Full Description

In response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 9, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) Water Security Divisionworked with technical experts and stakeholders in the drinking water community to design the conceptualframework of a drinking water monitoring and surveillance program, and a laboratory support networkthat would provide surge capacity in the event of a water contamination threat or incident. USEPA'sSentinel Water Security Initiative (WS) monitoring and surveillance program will provide an earlywarning 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 waterutilities. The model WS-CWS and its decision-support system integrate five monitoring and surveillancedata streams: continuous, on-line monitoring of conventional water quality parameters; baselineand triggered monitoring (sampling and analysis) for priority chemical, biological, and radiochemicalcontaminants; public health syndromic surveillance; consumer complaint monitoring; and,enhanced physical security (controlled access) and security monitoring (cameras and alarms). Any oneof these CWS elements might serve as a "trigger" to alert the utility of a potential contamination eventand prescribe an appropriate consequence management strategy. Select water utilities will serve as pilotsto evaluate and refine the CWS design and to facilitate the development of guidance for nationalimplementation of WS-CWSs.The sampling and analysis component of the CWS is a critical element in the integrated approach for thetimely detection and identification of drinking water contaminants following a contamination event andduring incidence response or remediation efforts. This objective requires establishing utility- andcontaminant-specific baselines that will be used to evaluate data from routine and triggered sampling andanalysis. 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. Arepresentative 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 theavailability of rapid detection and confirmatory analytical methods.The regional analytical support network developed to support contaminant monitoring during the initialWS 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 thelaboratory network will be to integrate analytical data reporting with the data management andcommunication strategies supporting all elements of the WS-CWS.Among the WS priority contaminants, biological agents (pathogens and toxins) present unique challengesto monitoring and surveillance efforts. The biological agents of concern relative to drinking water includehighly infectious or toxic biothreat agents (select agents and toxins), conventional food and water safetythreat agents, and emerging threat agents. Sampling and analysis for many of these agents in drinkingwater is problematic due to a variety of biological, technical, health and safety, and security issues. Theseissues make the interpretation and communication or notification of analytical results particularlychallenging 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 determinethe effectivenes

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/01/2006 Number of Pages: 2File Size: 1 file , 310 KB