Water Sector infrastructure, which consists of drinking water and wastewater systems, has a long history of implementing programs to provide clean and safe water, thereby protecting public health and the environment across the Nation. For more than thirty (30) years, drinking water and wastewater utilities have been conducting routine daily, weekly, and monthly water quality monitoring under guidance of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and Clean Water Act (CWA). Researchers continue to explore ways to improve water quality testing methods. Together, the sector's public health, environmental, security, and resilience efforts form a multi-layered approach to provide clean, safe drinking water and protect public health. Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7 designates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the Federal lead for coordinating and assisting in protecting the Nation's critical Water Sector infrastructure. It is necessary to better protect Water Sector infrastructure to safeguard public health and the economic vitality of our Nation. Malicious acts, natural disasters, and denial of service that affect the sector could result in large numbers of illnesses or casualties, as well as negative economic impacts. Critical services such as firefighting and health care (hospitals), to include other dependent and interdependent sectors such as energy, transportation, and food and agriculture, would suffer damaging effects from a denial of potable water or properly treated wastewater. The initial Water Sector-Specific Plan (Water SSP) was released in 2007. The Water SSP has been created to explain how the sector is addressing these matters. The Water SSP continues to address broad-based critical infrastructure protection implementation strategies for drinking water and wastewater utilities, their regulatory primacy agencies, and the array of technical assistance partners. The plan describes processes and activities to assist drinking water and wastewater utilities as they strive to increase resilience in the sector and be prepared to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from all hazards.