HA8 Homeland Security: Public Source Waters
Room 19A/B, Level 4
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Thursday, 13 November 2003
Chair: Pittinger, Charley ,
Co-chair: Allen, Joel ,
(547) Proposed Water Quality Surveillance Network using Physical, Chemical and Biological Early Warning Systems (CBEWS).
Allen, J2, Haught, R2, Lattier, D.1, Goodrich, J2, 2 U.S. EPA National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, 452681 U.S. EPA National Exposure Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, USA
ABSTRACT- The Homeland Protection Act of 2002 specifically calls for the investigation and use of Early Warning Systems (EWS) for water security reasons. The EWS is a screening tool for detecting changes in source water and distribution system water quality. A suite of time-relevant biological and physical/chemical water quality monitors applied in an EWS can provide timely information to aid decision-makers in the management and protection of the nation's water resources and measure the success of water quality control programs implemented under the Clean Water Act. A suite of monitors is necessary because no single organism will be sensitive to all contaminants at relevant concentrations. Current CBEWS in Europe use fish, bivalves, arthropods, and bacteria and are capable of detecting contaminants at relatively short time periods (hours). Strategic placement of water quality monitors in locations of high vulnerability in both source water and distribution systems may detect the presence of unsuspected chemicals or toxic interactions occurring as a result of spills, legal or illegal discharges, or intentional introductions. This work couples the "Canary in the coal mine" approach with the latest in behavioral, physiological, and physical/chemical monitoring techniques and current computing and communications equipment, to provide time-relevant data over a range of spatial scales (e.g., watersheds or regions). We propose to go beyond the European approach by investigating the use of a combination of advanced technologies that are time-relevant whole organism and molecular biosensing methods. Ultimately, we envision setting up a continuous, time-relevant national water quality surveillance network in all major rivers in the U.S. that are used for water supplies and their distributions systems. Complimenting whole organism systems will be molecular measures on fish and invertebrates using microarray technologies and near-Real-time PCR methods for measuring gene expression.. This abstract has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication.
Key words: chemical and biological early warning systems, water security, microarray