Drinking Water Security for Engineers, Planners, and Managers: Integrated Water Security Series

Wow! A real eye opener. I am not involved in water management but I hope the people managing my water adopt the security strategies detailed in this book. Chapter 5 was of particular interest to me as it deals with methods of contaminant detection, specifically real-time sensor technologies and the need for further development. Although it appears that the cost of hardening the water infrastructure against an attack is high, it is obvious that the costs of dealing with such an attack are much, much higher. It was kind of scary to learn that there are few regulatory requirements on water utilities to plan for and respond to contamination events. This book and the references cited would go a long way to keeping us all safer by helping establish regulatory guidelines for anyone designing or operating a public water system.

In my last long flight across the country, I read though the new book “Drinking Water Security for Engineers, Planners, and Managers” by Camarillo et al. I was extremely pleased find book very informative and data rich. The book has a good review on the US regulations followed by delineation of threats, ways to prevent them, and to detect the threats. Chapter 6 is very good in the sense that it delineates how to respond to those threats. This chapter also briefly talks about short-term supply alternative should a threat is potentially realized. Chapter 7 focuses on rehab aspects of the system after an intentional contamination event takes place. It also addresses disposal issues after decontamination of the system – which is very good. The appendix material seem to be quite informative. Overall, I find the book to be extremely useful for utility engineers and managers, regulatory agency personnel, and consulting engineers who work with water utilities.

I came across a copy of this book recently and read it through quickly. I like the book as it is relatively short (about 240 pages) and being paperback, it is affordable. Another good thing about this book is that it provides a lot of valuable data in various chapters and in the back appendix material. I am quite positive it will be a useful resource for engineers and scientists employed with the water industry – especially those folks who do their best to keep our water safe.