New ASCE Standard Transforms Water Security Practices for the Modern Era
Water is fundamental to human life, but security measures for water treatment facilities aren’t meeting today’s challenges. A new standard published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) offers a pathway for engineers to ensure that water resources are shielded from modern threats.
Guidelines for the Physical Security of Water and Wastewater/Stormwater Utilities, ASCE/EWRI 78-24, redefines previous guidelines for protecting water treatment facilities. The standard enables engineers to consider current and future threats to the safety of our water supply.
According to ASCE, The development of this standard was led by David Wallace, A.M.ASCE, chair of the Environmental and Water Resource Institute’s Water Infrastructure Security Enhancements Stand Committee, and Kris Schartau, A.M.ASCE, the committee’s secretary, both of whom spoke with Civil Engineering Source about the process of its creation.
Civil Engineering Source: In what ways does ASCE/EWRI 78-24 differ from its predecessor, ANSI/ASCE/EWRI 56-10, 57-10?
David Wallace: It’s a complete abandonment of the prior standard guideline model. What we’ve come up with is truly a disruptive methodology to help us protect critical infrastructure in a more direct way. It is written specifically for water and wastewater facilities, but it could be applied to other critical infrastructure as well.
