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There is growing awareness that urban water systems are vulnerable to bothmanmade and natural, but unpredictable, threats and disasters such as earthquakesand terrorist attacks. Earthquakes and terrorist attacks have manycharacteristics in common. They are almost impossible to predict and can causemajor devastation and confusion. Several recent earthquakes centered in urbanareas such as the earthquake that struck Kobe City, Japan in 1995 havedemonstrated the disastrous effect that earthquakes can have on urban watersystems. Terrorism is also a major threat to water security and recent attentionhas turned to the potential that these attacks have for disrupting urban watersupplies. In the United States, government planners have been forced to considerthe possibility that the nation's critical infrastructure, including watersystems, may in fact be vulnerable to terrorism. The President's Commission onCritical Infrastructure Protection concluded that the nation's water supplysystem might be vulnerable to certain biological agents. Although at this timeterrorist attacks have not occurred, there is some limited experience in the U.S.with the development of systems for response to the devastation caused byearthquakes. In California these emergency response systems have proven to bevery useful. The California State government standardized terminology,management, interagency relationships and communications systems. Californiawater utility agencies learned to partner with government and private agencies incollaborative planning for emergencies. It is the authors' opinion that many ofthe approaches adopted for earthquake response would be useful in responding to aterrorist attack. This paper presents examples that illustrate the potential ofearthquakes for devastating urban water systems. Next the paper discusses theemergency response mechanisms being placed in service to deal with these threats.Then the paper identifies the characteristics of water systems that make themvulnerable to contamination by terrorist attack. Finally some specifictechnological actions that water utilities might undertake to help them guardagainst the possible consequences of a terrorist attack will be discussed. Includes 17 references, table, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 06/01/2001 Number of Pages: 20 File Size: 1 file , 410 KB