Wednesday October 10 2:59 PM ET

FBI Says Water Supplies Logical Attack Target

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI (news - web sites) said on Wednesday U.S. water supplies can be considered a ``logical target for a possible terrorist attack,'' although authorities know of no credible threat to poison the nation's drinking water, and carrying out such an attack would be harder than it sounds.

At a hearing before a House of Representatives subcommittee on potential threats to the water supply, the nation's publicly owned water agencies also asked Congress to spend $5 billion to shore up the water supply infrastructure with the aim of protecting national security.

``Could our water be poisoned? Can the distribution system be shut down? Can biological agents be placed in the system? As you know, our water supply can be affected by a number of malicious enemies,'' Ronald Dick, director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, told a panel of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

``Based on available intelligence and investigative information, there are currently no specific, credible threats to any water distribution network. We cannot rest on that information, though,'' Dick added.

Law enforcement authorities have been scrambling to protect against numerous types of potential domestic attacks in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in which hijackers crashed airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon (news - web sites) outside Washington.

The subcommittee's chairman, Tennessee Republican Rep. John Duncan, said the men who carried out the attacks turned planes into weapons of mass destruction. He said U.S. officials must consider the possibility of someone turning water supplies into weapons of mass destruction through contamination.

``One of the worst things we could do would be to exaggerate the threat that's out there, or help create some kind of a panic situation,'' Duncan said. ``On the other hand, we need to look very seriously at the situation that we now have before us and do whatever is reasonable and responsible.''

Dick said the FBI coordinates a threat-assessment process in order to assess the credibility of any possible threat such as introducing deadly bacteria or viruses, chemicals or radioactive material into water supplies.

``With regard to contamination by biological agents, the nation's water supply may seem to be a logical target for a terrorist attack,'' Dick said. He added that the FBI views such an attack as ``possible but not probable,'' noting that a perpetrator would need large amounts of a contaminant and knowledge of and access to key locations in the water supply.

A FRAGMENTED WATER-SUPPLY SYSTEM

``Because our supply consists of many systems, it would be difficult for a terrorist attack to have a broad, long-term impact,'' Dick said. There are 168,000 public drinking water systems throughout America.

``Further, contamination of a water reservoir with a biological agent would probably not pose a large risk to public health because of the dilution effect, filtration and disinfection of the water,'' he added. ``To contaminate the water supply with a hazardous industrial chemical, it would take a truckload of the chemical to have any effect.''

Dick said germs can cause disease by being ingested through drinking water, but inhaling these pathogens would be more deadly. He added that most viruses and bacteria would be rendered harmless by the chlorination process at water treatment facilities.

Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) official Marianne Horinko noted that on Friday the EPA created a task force aimed at helping federal, state and local officials better safeguard the nation's drinking water supply from attack.

John Sullivan of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, who represented the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, told the House panel U.S. drinking water utilities have been on a heightened state of alert since Sept. 11.

But Sullivan, whose group represents utilities that provide water to 160 million Americans, said emergency-response plans in place at many water systems address emergencies due to natural disasters or accidents -- not deliberate attacks.

Sullivan asked Congress for $5 billion to help rehabilitate the water and waste-water treatment infrastructure to allow for better treatment, storage, transmission and distribution.

-- (be a smart doomer @ do. it now), October 10, 2001

Answers

For those who haven't stored water before:

Don't store water in empty milk jugs. While it is possible to get the spoiled milk smell out, the jugs themselves are meant to be biodegradable in land fills. They are not meant to store fluids long term.

(I just found some water in milk jugs that I had stored six years ago, when our power had gone out for several days. The jugs held up fine, but I didn't drink or smell the water. I suppose you could use them in an emergency, just watch out for breakage.)

Don't store untreated water. City water that has been chlorinated will store indefinately. Ordinary well water should be treated with chlorine for long term storage. Go to a FEMA webpage for guidelines about how much chlorine to put in the water.

