New York Rural Water Association

When I first began mentioning wastewater plant security in the aftermath of September 11, I was laughed at. "Who would want to blow up a sewer plant? Not a high profile target…etc…etc…etc." Undaunted, I continued in my quest for the "HOLY GRAIL", that bit of information that might quell the laughter, and make the masses stop and think, "Hey, ya know, he might be on to something here." Then I received an e-mail, manna from Heaven, so to speak, that may just help explain my position. The e-mail read:"Most everyone today takes drugs as a matter of course. You take drugs for your headache, for your diet, for your cold or flu, even to grow hair and reduce cholesterol. So where are all those drugs going? Yes, they are turning up in drinking water supplies. As early as 1980, the EPA found wastewater treatment plant sludge contained levels of aspirin, caffeine, and nicotine. Other drugs have since been found in rivers and streams across the country, including many over the counter drugs in common use. It is estimated that from 50 to 90 percent of a pharmaceutical drug is excreted from the body still in its biologically active form. It is felt that over-prescription, patient misuse, and animal medication are the primary causes. We have all been told to dispose of unused drugs by flushing them down the toilet. Now it appears that they are able to go through the wastewater treatment process and enter surface water supplies."Contaminating our water supply via our sewage. After all the advances we have made in wastewater treatment over the past few decades, who would have thought we could still endanger our water supplies with our sewage? To be more precise-what’s in our sewage. What WE put in our sewage. The concentration of drugs turning up in our water supplies is an unfortunate byproduct of our "flushable" society. We are taught to flush everything. Flush unused or out dated prescription drugs down the drain. Flush the toilet and this product automatically cleans and disinfects. And flushable applicators! (Don’t get me started) We flush all these substances down the drain and are surprised to find out that years later they show up in the environment. Is it possible for someone to purposely endanger our water supplies, our health, and our environment through our wastewater systems? Yes, and as a matter of fact, we’ve been dealing with a form of that kind of terrorism for years. It’s called the "midnight dump". Someone has something they cannot easily dispose of so down the drain it goes. Usually by the time you notice that something is wrong, it’s too late. Whatever it was has come and gone, and you’re left trying to straighten out the process while minimizing discharge violations. The sporadic occurrence of these discharges makes it difficult to locate their source, and even more difficult to identify the substance since the discharge usually catches you off guard. Can you protect your system from the intentional, as well as, the unintentional illegal discharge? Not completely, but there are things you can do to minimize the occurrence of, and how you respond to, one of these discharges. First, and foremost, know your dischargers. Know the industries on the system, and obtain MSDS’s on all the chemicals they use. If at all possible, keep track of the transient population. Apartment buildings with a high turn over rate may be the source of illegal activity. Monitor local highway department garages. Although usually unintentional, they are the source of many illegal discharges. Secure all pump stations. Know your waste haulers and where they get their waste. You know what your normal influent looks like, what it smells like, its average BOD. Document any strange occurrences, and notify supervisors, mayors, even DEC at once. Monitor pH throughout your process, and keep track of your bugs. They are the best indicator of how the process is doing. If you think you’ve been hit, be vocal. Let everyone in town know that something has happened and that you are looking for the source. Often letting it be known that you are looking for something is enough to make the discharges stop. Security isn’t just lights and fencing. It’s knowing your system inside and out. It’s communicating with the public. It’s knowing how to respond to different situations. It is my hope that I have gotten at least one person to stop laughing long enough to realize that what we put down the drain eventually makes it way back to nature. Not long ago, I was working with a wastewater system that had some odor issues with their collection system. As I went to the various pump stations I noticed that the control buildings themselves were locked and secure, but the covers to the wet wells were not. While reviewing my evaluation of the collection system with the superintendent, I mentioned my concern over the unsecured covers. "What better way for someone to contaminate a system and knock out a treatment plant than through an unsecured pump station," I said. He responded that the same could be said for manhole covers. "Someone could just back up to a manhole, pop the cover, and dump whatever right into the collection system.""True," I said, "except that would arouse suspicion. The public is aware of activity in and around pump stations. It would not seem unusual to them to see something going on, even at midnight. Popping a manhole cover in the middle of the night, on the other hand…"

"I never thought of it like that before."