Water security said OK in Elsinore district

| Wednesday, April 30, 2003 10:00 PM PDT ∞

WILLIAM FINN BENNETT
Staff Writer

LAKE ELSINORE ---- Local reservoirs and water-treatment plants are relatively safe ---- but could be safer, according to a vulnerability-assessment report commissioned by the local water district.

Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District board members got their first look at the results of the assessment, at a special, closed-session meeting, Wednesday.

"It showed we do need to improve some things, but overall, we did OK," said water district board President Phil Williams after the meeting.

The two-month study by Irvine-based Brown & Caldwell Environmental Engineers and Consultants, looked at things like the district's security plans, procedures and hardware.

The $107,000 cost of the study came from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, created grants for water districts across the country to conduct assessments of the vulnerability of their facilities to possible terrorist attacks.

The consultants recommended the district make security improvements to fences, wall and gates; the types of locks and chains it uses; lighting; alarm systems; and detection capabilities for remote sites, according to a district report on the study.

Water district spokesman Greg Morrison said the district has already begun to make some of the easier, less expensive improvements, things like upgrading the locks at remote facilities.

Other changes will take longer, he said. The district has broken out the recommended changes into short-term and long-term. The short-term improvements should take from 18 months to 24 months, at a cost of $150,000 to $170,000, Morrison said. Those changes will include upgrading all fences and walls around district facilities to a minimum height of 7 feet; upgrading all locks to a high-security type; installing motion-detection devices; and strengthening air vents on reservoirs, making them more difficult to break into, the report stated.

The long-term changes include installing cameras with digital, video-recording systems, as well as making sensitive sites like reservoirs more difficult to access by vehicle by installing cement blockades. Those changes are estimated to cost up to $500,000.

To pay for the improvements, district president Williams said that the water district will be looking at some specific grants that may be available through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Following Sept. 11, the district began upgrading its security, Morrison said, things like using color-coded, laminated security badges, with magnetic strips, allowing officials to monitor the coming and going of personnel and visitors to some district facilities.

"We print out regular reports and I review who accessed what and when, on a weekly basis, to ensure that nothing out of the ordinary is happening," said Teryon Powell, the district's safety officer.

"Following 9/11, the definition of security changed dramatically, going from protection against vandals to malevolent and possible terrorist acts," Morrison said.

Before Sept. 11, the district had no formal security policy or procedures in place. That's changed, Powell said, with the establishment of a strict set of guidelines for security procedures.

"Now, if an employee notices anything unusual, he (or she) notes the day and time and location and notifies a supervisor, which triggers a host of other actions, up to and including notification of law enforcement or locking down facilities," he said.

The district has also increased security-related training for all district employees, Morrison said.

Now that assessment has been completed and presented to the board, Morrison said, staff will research the recommendations and develop a plan and more specific time line to bring the changes on-line. The board will then determine priorities, he said.

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett, at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or wbennett@californian.com.

5/1/03

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.