May 2014
WATER CONTAMINANT INFORMATION TOOL
Water Contaminant Information Tool's
(WCIT) Latest Growth Spurt:
Contaminant Database Adds 11 Substances
U.S. EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) has
announced an expansion of WCIT, adding 11 contaminants to the
online tool.Most are chemicals regularly used in drinking water and
wastewater treatment processes, although two substances (dioxins
and furans) were added due to their toxicity and use or occurrence.
Through accidents, natural disasters or intentional acts, these 11
substances have the potential to enter water systems or contaminate
source water. The 11 new WCIT contaminants are:
aluminum sulfate
ammonium hydroxide
chlorine dioxide
dioxins
furans
ozone
sodium hydroxide
sodium hypochlorite
sodium sulfite
sodium thiosulfate
• hydrogen peroxide
This addition brings the total to 113 contaminants listed in WCIT
that include full profiles — with medical information, early warning
indicators, drinking water treatment and several other categories
of valuable information. For more than 700 additional substances,
there are details about methods — including both field and laboratory
methods — with method descriptions, uses and, when available, links
to the full methods. EPA will continue to add additional substances
to WCIT (biotoxins, chemicals, pathogens, radioisotopes, etc.) to
ensure that the tool remains a valuable source of information for
the water sector.
FREE!
WCIT Online Training
Never tried WCIT? Or haven't used it in a while?
Or maybe you would like a refresher on how to use it. Then you
should take advantage of the free online training available for WCIT.
During the upcoming fiscal year, EPA will be offering hands-on
WCIT training. This special training lasts about one hour. It provides
an introduction to WCIT content and guidance on how to use the
tool. By the end of the one-hour training session, you will be able
to identify contaminant and method data in WCIT, and use most of
the tool's features — such as the search, contaminant comparison
and risk assessment functions. Both Internet and telephone access
are needed for this free training.
If you are interested in the training, send an email to WCIT@epa.
gov. You will be contacted with the new fall training schedule.
©EPA
INSIDE
THE
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
TOOLBOX
WCIT Incorporates
Contamination Response
'Expert System' Tool
As part of continued enhancements of the
WCIT, EPA has incorporated a powerful
resource to assist water utilities and other
WCIT users in planning or executing their
response to a drinking water or wastewater
contamination incident. Chemical biologi-
cal and radiological (CBR) Advisor, a tool
within WCIT, is an interactive, expert system
that supports real-time responses to con-
tamination incidents, as well as serving as
an individual or group training tool.
CBR Advisor is based on the Response
Protocol Toolbox (RPTB), a comprehensive
guide for responding to drinking water con-
tamination threats and incidents that was
developed by EPA's OGWDW.
The modules of the RPTB cover key con-
tamination response priorities, including:
• Contamination threat management
• Site characterization and sampling
• Public health response
• Remediation and recovery
Specific RPTB topics covered include:
• Classifying threat warnings
• Conducting initial threat evaluations
• Collecting, packaging and shipping
hazardous samples
In WCIT, CBR Advisor operates in a split-
screen format. The left-hand side follows
an intuitive Q & A approach. This enables
users to get quick answers to emergency
response questions, and link to documents
and forms that will assist in an emergency
response or a training exercise. The right-
hand side operates in tandem, allowing
users to drill down more deeply on topics
on the left side.
To access CBR Advisor, after logging in to
WCIT, click on the "Tools" tab at the top of
the page. Then click the link for CBR Advi-
sor once you reach the "Tools" Web page.
Offce of Water • EPA 817-F-14-001 • May 2014
-------
WCIT UPDATE 'April 2014
Haven't Logged In Lately, or Forgot
Your Password? No Problem!
Haven't logged into WCIT lately because you forgot your
password or user name?
If you haven't visited recently, it's possible that your pass-
word has expired. If it has, or if you have forgotten it, it's
easy to create a new password — and takes only a minute
or two.
First, go to: https://cdx.epa.gov/SSL/cdx/login.asp.
