Jack Hennessy

May 2015

While attempts at attacks on facilities have been prevalent throughout history, the events of September 11, 2011 galvanized a nationwide response to secure facilities against threats posed by terrorist organizations. As a result of the Anthrax attacks, policymakers began to critically examine threats to public health and water security, introducing more stringent emergency response and security protocols. Most notably, the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 transformed the landscape of water politics. Requiring utilities serving more than 3,300 people to complete vulnerability assessments (VAs) and fully assess susceptibility to attack, the bill incorporated new mandates to update emergency response plans (ERPs) with plans, procedures, and equipment to ameliorate the effects of attack. Collectively, these policy instruments led to the creation of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP), initiated to help synergize coordination between agencies and sectors in the water security sphere.17

Since then, a number of other measures have been added to bolster defense and prevention against threats posed to community water systems, including:

HSPD-5, Management of Domestic Incidents, 2003: which helps synthesize national approaches to allow federal, state, and local governments to prepare and respond to domestic incidents18

HSPD-7, Critical Infrastructure Identification, Prioritization, and Protection, 2003: which helps protect the nation’s most vital infrastructure and resources

HSPD-9, Defense of United States Agriculture and Food, 2004: implemented to protect agricultural and food systems from deliberate attacks, disasters, and waterborne threats

HSPD-10, Biodefense for the Twenty-First Century, 2004: which helped create biodetection technologies and decontamination methodologies for water infrastructure

PPD 8, National Preparedness, 2011: which mandated agencies like U.S. EPA initiate measures of preparedness for “acts of terrorism, cyber-attacks, pandemics, and catastrophic natural disasters”19

Though national frameworks governing water security could be discussed in depth, I have honed my discussion to a brief synopsis of the most critical legislation in recent history. Despite national preparedness, the engineering challenges of supplying potable, reliable drinking water without failure have, at times, proven too challenging to carry out without failure…