EPA Awards $2M Grant to Enhance Water Security

U.S. EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt has announced a $2 million grant to the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA). The grant will support the ongoing efforts of Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (WaterISAC), a state-of-the-art, secure information system that shares up-to-date threat and incident information between the intelligence community and the water sector.

This is the second year EPA has provided funding to the WaterISAC, which allows more water utilities throughout the country to receive critical water security information. AMWA has played an important role in developing the WaterISAC by providing America's drinking water and wastewater systems with a secure web-based environment for the early warning of potential physical, contamination and cyber threats.

WaterISAC analysts provide security information to the water sector from various sources, including: federal intelligence; law enforcement and utility security incident reports. The WaterISAC's information and tools provide an important link among these sources. 

The WaterISAC is designed to meet the information sharing needs of water and wastewater utilities providing a secure forum for gathering, analyzing, and sharing security-related information. Timely, useable information supports efforts to protect the critical water infrastructure, and sharing that information allows water systems to better protect themselves and enhances national security.

Source: AMWA and EPA