AWWA WQTC64010

In response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 9, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) Water Security Division worked with technical experts and stakeholders in the drinking water community to design the conceptual framework of a drinking water monitoring and surveillance program, and a laboratory support network that would provide surge capacity in the event of a water contamination threat or incident. USEPA's Sentinel Water Security Initiative (WS) monitoring and surveillance program will provide an early warning system and improve our Nation's water security. Toward this objective, USEPA has designed, deployed, and is currently evaluating a model contamination warning system (CWS) for drinking water utilities. The model WS-CWS and its decision-support system integrate five monitoring and surveillance data streams: continuous, on-line monitoring of conventional water quality parameters; baseline and triggered monitoring (sampling and analysis) for priority chemical, biological, and radiochemical contaminants; public health syndromic surveillance; consumer complaint monitoring; and, enhanced physical security (controlled access) and security monitoring (cameras and alarms). Any one of these CWS elements might serve as a "trigger" to alert the utility of a potential contamination event and prescribe an appropriate consequence management strategy. Select water utilities will serve as pilots to evaluate and refine the CWS design and to facilitate the development of guidance for national implementation of WS-CWSs. The sampling and analysis component of the CWS is a critical element in the integrated approach for the timely detection and identification of drinking water contaminants following a contamination event and during incidence response or remediation efforts. This objective requires establishing utility- and contaminant-specific baselines that will be used to evaluate data from routine and triggered sampling and analysis. USEPA has identified a diverse group of high priority contaminants that due to their availability, transportability, solubility, and toxicity, could be used to intentionally contaminate drinking water. A representative subset of these contaminants including chemical, radiochemical, and biological agents (select agents and toxins) was selected for monitoring during initial WS pilot programs based on the availability of rapid detection and confirmatory analytical methods. The regional analytical support network developed to support contaminant monitoring during the initial WS pilot includes a consortium of utility, wastewater, commercial, and health department laboratories. This network not only provides the diverse analytical capabilities necessary for the target contaminants, but allows timely coordination between sample collection and sample analysis. A critical function of the laboratory network will be to integrate analytical data reporting with the data management and communication strategies supporting all elements of the WS-CWS. Among the WS priority contaminants, biological agents (pathogens and toxins) present unique challenges to monitoring and surveillance efforts. The biological agents of concern relative to drinking water include highly infectious or toxic biothreat agents (select agents and toxins), conventional food and water safety threat agents, and emerging threat agents. Sampling and analysis for many of these agents in drinking water is problematic due to a variety of biological, technical, health and safety, and security issues. These issues make the interpretation and communication or notification of analytical results particularly challenging in terms of predicting the presence/absence and/or the significance of a public health threat, especially when these results derive from methods other than confirmatory ones. During the WS pilot, pathogen and toxin monitoring using rapid detection technologies will be evaluated in order to determine the effectivenes