(I treated well water precisely with the amount of chlorine recommended by FEMA guidelines. It produced instantaneous vomiting in my husband, who accused me of trying to kill him. Which is ridiculous -- he has several years of hard work left in him.)

You may store water in empty and cleaned plastic soda pop bottles or in plastic containers made specifically for contact with food or drinking water. Used containers must be made of food-grade plastic and must be cleaned well.

(Don't trust me. Read FEMA guidelines for yourself. I could be a talking mule.)

-- helen...? (water@water.everywhere), October 10, 2001.

I'm going to restock our canned food as well as water. Consumed most of what we bought for Y2K with the exception of a canned chicken and a few others. Can't get up the nerve to go for that chicken, though I guess if Bin shuts down our infrastructure for a few months it might look pretty good. Haven't bought toilet paper since 1999 and still have enough for a year or two. Even a relatively small anthrax attack could trigger a run on the stores, so stock up now. He could take out the power grid and we are vulnerable in virtually the same ways we were with Y2K, so get all the same types of supplies. It will be good for the economy if everyone puts their tax rebate back into the system like Dubya wants us to.

-- Getting Ready (For @ Worst Case. Scenario), October 10, 2001.

I don't know why...maybe this is menopause...maybe this is terminal pms...bin Laden is NOT going to take out the grid or poison the food or break open a nuke plant. This notion that bin Laden has some kind of super-powerful plan is nuts. He had guys with box knives and shitty security at our own airports to play with. That's ALL he has. Anthrax? That could be a local McNut wannabe. Poison the water supplies? The Israelis would be extinct by now if all these doomer notions of bin Laden's abilities were true.

-- helen don't do hormone replacement (puhlease@buck.up), October 10, 2001.

"bin Laden is NOT going to take out the grid or poison the food or break open a nuke plant."

People were saying the same thing about the WTC before Sept. 11.

Now it's GONE. Wishful thinking will get you nowhere, get prepared.

-- (denial@isn't.a.river), October 10, 2001.

They won't take another large aircraft into a building. The other passengers aren't going to let them take it. They might simply crash one aircraft at a time. But only one at a time. Meanwhile, we're learning better airport security.

The barrage of anthrax scares sounds like it's coming from locals.

It's hard to poison a city water supply.

The grid had rolling blackouts last year without mass casualties.

I'm not telling anyone not to prepare for whatever length of time s/he feels the need for. Lord knows, I'm a doomer, and I've got the potty bucket to prove it.

But making some kind of evil superbeing out of bin Laden causes psychological harm to the public. Don't buy into that.

-- helen (feeling@warm.and.fuzzy.yet?), October 10, 2001.

who accused me of trying to kill him. Which is ridiculous -- he has several years of hard work left in him.)

Thanks for the laugh, Helen. I hope to use that line on SO the next time he says, "Are you trying to kill me, woman?"

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), October 10, 2001.

I love you, helen. I agree, up to a point. But there are reasons to be cautious.

Bin Laden is not operating an amateur army. It is a good bet he has a lot of professional expertise guiding him. Savak, the intelligence service of Iran was trained by the CIA. Iraq also runs a very effective internal intelligence operation. Chances are that Iran and Iraq have lent him expertise. Also, there are ex-KGB officers who sell their expertise and Bin Laden can afford them.

In a worst case, Saddam Hussein may have provided bin Laden with NBC (nuclear-biological-chemical) weapons. If bin Laden's cells have pre-positioned some NBC weapons or even some conventional explosives in the USA and Europe, they can almost certainly deploy them. If they don't have such weapons already in place, then the threat is somewhat lower, because security measures are more stringent now. It is a sure bet bin Laden tried to pre-position as big a stockpiles as possible. We'll see what that amounts to.

I would consider the anthrax cases in Florida to be, perversely, a kind of good news. Apparently, even though bin Laden does have the spores available to use, those spores were delivered in a very ineffective manner, causing only one death. That makes a good case for believing our enemy doesn't know how to deliver that weapon with lethal effects. Compared to the spectacular death and destruction of 911, the anthrax outbreak was a total fizzle.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out good targets in the USA. We are lousy with them. All it takes is some imagination and some training, both of which were demonstrated by the 911 attacks.

