Milford City Council voted to approve the mayor’s signature on a grant from DEMA for $60,000 that would be used to purchase video surveillance from Advantech to protect the city’s water supply. This is part of the city’s water infrastructure security.
“You’ve heard me talk about emergency preparedness,” City Manager Chris Coleman said. “This is another way of addressing that. This grant will pay for almost all of the work in year one.”
The Alta platform will be expanded to allow cloud-based access control to each of the water facilities by leveraging Ericsson Cradlepoint 5g devices. This means connectivity can be achieved without exposing the city’s SCADA network to the internet which could also expose wa6er systems to compromise.
The annual cost is $60,034 and the grant will cover all but $34 for the first year.
“I would like to give special thanks to Edward Tony Lee with DLLG, the liaison for DEMA, who has been working with us on this grant,” Coleman said.” I also want to thank Valerie Heritage and Bill Pettigrew.”
According to the EPA, surveillance is important for protecting municipal drinking water supplies as water treatment, storage and distribution facilities are critical infrastructure. Security cameras and other monitoring systems help deter unauthorized access, vandalism and tampering while allowing utility personnel to quickly identify and respond to potential threats.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends physical security monitoring at key water facilities specifically to detect unauthorized entry that could result in intentional contamination. Surveillance can also provide a record of an incident, helping officials and law enforcement determine what occurred and whether the safety of the water supply may have been compromised. Protecting these facilities is ultimately a public health responsibility.
A security breach affecting a community’s drinking water can potentially affect thousands of residents, making prevention and early detection essential components of a municipality’s water-security strategy.
Council approved the request with a vote of seven to zero.
