AWWA WSC67786

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) has been actively involved in the development of a Contamination Warning System (CWS) for its river water intake and finished water distribution system for the past several years. PWSA's CWS gathers information from a variety of sources including continuous online analytical monitors, routine sample collection and laboratory analysis, customer complaints, public health information from a syndromic surveillance system, security information from local law enforcement, and intelligence from national sources such as the Water ISAC and the FBI's INFRAGARD. The PWSA CWS also includes a robust consequence management program for response to contamination alerts triggered by the various water quality, public health, and security monitors. This response includes the use of a number of rapid analytical tests that can be performed in the field or quickly in the laboratory, standard analyses in PWSA's state certified laboratory, immediate access to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) WCIT (Water Contaminant Information Tool), and use of USEPA's hydraulic security models, IC Water and PipelineNet. A major effort in PWSA's development of a comprehensive CWS continues to be extensive onsite evaluation of commercially available technology for online monitoring and rapid field testing. This paper describes an ongoing challenge study involving the injection of a number of "contaminants" into the plumbing system of PWSA's pilot distribution system sentinel station, and an evaluation of the responses of a variety of online monitors. Includes 4 references, tables, figures.