EPA Has New Voluntary Standards To Protect Water Systems From Terrorists

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued new voluntary guidelines Thursday that rely on industry to secure drinking water and wastewater treatment plants against attack.

The guidelines for improving designs and operations were written by industry groups with EPA financing. The guidance urges improved water security designs and operations, and greater use of online monitoring to protect against the potential misuse of contaminants.

Benjamin Grumbles, the agency's top official for water issues, said "Americans should feel confident, when they turn on the tap, they have access to some of the cleanest, safest water in the world."

EDIT

But Erik Olson, a lawyer at the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, said industry had strongly objected to giving EPA more authority on water security. "There's still no authority for federal officials to order a crackdown on security threats at drinking water and sewage plants," Olson said. "We're very concerned the security of the nation's water supplies is turned over to industry with minimal federal oversight."

EDIT

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-ct--watersecurity1210dec10,0,816572.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut

[Kool Kitty]

1. Great.

More foxes watching the henhouses.

[kitkatrose]

2. Well, what's the point of issuing new standards if they're voluntary?

Sounds like a waste of time to me. And, just so I'm straight on this:

The guidelines for improving designs and operations were written by industry groups with EPA financing.

We paid the industry to come up with voluntary regulations? :wtf: Did I just wake up in the 40s? Same shit, different industry. We went through this with the TEL in the first half of the century. It wasn't a good idea then, and it isn't one now.

[phantom power]

3. The GOP: Boundless faith in corporations, none whatsoever in people.