U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Reducing Security Risks in American Drinking Water Systems
The Problem
Safe and abundant drinking water is critical for the public health and economic vitality of the United States. However, the distributed physical layout of drinking water systems makes them potentially vulnerable to a variety of incidents, including contamination with deadly agents that could result in large numbers of illnesses and fatalities.
The Analytics Solution
As part of its Threat Ensemble Vulnerability Assessment (TEVA) Research Program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) used advanced analytics to develop contamination warning systems (CWSs) that enable water utilities to rapidly detect the presence of contaminants in drinking water. A key aspect of CWS design is the strategic placement of sensors to minimize potential public health and economic impacts. The EPA partnered with national laboratory and academic researchers to develop a Sensor Placement Optimization Tool (TEVA-SPOT) that supports a flexible decision framework for sensor placement.
Analytics had a significant impact on the EPA’s ability to analyze large-scale water distribution systems. New sensor placement strategies were developed in TEVA-SPOT to analyze very large water distribution networks on typical desktop computers in minutes to hours.
The Value
The EPA partnered with member utilities of the American Water Works Association to design CWSs for nine water utilities that provide water to millions of people. Four CWSs have been deployed, and five more deployments are planned in 2008. These new systems will significantly reduce the impact of catastrophic contamination incidents; the EPA estimates that the median reduction of potential fatalities for these utilities is 48% and the corresponding reduction of potential economic impacts due to fatalities is over 18 billion dollars.
The CWSs developed for these water utilities also help to promote the sustainability of their water distribution systems. CWSs are a valuable tool for detecting accidental contamination and managing common water quality issues. Consequently, these CWSs have helped integrate security programs into daily operations at these utilities.
