Water is a critical component in the majority of industrial, commercial and biological processes in the United States just like in any other nation in the world. The significance of water in organic methods is emphasized by the fact that 71% of the earth's surface is covered by water. Therefore, water systems of distribution and water supplies represent potential targets for terrorist activity in the U.S. due to the critical need for water in the running of every sector of society. The presence of clean running water is essential because even short term disruption of water services can lead to a significant adverse effect on the environment and the communities affected. Therefore, all the water systems that serve more than half of the U.S. population are potential targets for bioterrorism and the department of homeland security must take all the necessary actions available to protect the systems from external interference as a sure way of keeping the American population safe.
The Drinking Water System in the U.S.
The United States has one of the safest systems for clean and fresh drinking water in the world. The Environmental Protection Agency of the United States classifies systems for the processing of drinking water as community and non-community. The non-community water systems comprise of transient and non-transient systems (Duran-Encalada et al., 2017). On the one hand, motels, restaurants, parks, gas stations and campgrounds all have their water systems classified under transient water systems. On the other hand, hospitals, office buildings, schools, and factories all have a separate water system under the non-transient water system.
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Water Systems and Quality Drinking Water
According to Murphya & Sprague (2019), community water systems are designed to supply water to the same population for the entire year. Such systems work to serve at least 25 people at their primary residences. Moreover, they serve at least 15 apartments that are primary residences, for instance, subdivisions, mobile home parks, and municipalities. On the one hand, transient non-community water systems are designed to reach out to 25 or more residents for up to 60 days in a year in a non-regular fashion and not to the same people. On the other hand, non-transient, non-community water systems are created to serve up to 25 people for at least half a year. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with the duty of ensuring high-quality water for drinking in the U.S.
Since the events of the attack of September 11, 2001, the threat of bioterrorism has been a reality to the Department of Homeland Security, and this makes children especially more vulnerable in the event of an attack (Gargano et al., 2019). Calculated and deliberate contamination of the municipal water system could cause grave economic, public health and medical severe consequences.
Many professionals of public health as well as practising physicians have limited training when it comes to the evaluation and recognition of waterborne diseases that accrue from intentional or even natural contamination of water (Asheri, Shai, & Barak, 2019). Therefore, such officers are inadequately prepared to take note of any form of water-related diseases that may accrue from intentional contamination. They may be poorly ready to respond in the event of a terrorist attack on American water.
Types and forms of Water Contamination
No matter the level of advancements in technology, the U.S. water system, just like any other water system in the world, is susceptible to either deliberate or accidental contamination which has the capacity of affecting a large portion of the population due to the interconnected nature of the water systems (Kawagoshia, et al., 2019).
Contamination that enters the water distribution systems is likely to travel long or short distances, depending on several factors (Murphya & Sprague, 2019). Some of the determinant factors include the design and operation of the water system, the duration of entry, the quantity of contamination and the point of entry.
Contamination may enter the water distribution system via numerous points (Jaramillo & O'Shea, 2019). Whereas some can easily be detected, others remain undetected until they have affected a large portion of the population. Some of the points of entry include customer connections, hydrants, tanks, pumps, and water treatment plants. It is highly infeasible or impossible to avert all possible contamination entry points.
It is challenging to try and lower the likelihood of events of contamination (Cole & Talmadge, 2019). Therefore emphasis has inherently been placed on the management of the system of distribution as well as minimization of the impacts of such events. The Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Centre for Disease Control, is charged with the duty and the responsibility of ensuring clean drinking water for all the residents of the U.S.
Various water contaminants have been known to cause serious harm when introduced into the water system, and these include bacteria-produced toxins, animal or human drugs, toxins, metals, pesticides, salts, bleach, and nitrogen. These contaminants lead to infectious diseases such as cholera and may eventually lead to the slow death of both humans and animals that ingest the contaminated water (Yana et al., 2019).
Whereas some contaminants can easily be detected due to the discolouration, they cause on the water. Some take long periods of testing and examination before they can be determined. Sometimes the Department of Law Enforcement and the Centre for Disease Control have to rely on information from the public before they can launch an investigation into possible causes of contamination (Duran-Encalada et al., 2017). Whenever a contaminant ventures into the system of distribution, it mixes with the operation of water flowing and is transported along with the flowing water towards the endpoint.
Homeland Security Preparedness for Bioterrorism
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plays an essential role in ensuring preparedness for events such as bioterrorism that may pose a grave danger to general public health (Asheri et al., 2019). The entity has in the past helped in emergency responses against attacks of Anthrax agents sent through the mail and that were discovered to cause serious health hazards to the general population (Centre for Disease Control, 2001).
