The Last Word

Soaking up Security

• By Brent Dirks
• Jan 01, 2007

SECURITY, a once seemingly mundane staple of American life, has seen a drastic reconstruction in recent years. In part, protecting utility infrastructures has sped to the forefront of the debate. Water, and its infrastructure for delivery, has been no exception.

It's an everyday part of life, but it's something most people don't think about -- the water utility and how it gets into taps.

But water infrastructure is a weak point terrorists know about and can exploit. After the invasion of Afghanistan, military forces found manuals in terrorist training camps with how to attack drinking water systems.

The United States leads the world in water consumption per capita with nearly 2,000 cubic meters used by every American each year for drinking and a wide variety of others uses, from bathing to washing cars.

But water infrastructure is a weak point terrorists know about and can exploit. After the invasion of Afghanistan, military forces found manuals in terrorist training camps with how to attack drinking water systems.

And government mandates also have forced infrastructure providers to step up security. Congress, with the inaction of the Bioterrorism Act in 2002, mandates water utilities serving more than 3,300 people to complete a vulnerability assessment and prepare and emergency response plan that focuses on deliberate attack of the water system.

Protecting the Flow
Serving more than 250,000 people in Springfield, Ludlow, Agawam, Longmeadow and East Longmeadow, the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission (SWSC) handles a volume of more than 37 million gallons per day of water and more than 67 million gallons per day of wastewater treatment. And security is a paramount concern.

After gathering water from the Little River in the Western part of the state, water is filtered and stored in a distribution reservoir at Provin Mountain.

Providing adequate security posed a number of challenges. Being in a hard-to-reach location, SWSC wanted offsite monitoring, a number of different connections and a scalable system for future expansion and modification.

Because of the obstacle of monitoring from a distance, SWSC also wanted a solution that would bridge the information overload gap and sift through data fromsecurity sources employed for protection of such a large target.

"Certainly there has been more focus and concern about protecting water supplies post-9/11," said Leo Maheux, information technologies manager for SWSC. "As a result of heightened concerns, we researched and implemented a new security system that would take advantage of the many technology improvements over the last few years in leveraging the network, better camera images and integration potential."

Flexible Functions
SWSC turned to project integrator Affordable Monitoring Solution for a solution to the monitoring challenge.

The integrator suggested the open-standards-based intelligent Security Operations Center (iSOC) platform from DVTel. iSOC's ability to bring a number of security functions together into one, unified system was the solution the commission was looking for.

"SWSC chose to create a homeland security-type installation in a remote location, requiring multiple connection technologies and empowering a control center miles away," said DVTel COO Paul Smith. "Such requirements had to be met on budget and with excellent control and functionality."

With the ability to use devices from multiple vendors, the entire platform brings together information from a wide variety of security tools, including video, audio, access control and various other databases.

Once the data is uploaded, the Latitude Network Video Management System (NVMS) hub feeds the raw data to the correct software module, making intelligence actionable, instead of a mass of disparate information.

NVMS is rules-based and built off distributed architecture that combines Microsoft's .NET and open-source Linux to allows the system be specifically configured to best suit end-user needs.

Also with iSOC's network-based standards, SWSC was able to employ several different methods of data transmission, including VSDL, copper phone lines, fiber-optic technology, LAN and wireless LAN to connect all the cameras covering the reservoir and surrounding access roads.

The system employs various motion and other sensory alarms, as well as audio on a number of the cameras, so operators can speak directly to potential trespassers. iSOC integration with the intercom function is an added plus. Security personnel can interact in real time with any intruders and give warnings or simply make contact to let the intruder know they are under surveillance.

All of the monitoring work and use of the platform is done at an operations center more than eight miles away from the distribution reservoir, making it a self-contained system that needs no onsite personnel. When a security threat is detected, monitoring personnel inform security, who then travel to the reservoir and investigate.

And while the commission currently provides strong security to a major water supply, there are numerous features that SWSC can use in the future to take advantage of iSOC's architecture.

"The iSOC scales easily to accommodate more cameras and expansion of intercom capabilities," Smith said. "The new iSOC version now has seamless unification with advanced, IP-based access control. In addition, there are an expanding number of advanced video analytics components that the commission could employ to improve surveillance and management of video and other data input."