Then, type in your user name and click the "Forgot Pass-
word" link. You'll come to a Password Reset page. Type in
your email address (the one you used when you originally
signed up for WCIT), and then your user name and click
"Submit." This will bring up the secret question, which you
created when you signed up for WCIT. Answer the secret
question and you will get a confirmation that you have
been granted permission to change your password, and
that an email with instructions has been sent to you. Open
the email from the CDX Password Reset Manager; click the
link provided in the email and follow the instructions on
the Change System Password page. After you enter your
new password, click the "Submit" button.
You're done! This takes you to the MyCDX page where
you can click on the WCIT link at the bottom of the page.
(Note: If you have forgotten your user name, call the
CDX help number at the bottom of the login page [888-
890-1995] and a technical support specialist will help
you retrieve it.)
WCIT Challenge
Read the scenario below and use WCIT to answer the
questions. Send your answers to WCIT@epa.gov. The
first several responders with the correct answers will be
acknowledged in the next WCIT Update.
SCENARIO: The Ohio River Valley is impacted by high
winds, heavy rain and several tornadoes resulting from
a fast-moving storm system. During the nighttime, an
unmanned river barge on the Ohio River loaded with al-
dicarb escaped from its mooring and rams into a bridge
just above the water intake for a medium-sized city. The
collision results in a large gash in the barge below the
water line. Hours pass before anyone realizes the extent
of the damage, allowing much of the barge contents to
spill into the river.
QUESTIONS: What is the chlorine to aldicarb ratio needed
for complete removal? Less than optimal chlorination
results in chlorinated aldicarb sulfone and chlorinated
aldicarb sulfoxide. How does this affect the toxicity? What
is the hydrolysis half life of aldicarb in raw water?
To take the challenge, log into WCIT at https://cdx.epa.
gov/. Good luck!
WCIT Becomes Everyday
Companion for Lab Manager
Fairfax Water, outside of our
nation's capital, is one of the
largest water utilities in the
nation, providing drinking
water to nearly 1.7 million
people in Northern Virginia. For
Melissa A. Billman, Manager/
Water Quality Laboratory &
Regulatory Compliance, WCIT
Melissa A. Billman has become a valuable tool
for operational activity as well as for emergency
response training and exercises at the utility. "WCIT is
an easy-to-use, robust tool -very logical and well laid
out," she says. "It provides technical expertise, and
the information is authoritative and understandable,
which provides a level of confidence when making
decisions."
For Fairfax Water, Ms. Billman has used WCIT to
research impacts of pesticide use within the utility's
service area watershed, to shape response to
petroleum-related spills in the Potomac River (one
of the utility's sources of raw water), and as a tool
to support emergency response exercises. In 2013,
Fairfax Water was one of the two water utilities
participating in an EPA Office of Water (OW) Full-Scale
Exercise to test laboratory response capabilities for
a hypothetical drinking water contamination incident;
Ms. Billman used WCIT to research contaminants
planned for the scenario.
Ms. Billman has been a WCIT user for about four
years. She was introduced to the tool at EPA OW's
Water Laboratory Alliance (WLA) Security Summit in
2009. She and herstaffsubsequentlytookadvantage
of WCIT's free online training (see article on page
1). "That's when we realized how many tools WCIT
provides and, overall, how useful it is for a water
utility," she says. Ms. Billman especially values WCIT's
drinking waterfocus, such as how it provides details on
parameters that would be affected by a contaminant
and the analytical methods and online water quality
testing needed to detect the contaminant. In addition,
she likes the ability in each contaminant profile to
switch between information categories (such as fate
and transport, drinking water treatment) with just one
click. "The Public Information Officer page for each
contaminant also is very helpful," she says.
Send Us Your Feedback. DO you have
a question, comment, or suggestion for the WCIT
Administrator regarding WCIT? Please send an email to
WCIT@epa.gov.
Offce of Water • EPA 817-F-14-001 • May 2014
------- |