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Recent years have seen the arrival of an array of early warning systems for the continuous on-line detection of anomalies relating to water security and quality. Numerous methodologies and criteria have been suggested to determine the efficacy of these methods in real-world scenarios. The authors contend that many of these evaluation techniques are deficient in evaluating all of the factors that would be essential in defining a system for deployment for the protection of key installations such as military bases. They suggest specific criteria as a means of comparing various technologies and propose a new method for determining receiver operating characteristic curves. Similar considerations should come into play in the evaluation of systems for civilian uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drinking water systems are vulnerable to attack. While homeland security initiatives commonly focus on aerial CW/BW attacks, they have tended to ignore the far more inexpensive and easy to orchestrate attacks on drinking water distribution networks. An approach that utilizes off-the-shelf broad-spectrum analytical instruments coupled with advanced interpretive algorithms to provide detection-response networks for water is described. This report summarizes the development of interpretive algorithms applied to drinking water instrumentation and the implications for immediately engineering and deploying distribution based detection-protection systems. Data obtained from in house testing along with testing at ECBC was used to produce fingerprint response data from traditional as well as non-military threat agents. Data obtained from a Battelle/EPA ETV study addresses issues such as long-term deployment and ability to detect and characterize contaminants. Loop testing at ECBC and Battelle demonstrates extrapolation of beaker testing fingerprints to flowing systems. Real world deployment data is used to demonstrate recognition and classification of actual events and heuristic capabilities of the system along with its potential role in enhancing water quality above and beyond its obvious security aspects. The system is shown to be a practical measure to detect and characterize backflow events involving both chemicals and bioagents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]