Security and Emergency Planning for Water and Wastewater Utilities. By Stanley. States. .... He has a master's degree in forensic chemistry and a doctorate in.
Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Manuscript 1895
Review of Security and Emergency Planning for Water and Wastewater Utilities David M. Claborn, Missouri State University - Springfield
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Claborn: Review of Water Security
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Security and Emergency Planning for Water and Wastewater Utilities. By Stanley States. Denver, Colo.: American Water Works Association, 2010. 337 pp. (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-5832-1745-0. Reviewed by David M. Claborn, Missouri State University−Springfield. On occasion, a book can change a mind. Such is the case with Security and Emergency Planning for Water and Wastewater Utilities, by Stanley States. At first glance, the book appears to be an unnecessary treatise on how to prevent terrorist attacks at sewage and water treatment plants. There is an element of the humorous when one thinks of the inept terrorist blowing up latrines and sewage lagoons á la Inspector Clouseau. The more serious homeland security planner could dismiss the book’s thesis with the usual engineering maxim: “the solution to pollution is dilution.” After all, it would require an unusually potent toxin to poison most public water supplies to the point of becoming an important public health issue. However, such a flippant dismissal of this book and its subject would be a mistake. Dr. States presents a convincing argument that water and, yes, even sewage utilities are vulnerable and potentially attractive targets to the knowledgeable terrorist. His reviews of laws and planning procedures for the protection of the water utilities would make an important contribution to the library of any county administrator or other public official concerned with the public’s safety and security, and those with involved with protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure would be particularly interested in this book. States’s early descriptions of the agents that could be used in an attack on municipal water utilities are comprehensive but initially unconvincing. One of the book’s few weaknesses is the use of some early examplessuch as the murder of Georgi Markov with an umbrella built to inject a ricin-containing pelletthat seem somewhat irrelevant to the subject of public water supplies. Similar descriptions of wives poisoning their husbands’ coffee and the Jonestown KoolAid incident are interesting, but they give the reader an impression that the author is stretching to justify his efforts. But then States cites a series of incidents that demonstrate just how much destruction could be wreaked by a terrorist who is knowledgeable about the modern water supply system. For instance, in Pittsburgh in 1980, chlordane pesticide was reportedly injected directly into an eighteen-inch water main, leading to the poisoning and illness of 150 people. The technical expertise required to access the pipe and inject the toxin suggested insider knowledge. Other examples reveal a desire to poison public water systems on the part of al-Qaida, domestic terrorists, and even disgruntled employees, possibly groups involved in labor disputes (pp. 44−46). Disease agents and toxins that have been used in these events reflect a wide
Published by Berkeley Electronic Press, 2011
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spectrum of potential poisons, ranging from raw sewage to pesticides. States reports that even plutonium may have been used in a case in New York City in 1985 (p. 45). Even these examples would probably not convince a true skeptic, but then States proceeds to describe how the pipes in a sewage collection system can serve as a conduit for widespread destruction. In fact, the reader is left with the impression that the distribution and collection systems themselves, rather than the actual poisoning of the public’s tap water, present the real potential for public harm. The most convincing incident that States describes occurred in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1992 and involved a leak from a gasoline pipeline that ran into a sanitary sewer. Seven miles of sewage pipe exploded, causing damage equivalent to US$75 million (p. 59); the explosion killed 206 people, injured 460, destroyed 250 businesses, and left 15,000 people homeless. A similar incident involving hexane caused two miles of sanitary sewer in Memphis, Tennessee, to explode in 1981, resulting in damages of more than $18 million to the sewer district alone. These and other reported incidents provide convincing evidence that the water and sewage systems, far from being too massive to sustain damage from terrorist attacks, are actually vulnerable infrastructure that the knowledgeable terrorist could use to cause great damage and loss of life. As interesting as these incidents are, the real utility of Security and Emergency Planning for Water and Wastewater Utilities lies in later chapters that systematically describe planning and management techniques designed to reduce risk and increase system resiliency. Much of what is covered is consistent with any strategic planthat is, the goals, the objectives, etc. However, valuable information lies in a description of different online tools and information sources that are available for utilities managers and security professionals. One such tool, for example, is the Environmental Protection Agency’s Drinking Water Response Protocol Toolbox: Planning for and Responding to Contamination Threats to Drinking Water Systems, an online document created for the utilities industry that allows users to extract forms and text and place them directly into planning documents. (As a teacher of college students, I confess to a degree of unease with any tool that encourages the user to “cut and paste” anything. Abuse of such technologies results in impressive-looking documents that no one has read, including the author of the document. This does not detract, however, from the potential for such online sources to aid professionals during the planning process.) Numerous other tools and information sources described in the text also have specific application to the utilities industry, but the chapter on vulnerability assessments seems particularly useful. Although brief, the chapter provides a step-by-step description of methods to assess risk and plan for risk reductions. A sizeable portion of the book is dedicated to risk mitigation in the form of physical security, operational security measures, policy formation, and training.
Claborn: Review of Water Security
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The information presented ranges from the simple (a discussion of incandescent versus mercury lights) to the routine but essential elements of records management for the human resource program. None of these subjects is covered in depth, but enough information is provided to remind the reader of important elements to consider during planning sessions. Security and Emergency Planning is, at times, a general text on homeland security rather than a specific examination of terrorism and the water utility industry. Sections on dealing with the media and communicating with the public could have been written for almost any paper on risk communication. They are useful but, for the most part, nonspecific to the industry. Chapter 18 on “Remediation and Recovery,” however, is quite specific to the industry and could serve as a general guide to the technical literature and sources addressing decontamination of water and sewage treatment facilities. One source mentioned by States that may be of particular importance, given the recent disaster in Japan, is a report on the use of Simple Green decontaminant to remove strontium and cesium from pipe surfaces. Again, the book serves as an introduction and entry into the literature rather than an authoritative technical source. Although Security and Emergency Planning avoids highly technical presentations of the chemistry and physics of the subject, this is not a reflection of the author’s qualifications. According to the book, Stanley States has worked at the Pittsburgh Water and Sewage Authority for over thirty-three years and, at the time of the book’s publication in 2010, was the director of Water Quality and Production. He has a master’s degree in forensic chemistry and a doctorate in environmental biology. These qualifications and additional experience in homeland security appear to make Dr. States a leading expert in the field, well qualified to author such a book. This brief but useful introduction to the field of security for water and wastewater treatment facilities is a serious contribution to the growing literature on protection of the national infrastructure. Probably more so than any other aspect of public health, the provision of clean water is essential to the well-being of the community. And the availability of clean water is strongly linked to sewage treatment. Terrorist attacks on the facilities that provide these services may seem a remote, even humorous, possibility to some. But States does an effective job of removing the “giggle factor” from the image of exploding outhouses and sewers, effectively communicating various means to protect the public’s health from the efforts of terrorists and vandals alike. After all, a book can change a mind as long as that mind is open.
Published by Berkeley Electronic Press, 2011
