In June 2002, the President signed into law the Public Health Security Bioterrorism and Response Act (PL107-188) which resulted in the Environmental Protection Agency mandating that all water facilities serving 3,300 users or more conduct a Vulnerability Assessment (VA) of their respective facility.
Recommendations arising from these VA’s, included various measures related to Security Improvements that would be required to reduce the level of risk as determined by the individual VA.
Given that many water facilities had never considered a need for security prior to the events of “9/11”, the associated costs for many of these security improvements proved to be quite substantial, and for many water facilities, were simply cost prohibitive.
The issue then became one of looking at possible sources of funding for such improvements including rate increases or special surcharges for security against each user. With a multitude of water facilities already facing extensive demands on capital funding, and having no prior budgets for security expenditure, the problem of cost prohibitive measures recommended in the different VA’s has proven to be a very real problem.
Is there a solution to this problem? Can security measures be designed and implemented for substantially less cost than currently estimated in the VA reports? The answer with some exceptions, is a very positive Yes. The possible solution is that of the Deterrent or Prescriptive Approach to Security System Design.
Wivenhoe Management Group is by no means alone in suggesting this approach which has been successfully implemented within the Security Industry for many years, and leading consultants have commented as follows:
“Most ‘off-the-rack’ security system design approaches miss the mark for water and wastewater sites. The preventive, or deterrent approach presented by Wivenhoe is not only more effective, practical and easily implemented – it can cut costs in half”
Ken Burris
Senior Consultant & Head of the Water/Wastewater Section
Environmental Resources Management (ERM)
“The most cost-effective security programs incorporate a proper balance of security Deterrents, Delays, Detection, and Response. The strength of each component is dependent on the attributes of the facility. If the value of Deterrents are not employed or considered, the other components must be greater, at significantly greater cost, in order to achieve the same level of protection as could be achieved at a lower cost when Deterrents are properly applied.”
Ronald S. Libengood, CPP
CEO – SecuraComm Consulting, Inc.
The Deterrent or Prescriptive approach can reduce security costs at water facilities by as much as 50% or more based on experience with actual VA examples at different sites throughout the United States.
As such, it is a solution that can also avoid irate water users upset with the extensive costs of meeting VA recommendations which are based on several factors that may not apply to individual water facilities.
Download the full white paper here: Security System Reduced Costs To Water Facilities