United States
             Environmental Protection
             Agency
        Water Sector-Specific Plan
  A Water Security Fact Sheet for State Health and
  Environmental Agencies
Drinking water and wastewater utility owners, operators, and staff protect public health
and the environment every day and it is important that they be prepared to deal with
all kinds of emergencies. Clean, safe, and reliable drinking water and dependable
wastewater treatment is often taken for granted; however, these services are essential in
maintaining public health and economic viability.

Your state drinking water and wastewater agencies are working to support the efforts of
public water and wastewater systems to improve their emergency response capabilities.
The interdependency between your work and drinking water and wastewater utilities
requires collaboration and coordination for security efforts to be successful.

The information below provides more details on how drinking water utilities, wastewater
utilities, and others are working together to enhance their security and emergency
response capabilities. Please consider how you and your drinking water and wastewater
peers can work together to further support security, public health and safety, and
economic vitality across the Nation.
Why Should I Be Concerned About Drinking
Water and Wastewater Security?
Protecting the critical infrastructure and key
resources (CI/KR) of the United States is essential.
We all rely on clean and safe water to protect our
health, our economy, and the environment; therefore,
it is critical that we safeguard the Nation's drinking
water and wastewater infrastructure. Whether you
work in emergency management, medical support
and health care, or agriculture, water supply is
critical to your success. Without a safe and reliable
supply of drinking water and the means to safely
dispose of wastes in an emergency, hospitals will
not be able to support a community in need, first
responders will not be able to fight fires or help the
injured, hazardous material workers cannot initiate

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decontamination measures, and response workers
will not be able to stay on the job. Ultimately, the
economic stability of a city, town, or region may
be jeopardized without water that is safe to use
and drink. State programs should take the lead
and work collaboratively with the drinking water
and wastewater (Water) sector to strengthen the
foundations of these critical inter dependencies.

What is the Water Sector-Specific Plan?
The Water Sector-Specific Plan (Water SSP) is a
broad-based critical infrastructure protection and
implementation strategy for drinking water and
wastewater utilities, regulatory agencies, and
an array of Water Sector training and technical
assistance partners. The plan describes how drinking
water and wastewater utilities can be better prepared
to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from
terrorist attacks, other intentional acts, natural
disasters, and other hazards.

How was the Water Sector-Specific Plan
Developed?
The Water SSP was created under the guidance
of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's
National infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP). The
document was produced by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in coordination with Water
Sector security partners including the Water Sector
Coordinating Council and the Water Government
Coordinating Council, and was released in June
of 2007.
What does the Water Sector-Specific
Plan Do?
The Water SSP contains four goals and supporting
objectives that will drive development of protective
programs and measure their success. These goals
are:
• sustain protection of public health and the
  environment;
• recognize and reduce risks;
• maintain a resilient infrastructure; and
• increase communication, outreach, and public
  confidence.

The Water SSP includes information on identifying
assets, assessing risk, prioritizing infrastructure,
developing and implementing protective programs,
measuring progress, research and development, and
outlines EPA's responsibilities as the Water Sector-
Specific Agency. The Water SSP is based on the NIPP
risk management framework which establishes the
process for combining consequence, vulnerability,
and threat information to produce a comprehensive,
systematic, and rational assessment of national or
sector-specific risk that drives CI/KR protection
activities.
  Where Can I Get More Information?
  More information on the NIPP, the Water SSP, and other security-related materials can be found at the
  following Web sites:

  Water SSP and Security Initiatives
  http://cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/index.cfm

  National Infrastructure Protection Plan
  http ://w w w. dhs. gov/nipp

  State Drinking Water Protection Web Sites
  http://cfpub.epa. gov/safewater/watersecurity/linkresult.cfm?link_category=5
Office of Water
www.epa.gov/safewater
                                     EPA817-F-07-016
                                      December 2007

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