The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently released an update to the Water and Wastewater Sector-Specific Plan (SSP), which identifies, at a high level, risks to the nation’s drinking water and wastewater systems and outlines strategies and activities at the national level for enhancing security and resilience in the sector.
The SSP was developed in coordination with the Water Sector Coordinating Council (WSCC) and the Government Coordinating Council (GCC). The WSCC comprises utility representatives appointed by the national water and wastewater associations and research foundations. The GCC comprises representatives from EPA, DHS, other federal agencies and state drinking water administrators. By presidential order, SSPs are required of all 17 national critical infrastructure sectors and align with the National Infrastructure Protection Plan.
In addition to summarizing the operations and criticality of water and wastewater services, the SSP ranks security and resilience risks to the sector. Characterized as the most significant risks:
- Natural disasters affecting water quality and quantity,
- Economic implications of aging infrastructure,
- Cyber events, and
- Lack of awareness about the criticality of the water sector to other sectors and cross-sector interdependencies.
The SSP also identifies the partners and authorities involved in security and resilience and provides the sector’s vision statement, goals, objectives, timelines and metrics. Among the four goals outlined in the SSP is to ensure the continuity of water and wastewater services. This would be accomplished, in part, by:
- Encouraging the integration of physical and cyber security into daily operations to foster a security culture;
- Evaluating and developing surveillance, monitoring, warning and response capabilities to recognize and address all-hazards risks; and
- Developing a nationwide laboratory network capable of analyzing threats to water quality.
Other goals consist of recognizing and reducing risk, maintaining a resilient infrastructure and increasing communication, outreach and public confidence.
The SSP references, in several sections, the WSCC/GCC’s Roadmap to a Secure and Resilient Water Sector (2013), which provides additional information about the sector’s security and resilience priorities.