a continuing increase in the effectiveness and efficiency of our response
and recovery capacity while identifying cost-effective countermeasures based on an
understanding of the nature and likelihood of potential threats.
Suggested strategic actions.
.
Develop and implement a specific management plan within EPA for the
realization of the Action Plan that includes adequate continuing financial and
human resources and effective, stable leadership to monitor and coordinate the
many projects and project managers. Action Plan project managers need to be
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66
A Review of the EPA Water Security Action Plan
continually aware of related activities both within and outside EPA in order to
minimize duplication of effort and allow integration and updating of protocols as
new data are generated. If projects suffer from frequent change of leadership,
coordination will be impaired, harming the essential integrating functions of
many of the Action Plan s projects. A process and schedule for reviewing the
overall water security effort, evaluating its progress and impact, and reassessing
its priorities should also be created and implemented.
.
.
.
.
.
Mine existing data for pertinent information and assemble it in an accessible and
immediately useable form. Information should be harvested from the literature
(both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed) and through collaboration with
knowledgeable personnel, utilizing existing experience in this field among other
agencies and experts (e.g., Department of Defense, CDC).
Develop effective information transfer and two-way communication at the
first stage of research project planning. Results that are not accessible, are too
complex, are misunderstood, or do not utilize pertinent information from the
community are not useful to achieve the overall goals. Communication plans
should carefully assess who needs to use the information, so that the research and
technical support products can be directed to the appropriate target audiences for
maximum effectiveness.
Prepare research and technical support results for broad dissemination at
the project level. By requiring researchers and technical support staff to
produce results in an immediately usable form, the EPA could make information
available at the earliest possible time. For example, project staff doing literature
searches for existing data should be responsible for providing their findings in a
format that is compatible with relevant existing databases.
Develop continually evolving guidance and integrated response protocols for
utilities and responders in case of a water security emergency. An overarching
comprehensive guidance is needed that would weave together the protocols and
methodologies developed in the Action Plan and direct a utility through possible
prevention strategies, available information resources, and response and recovery
actions. The overarching guidance and the individual protocols (or play books)
that support it should be made available as soon as possible and continually
revised as new information becomes available.
Determine the value of water security measures. Cost-benefit data, where
feasible, are needed to help water utility mangers assess the value of specific
water security measures relative to the estimated costs and risk reduction. The
EPA should state its position on the value of improving water security to guide
and support utility managers, who must communicate this information to the
public and elected and appointed officials in order to obtain financial resources to
implement security improvements.
Consider the needs and funding constraints of the end users in the
development and prioritization of the research and technical support plans.
Products that are not affordable to the target users (e.g., utilities, state anal local
agencies) are not useful to achieving water security goals.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
action plan