The next big attack will not be anything like the last one. All you need to do to verify this is to sit quietly for an hour and come up with your own ideas. If they occur to you, chances are good they have occurred to someone else.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), October 11, 2001.

I'm going to find a way to serve this country. Sitting out here waiting for "something" to happen at any moment just isn't cutting it. I saw mention of a possible program for young people to put in a couple of years after high school serving in something modeled along the lines of the VISTA program. I wonder if they would take older people the way the Peace Corps does?

-- helen (reporting@for.duty.as.soon.as.the.meds.kick.in), October 11, 2001.

OK, Nipper, I'm totally wrong. Borrowed this from the prep site:

Herald-Sun

FBI Issues Terror Strikes Warning By JOHN SOLOMON : Associated Press Writer Oct 11, 2001 : 4:28 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a stark warning, the FBI said Thursday it has received information there may be additional terrorist attacks inside the United States or abroad in the next several days.

The bureau said its information does not identify specific targets, but it has asked local police to be on the highest alert and for all Americans to be wary of suspicious activity.

"Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government the reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days," the FBI said in its warning.

"The FBI has again alerted all local law enforcement to be on the highest alert and we call on all people to immediately notify the FBI and local law enforcement of any unusual or suspicious activity," it said.

The statement provided no additional information.

It was the FBI's second request this week that law enforcement move to its highest state of alert. The first was on Sunday.

Thursday's statement was the first to suggest attacks might occur within several days.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller have said they intend to alert Americans to any credible threats about future terrorist plans.

In recent days, the FBI has asked supervisors of water supplies, nuclear and electric power plant operators, owners of crop dusters and drivers of hazardous waste trucks among others to increase security to ward off attacks.

"We are working to do everything possible and we would enlist the help of citizens in that," Ashcroft said earlier Thursday, before the FBI warning was issued.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.ugh), October 11, 2001.

-- helen (batten@WHAT.hatches?), October 11, 2001.

Yeah, Helen, just caught that on cnn.... 'Helen'... no bells.. Oh, yeah, probably the old helen wheels, AKA Buddy from DC.

Looks like everybody's back? Still as pugnacious as ever?

-- lisa (lisa@library.now), October 11, 2001.

AAAaaah!! Helen, that stuff is drivin' me crazy. FBI says something REALLY REALLY bad is going to happen. They don't know WHAT it is. They don't know WHERE it is. They don't know WHEN it is. But, trust them, when IT happens, it's gonna be REALLY REALLY bad! What's wrong with our intelligence agencies??? Where are they getting this stuff? How is this going to help us? Maybe they should be distributing antibiotics instead of issuing inane warnings like this one!

-- (what are we@supposed to.do?), October 11, 2001.

helen, if it makes you feel any better, I wouldn't say you're "totally wrong". You're fine by me. And I agree it doesn't do any real good to just hunker down and be afraid. That doesn't help any one or anything. Especially when the chickens need fed.

If I had to make a guess, I'd pretty much put water systems way down the list as a target. I suspect that conventional explosives will remain the terrorists' weapon of choice. They are lots easier to handle and control than pathogens or nerve gas. Besides, young male "freedom fighters" prefer to die in a fireball. It has panache. By contrast, fighting with poison gas and germs seems inglorious - like shoveling sh--, er, poop.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), October 11, 2001.

Nipper, thank you.

The prez is on tv, think I'm gonna faint before he "gets to the part".

-- helen (camp@helen.always.open), October 11, 2001.

Lisa, I think you just insulted Buddy.

-- helen (x@x.chromosome), October 11, 2001.

Oh God, I haven't LMAO in a month... librarian kinda looking at me funny....

'Insulted Buddy'... hey, where is Buddy?

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), October 11, 2001.