Historically, the most common pathogenic contaminants have come from human and animal feces and deposits of naturally occurring toxic minerals. But other sources of potential contamination abound. Industrial discharges, agricultural chemicals, polluted floodwaters, landfill runoff and, more recently, biological and chemical terrorism all threaten the water supply.
The importance of water security as a major public health concern led the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with support from APHL to develop the National Water Laboratory Alliance (WLA).
The WLA is a network of more than 50 public health and environmental testing laboratories with the ability to conduct routine monitoring and emergency testing for a number of non-traditional contaminants, including potential water terrorism agents.
The system is being piloted in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the public water utility performing core tests, contract laboratories performing some chemical tests and the Ohio Public Health Laboratory performing tests for infectious waterborne pathogens, including agents that might be associated with suspicious water tampering incidents.
APHL participated in a series of WLA meetings in which alliance members—public health laboratories, federal and state environmental testing laboratories, law enforcement laboratories and water utilities—developed regional, emergency response protocols for water sampling and testing, based on an EPA template. All of these plans have now gone through tabletop exercises and will soon be tested in live exercises using real samples.
“In addition, laboratories that are experiencing a surge in testing will be able to count on neighboring laboratories to help sample water supplies and conduct emergency testing,” noted Pamela Bernard, APHL’s environmental laboratory program manager.
APHL is further supporting the alliance by documenting and addressing critical laboratory training needs. For example, APHL and the EPA have developed a radioanalytical training course for laboratory scientists, and APHL has offered training on chain-of-custody protocols to help member laboratories preserve potential evidence for criminal investigations.
The ultimate goal is a timely early warning system for drinking water contamination and an agile emergency response network to support law enforcement and remediation activities.
Is the water safe to drink? Only laboratory testing can provide the answer.