1. 1 “EPA’s Water Security initiative : Integrating the Water Sector and Public Health” Wednesday June 20, 2012 Healthy and Safe Community Environments (Track 1)

2. Presentation Overview Background on the Water Security Initiative Conceptual design Partnering and Public Health Conclusions and Resources

3. Background Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-9 –Establishes a national policy to defend the agriculture and food system against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. –Signed January 30, 2004 HSPD-9 requires EPA to –“ develop robust, comprehensive, and fully coordinated surveillance and monitoring systems... for... water quality that provide early detection and awareness of disease, pest, or poisonous agents,”

4. Programmatic Approach of the Water Security Initiative

5. 5 Conceptual Design

6. Large, complex, and accessible: –Commercial & residential service connections –Fire hydrants –Finished water storage Difficult to contaminate an entire city via the distribution system, but –fairly easy to impact small sections or individual buildings Distribution System Vulnerabilities

7. Primary Design Objectives Detection of a broad spectrum of contaminant classes Achieve spatial coverage of the entire distribution system Detect contamination in sufficient time for effective response Reliably indicate a contamination incident with a minimum number of false-positives Provide a sustainable architecture to monitor distribution system water quality

8. Dual Use Objectives Expanded laboratory capability for emerging source water contaminants Enhanced knowledge of distribution system water quality leading to improved operations Early detection of undesirable events such as nitrification or corrosion problems Improved relationship with public health agencies Increased ability to respond effectively to a variety of emergencies

9. Monitoring Components Integrated Contamination Warning System Enhanced security monitoring Water quality monitoring Public health surveillance Customer complaint surveillance Sampling and analysis

10. System Architecture

11. 11 Partnering and Public Health

12. 12 Partner Organizations

13. Public Health Surveillance Surveillance ToolDescription 911 Calls Calls from customers filtered by health incident categories – analyzed by time and location. EMS Runs EMS responses to customers– categorized by EMS technician assessment (i.e., symptom categories). PCC Calls Calls from customers– case-specific assessments. ED Visits Customer visits to emergency departments to seek medical assistance – categorized by chief complaint. Primary Care Physician/ED Physician Disease Reporting Calls made to health departments or PCC by primary care physicians or ED physicians reporting unusual or unexpected cases and/or symptoms. 13

14. Public Health Surveillance 14 PHS Communicator Protocol *This is an example of a communication protocol (used in Cincinnati) *The User's Group for the Cincinnati Pilot included the local public health departments, poison control, water utility, fire department, US EPA, and FBI.

15. Public Health Surveillance TierAgency TIER 1 Water Utility Local Public Health Partners (LPH), (e.g., epidemiologists) Poison Control Center TIER 2 Local and Federal Law Enforcement Fire Department Hospitals (e.g, communicable disease specialists) Public Health Laboratories (State and local) Utility Site Characterization Team and/or HazMat Local Public Health Department (e.g., Health Commissioner and Public Information Officer TIER 3 State Health Department Emergency Response Groups 15 (Based on Feedback from the Cincinnati Pilot User’s Group)

16. 16 Conclusions to Date ●The Water Security initiative contamination warning system design is technically feasible for a utility to deploy and sustainable for a utility to operate ●Public Health Surveillance exemplifies the need for partnering ○Evaluating alerts requires coordination ●A major future challenge will be promoting national adoption of drinking water contamination warning systems ○All utilities can benefit from development of plans and procedures to utilize the data already being collected more effectively for contaminant detection

17. 17 Community-Based Water Resiliency Initiative Increases community preparedness by: –Improving integration of Water Sector into community emergency preparedness –Increasing understanding of critical interdependencies –Highlighting benefits of preparedness Fosters collaboration between utilities and all community members: –City/county managers –Public works officials –Emergency responders –Business community –Citizens Electronic tool gives communities over 400 resources to develop and implement water resiliency plans Website : http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/communities/index.cfm 17

18. 18 Published Documents Available on the Water Security initiative website: http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/lawsregs/initiative.cfm 1.WaterSentinel System Architecture, EPA-817-D-05-003, December 2005 2.Water Security Initiative: Interim Guidance on Planning for Contamination Warning System Deployment, EPA-817-R07-005, May 2007 3.Water Security Initiative: Interim Guidance on Developing an Operational Strategy for Contamination Warning Systems, EPA-817-R-08-002, September 2008 4.Water Security Initiative: Interim Guidance on Developing Consequence Management Plans for Drinking Water Utilities, EPA-817-R-08-001, September 2008 5.Water Security Initiative: Cincinnati Pilot Post-Implementation System Status, EPA-817-R-08-004, September 2008 Available in the Journal of the American Water Works Association: 1.Optimizing operational reliability of the Cincinnati contamination warning system, J. AWWA, Volume 103, Issue 1, January 2011

19. 19 Questions? For more information on the Water Security Initiative: –http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/lawsregs/init iative.cfm US EPA, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, Water Security Division Chrissy Dangel, MPH Phone 513-569-7821 E-Mail dangel.chrissy@epa.govdangel.chrissy@epa.gov CAPT Nelson Mix, PE, CHMM