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Water Security Initiative
About PDF Files
The Water Security (WS) initiative is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program that addresses the risk of intentional contamination of drinking water distribution
systems. EPA established this initiative in response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 9, under which the Agency must “develop robust, comprehensive, and fully
coordinated surveillance and monitoring systems, including international information, for…water quality that provides early detection and awareness of disease, pest, or poisonous
agents.”
EPA is implementing the WS initiative in three phases:
- Phase I: develop the conceptual design of a system for timely detection and appropriate response to drinking water contamination incidents to mitigate
public health and economic impacts;
- Phase II: test and demonstrate contamination warning systems through pilots at drinking water utilities and municipalities and make refinements to the
design as needed based upon pilot results; and
- Phase III: develop practical guidance and outreach to promote voluntary national adoption of effective and sustainable drinking water contamination
warning systems.
Each of these phases is further described in the following Quick Reference Guide.
Phase I
-
Water Security Initiative System Architecture (PDF)
(151 pp, 2MB)
EPA 817-D-05-003, December 2005
This document, which refers to the Water Security Initiative by its previous name, WaterSentinel, provides more detail on WS contamination warning systems components and
design.
Phase II
- Request For Applications (RFA)
- Water
Security Initiative Contamination Warning System Demonstration Pilots (Revised August 17, 2007) (PDF) (28 pp, 152K) - The Water Security
Initiative Request for applications has been amended to extend the application deadline until September 10, 2007. EPA is requesting applications for drinking water contamination
warning system demonstration pilots as part of the Agency's Water Security (WS) initiative. Applications for contamination warning system pilot projects must address specified
monitoring and surveillance components, a consequence management plan, and a review and evaluation plan. EPA anticipates awarding up to four cooperative agreements for these
demonstration pilots. The federal portion for each cooperative agreement is anticipated to range between $3 million and $12 million. A minimum 20 percent cost-share/match of the
total project cost is required for these demonstration pilots. Applications will be accepted only from local governments or institutions (either public or private nonprofit
organizations) that operate community water systems serving at least 750,000 people.
- Web Cast for Potential Applicants - June 18 and 20, 2007 (PDF) (30 pp, 658K) - On June 18 and June 20, 2007, EPA hosted webcasts on the
Request for Applications (RFA) for Water Security Initiative Contamination Warning System Demonstration Pilots. The purpose of these webcasts was to familiarize potential
applicants with key features of both the RFA and a guidance document that may aid respondents to the RFA. This file provides the slides presented during the webcasts (the same
material was presented at both webcasts).
-
Questions
and Answers from EPA's Request for Applications for Drinking Water Contamination Warning System Pilots (PDF) (3 pp, 24K) - This document
summarizes questions received and responses provided by EPA regarding the Agency's Request for Applications (RFA) for Water Security Initiative Contamination Warning System
Demonstration Pilots.
It lists questions from two webcasts, held June 18 and June 20, 2007, as well as questions emailed to the Agency Contact for this RFA through July 24, 2007. This page will be
updated regularly to reflect additional questions as received.
- Event Detection System Challenge
- Do you have an event detection or anomaly detection tool? Do you have an innovative approach to time series analysis of highly variable data?
Well, here is your chance to put your tool to the test! The EPA will provide you with several months of drinking water quality and operational data from six water quality monitoring stations located throughout the country, and it’s your job to use that information to train your Event Detection System (EDS) to detect unusual water quality events (e.g., contamination) without excessive false alarms! In addition to the thrill of victory, the results of this challenge will be of great interest to water utilities seeking to implement a contamination warning system, and this challenge is a great way to learn more about the performance of your tool in this growing field ! If you are a developer of an EDS tool and wish to participate in the challenge, click the link below for more information.
Phase III
-
Interim Guidance on Planning for Contamination
Warning System Deployment (PDF) (123 pp, 882K)
EPA 817-R-07-002, May 2007
This document will assist drinking water utilities in planning for contamination warning system deployment based on the model developed under EPA's Water Security initiative
(formerly known as WaterSentinel). In particular, this document may aid respondents to an upcoming EPA Request for Applications (RFA). Under this RFA, the Agency would make
financial awards for drinking water utilities to implement and evaluate contamination warning system demonstration pilots. EPA anticipates issuing this RFA in June
2007.
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