AWWA and ASCE publish draft water safety regulations
Third phase of voluntary standards covers physical security at water and wastewater industries; grant program funded by EPA; interested parties have until June to comment
Efforts to improve the country’s water and wastewater facilities took a major step forward this week with the publication of voluntary standard guidelines jointly developed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Water Works Association (AWWA). “These risk-reduction standards for water, wastewater, and stormwater systems are an essential part of protecting our nation’s infrastructure from potential terrorist threats, and allowing it to continue supporting our economy and public health,” said ASCE’s Patrick J. Natale.
The new Water Infrastructure Security Enhancements guidelines, the third phase of an ongoing endeavor funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, focus on risks from construction and design perspectives and describe physical security approaches for detecting or delaying malevolent parties. Phase I of the grant led to the creation of interim voluntary security guidance documents for contaminant monitoring systems, while phase II developed comprehensive “modular-format training materials” to disseminate the information in the interim guidance documents.
Titled “Guidelines for the Physical Security of Water Utilities” and “Guidelines for the Physical Security of Wastewater/Stormwater Utilities,” the draft guidelines are open for public comment and trial use until 30 June 2007.
-read more in this ASCE/AWWA joint news release
