Understanding vulnerabilities within water and wastewater utilities is critical to protecting
the health and safety of our citizens and our nation's water supply.
Purpose
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's)
Vulnerability Self Assessment Tool (VSAT) Version 6.0
is designed to assist water and wastewater utilities
of all sizes with determining vulnerabilities to both
man-made and natural hazards, and with evaluating
potential improvements to enhance their security and
resilience. Utilities can use VSAT 6.0 to update current risk
assessments and ensure that they are ready to meet the
increasing safety and security challenges of the future.
Features
VSAT 6.O has significant enhancements over earlier
versions of this tool:
Meets Water Sector Standard. EPA has developed VSAT
6.O to be consistent with the ANSI/AWWA J1OO-1O Risk
Analysis and Management for Critical Asset Protection
(RAMCAP) Standard for Risk and Resilience Management
of Water and Wastewater Systems. To meet this
standard, VSAT 6.0 includes quantitative risk and
resilience metrics, asset prioritization and a new threat
category to assess interdependencies.
Easy to Use. To assist small systems and new users in
building an assessment, VSAT now includes a New Analysis
Wizard with suggested default assessments for common
utility assets, countermeasures and threats. Plus, data from
SEMS (Security and Emergency Management System)
assessments can be imported directly into VSAT.
As stated in the 2013 National Infrastructure Protection
Plan, "The national effort to strengthen critical
infrastructure security and resilience depends on the
ability of critical infrastructure owners and operators
to make risk-informed decisions when allocating limited
resources." Accordingly, EPA strongly encourages water and
wastewater utility owners and operators to use VSAT 6.0 to
conduct or update an all-hazards risk assessment.
SAFETY Act Designation for VSAT 6.0
The Department of Homeland Security has approved a
Block Designation for risk assessments performed using
VSAT 6.0 under the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering
Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act. Entities using VSAT
6.O to conduct risk assessments of water, wastewater or
combined utilities may apply for SAFETY Act protections,
which can limit liability for claims resulting from an act
of terrorism. Please see the Block Designation list at
www.safetyact.gov for additional information and
application instructions.
For More Information
VSAT 6.O, along with a series of basic and
advanced training videos, is now available at
http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/techtools/
vsat.cfm. For more information, email VSATHelp@epa.gov.
Office of Water (4608-T) | EPA 817-F-14-005 I September 2014
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