Security Committee


Vision :

To become an authoritative Water System Security and Emergency Response resource for the water system communities of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Goals:

1. To collaborate with the water security community for the purpose of providing security and emergency response information and training to Virginia water system owners/operators.
2. Promote a Water Security Culture and Awareness within utilities and their service communities.
3. Identify security and emergency response gaps and develop programs to improve the flow of information.
4. Provide assistance to legislators in obtaining funding for water system security and emergency response needs.

Member of:

Education and Public Affairs Council

Committee Structure :

Chair
Chair-elect
Secretary
Treasurer
Instructor/Trainer
Grant Specialist
Academic Advisor
Liaison to DHS; VDEM; EPA
Liaison to First Responders
Liaison to State legislators
Liaison to Federal legislators
Systems Contamination Advisor
Other members to assist Primary members as required.

Position Descriptions:

The following Committee position descriptions are preliminary in nature and are expected to evolve as the Committee identifies the security/emergency response needs of the water system owner/operator/design community. This “needs assessment” may be carried out through a questionnaire mailing or perhaps through a panel discussion at the 2005 JAM in Virginia Beach (or both!).

     Chair and Chair-elect

Chair and Chair-elect will see to it that the other Committee members are on track with their individual assignments. The Chair-elect will fill in for the Chair in his/her absence. It is the opinion of the Security Committee Founders that the Chair and Chair-elect of the Committee have access to the Water ISAC . This means that the Chair and Chair-elect must be municipal or regulatory employees who are eligible to access the ISAC . The Chair and Chair-elect will also liaison with other AWWA Security Committees, including the AWWA National Security Committee, for coordination and collaborative purposes.

     Secretary

Record and distribute minutes of meetings, assist with correspondence from sub-committees, etc.

     Treasurer

The Treasurer's responsibilities will be to assist the Sub-committees in developing their budgets and to manage the Committees budget.

The following Committee “positions” should be developed into Sub-committees to more effectively carry out their responsibilities:

     Instructor/Trainer

One of the important tasks of this Committee will be to identify training opportunities for security and emergency response activities. Collaboration and coordination between water system owners/operators and First Responders needs much improvement. Tabletop exercises and full-scale drills will need to be developed and evaluations will need to be performed. A Committee member with a training background will be in charge of developing an approach to assist the water system community with their training needs.

     Grant Specialist

It is likely that federal and state monies will become available for water system communities to pay for security-related improvements. Identification of grants and programs as well as assistance in writing the grants will be a key benefit that our Security Committee should be able to offer to the water system community. The Committee member that takes on this position should have some experience in obtaining grants from federal and state agencies.

     Academic Advisor

It is important that our new engineering graduates come into the working world with at least some exposure to the importance of designing security measures into their new projects. Only through training of our new engineers will we be able to instill a sense of the importance and benefit of this issue. The Academic Advisor position will be responsible for designing and implementing a program to be included in the engineering curriculums of the engineering schools in Virginia.

     Liaison

These Sub-Committees will liaison with other entities for the purpose of becoming educated; educating the Politicians to security issues (including funding needs) facing the water system community; and for elevating our status in the water system community. The following Committee positions will conduct liaison activities to enhance the Committee's knowledge of the activities of and opportunities to collaborate with the following agencies:

•  Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM); Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
•  First Responders
•  State Legislators
•  Federal Legislators

     Systems Contamination Advisor

This committee will study and become knowledgeable about the current status of contamination detection technology.

Miscellaneous:

The question has come up as to the necessity of having Committee members undergo a security background check. This issue requires further Committee discussion.

The decision of the AWWA Trustees was to initially develop this AWWA Security Committee AWWA Committee only. Hence the name “Security Committee” and not “Water Security Committee”. As the Committee develops, consideration as to the benefit of making this into a joint AWWA/WEF Committee should be re-evaluated.