GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Water treatment employee faces terrorism charges

 

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: AZ Central

02April2011 1:19pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: A Mesa wastewater employee faces terrorism charges after police say he shut down a Southeast Valley wastewater treatment plant, creating a buildup of methane gas and sparking a standoff with Gilbert SWAT.

Mesa police and Gilbert SWAT officers responded to the plant, which is owned by Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek but operated by Mesa.

A two-hour standoff ended when Olson surrendered at 4:30 a.m., Balafas said. He was booked into the Maricopa County 4th Avenue Jail on suspicion of terrorism, making terrorist threats, misconduct involving weapons, tampering with a public utility, criminal trespassing and criminal damage to property. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Panel Contemplates Extensions Of Chemical Facility Security Law

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: HS Today

14February2011 11:10amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: In testimony before Congress, the general manager for DC Water related a success story for his agency that underscored both the payoffs and challenges for making use of inherently safer technology and extending chemical facility security laws to water treatment facilities.

Before 9/11, DC Water used chlorine and sulfur dioxide to treat wastewater, George Hawkins told the House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology Friday. Those chemicals would have posed a threat to the surrounding community if a terrorist attack on the facility ignited them.

Workers at DC Water's Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Facility could see the smoke from the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11, which prompted the agency to accelerate a plan to switch to treating water with safer chemicals — sodium hypochlorite (bleach) and sodium bisulfite.

The transition, though successful, cost $16.4 million, Hawkins noted. Moreover, DC Water now pays $2 million annually for the safer chemicals rather than $800,000 annually for the previous more dangerous chemicals.

Republicans have objected to mandating the use of inherently safer technology under the Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) in part due to the costs to the chemical industry. Those objections derailed a bill that would have permanently authorized CFATS in the last Congress because it would have required the use of inherently safer technology where possible.  (read full report)

 

 

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.