Pitt Professor Assists In Battling Bioterrorism

Leonard W. Casson

By Cynthia D. Gordy

The personal Web site of Leonard W. Casson, a Pitt associate professor of environmental engineering, features PowerPoint presentations created for courses he’s taught and events sponsored by Pitt’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. One of the presentations offers a definition for and the career scope of environmental engineers, which begins with the exclamation: “We are NOT Tree Huggers!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Environmental engineers aren’t necessarily environmentalists. We just find scientific solutions to environmental problems,” Casson explained, adding lightheartedly, “That doesn’t mean we don’t like the environment; it just means we’re not necessarily strapping ourselves to trees.”

One of the more recent environmental issues that engineers like Casson have been dealing with is protecting the nation’s water supply from bioterrorism. According to the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Response Act, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, all water utilities serving more than 3,300 people must undergo a vulnerability assessment.

Because of the number of water treatment systems and community water supplies in the United States—Casson estimates there are around 54,000—the federal government does not provide funds for most of the assessments. Only the approximately 350 utilities serving more than 100,000 people have received grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with a March 31 deadline to conduct vulnerability assessments.

Those who oversee some of the small- and medium-sized water systems, which have a later deadline for compliance, are still in need of low-cost assistance from trained specialists. Casson—who received certification in risk assessment methodology for water surety from the American Water Works Association last summer and additional training in Washington D.C. earlier this month—is one such specialist, and he is wholeheartedly offering his service.

“Even with the newly created VSAT [Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool], utilities will need some help and guidance in how to perform these assessments and what should be done following the assessment. That is where someone with my training can help.

“Through the University, we plan to offer guidance and advice on using the VSAT program and point out what factors should be considered in the assessment. We also have the capability to perform assessments for communities in cooperation with local consulting engineering firms and physical security specialists.”

Although eager to be of assistance, Cassan is less keen on discussing exactly what vulnerability assessments entail.

“Okay,” he begins thoughtfully after being asked for precise details, “We walk a fine line with this. I can talk about the general guidelines provided by the EPA, but we cannot be specific so that we don’t provide a roadmap for how someone might try to contaminate a water system.”

Many of the larger water systems already have been through the vulnerability assessment process, but, citing the same reasons for confidentiality, Casson said the results of their assessments are private.

“We want to be proactive, to increase security, to increase our vigilance,” he said. “But we don’t want to tell people exactly what we’re doing.”

The EPA has produced a list of six mandated components for vulnerability assessment that the public is allowed to see. These points include prioritizing adverse consequences of bioterrorism (service disruption, economic impact, illnesses, or deaths), determining how malevolent acts might be conducted, and assessing what can be done to upgrade the system and its security.

After vulnerability assessments are completed, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Response Act also mandates that water utilities have six months to develop an emergency response plan. The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority already has a response plan in effect—prompted by the potential for natural disaster emergencies, not bioterrorism—and will have only to build upon the existing plan after its vulnerability assessment is performed.

“If something happens,” Casson explained, “the emergency response is the plan that kicks into action. What do we measure? Where do we close the intake? Who do we notify? How do we protect the people?”

When asked which biological and chemical agents are most worrisome, Casson again asserted that such knowledge is not to be disclosed. He maintains, however, that Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has routine measurements and safeguards in place to ensure safe drinking water.

“We have an industry out there that is working and doing an excellent job in producing quality drinking water,” he said reassuringly. “The public doesn’t generally think about it. We use the same water—drinking water quality—to wash our cars, our sidewalks, ourselves, our dogs. In other places in the world water is a very precious commodity.”

Confident in the preventive efforts of water systems and environmental engineers like himself, he declared proudly, “The United States has one of the best water supply and treatment systems in the world.”