The CDC describes bioterrorism as a method of releasing poisonous toxins, biological agents or chemicals into the water with the sole intention of intimidating the public or coercing or intimidating government behaviour (Yana et al., 2019). After the September 11 attack on the U.S., the entity was formed to curb and protect the U.S. population from all future events of terrorist attacks.
Relative to the specific contaminant that enters the water system, it is likely to experience biological, physical or chemical reactions which many further contaminate the water making it unfit for human consumption (GarethEdwards-Jones, 2019). Moreover, it is likely to react with the other elements and components of water and even the walls of the pipes. One of the methods that can be used to calculate the movement of water through the drainage system is the water quality and the mathematical hydraulic system.
The market is filled with commercial packages as well as public domain software. First, the models perform calculations for the water movement and pressure flow through the system over a period of one day or more. Afterwards, the system calculates the movement of the contaminating agent through the pipes, and this results in a concentration within the flow.
Similar to all other models that calculate the level of contamination within the water system, the hydraulic system can only offer approximations (Duran-Encalada, Paucar-Caceres, E.Bandala, & Wright, 2017). The accuracy of these approximations depends on such factors as how well the model represents the actual system as well as the level of detail found in the model. The use of such models in determining the level of contamination has been popular, especially with regards to tasks related to the distribution systems of surface water (Centre for Disease Control, 2001). Surface water sources form the largest source of water consumed in the United States, followed by water derived from sources such as rivers and lakes.
Since majority of the water system in the U.S., just like in many parts of the world, is interconnected, introduction of contaminants into the water can lead to grand scale and wide-ranging contamination over a short period, and therefore bioterrorism must be averted at the shortest possible instance (Kawagoshia et al., 2019). Design monitoring systems must be installed to ensure that the water systems remain in good shape and can deal with the ever-changing forms of contamination.
Overall, all the water systems that serve more than half of the U.S. population are potential targets for bioterrorism, and the department of homeland security must take all the necessary actions available to protect the systems from external interference as a sure way of keeping the American population safe. The Department for Homeland Security as well as the Centre for Disease Control both play essential roles in safeguarding the drinking water available for human and animal consumption as the only sure way of averting chemical poisoning.
References
Asheri, T., Shai, A., & Barak, E. (2019). Water characterization and early contamination detection in highly varying stochastic background water, based on Machine Learning methodology for real-time processing UV-Spectrophotometry. Water Research, 155 (4), 333-342.doi. 10.1016/j.watres.2019.02.027
Centre for Disease Control. (2001). The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's Role in Public Health Protection. Washington, D.C.: United States Accounting Office.
Cole, K., & E.Talmadge. (2019). Mitigation of microbial contamination from wastewater and aerosolization by sink design. Elsevier, 103 (2), 193-199.doi. 10.1016/j.jhin.2019.05.011.
Duran-Encalada, J., Paucar-Caceres, A., E.Bandala, & Wright, G. (2017). The impact of global climate change on water quantity and quality: A system dynamics approach to the U.S.–Mexican transborder region. European Journal of Operational Research, 256 (2), 567-581.doi. 10.1016/j.ejor.2016.06.016.
GarethEdwards-Jones. (2019). Groundwater vulnerability assessment. Predicting relative contamination potential under conditions of uncertainty: National Research Council. National Academy Press, 1993. 204 pp. Price US$ 34.95, US$ 42.00 export (hardback). ISBN 0 309 04799 4. Agricultural Systems, 1 (1), 128-130. doi.org/10.17226/2050
Gargano, L., Li, J., Millien, L., Alper, H., & Brackbill, R. (2019). Exposure to multiple disasters: The long-term effect of Hurricane Sandy (October 29, 2012) on NYC survivors of the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack. Psychiatry Research, 273 (1), 719-724. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2019.01.090
Jaramillo, M., & O'Shea, K. (2019). Analytical methods for the assessment of cyanotoxin contamination in drinking water sources. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, 7 (1), 45-51.doi. 10.1016/j.coesh.2018.10.003.
Kawagoshia, Y., Suenaga, Y., Linh, N., Takehide, C., Hiroaki, H., Luong, I., et al. (2019). Understanding nitrate contamination based on the relationship between changes in groundwater levels and changes in water quality with precipitation fluctuations. Science of The Total Environment, 657 (1), 146-153. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.041.
Murphya, J., & Sprague, L. (2019). Water-quality trends in U.S. rivers: Exploring effects from streamflow trends and changes in watershed management. Science of The Total Environment, 656 (15), 645-658.doi. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.255.
Yana, J., Karlsson, A., Zou, Z., Daid, D., & Edlund, U. (2019). Contamination of heavy metals and metalloids in biomass and waste fuels: comparative characterization and trend estimation. Science of The Total Environment, 1 (1), 134382.doi. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134382
