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This paper describes ongoing research to address concern aboutdeliberate attacks on water distribution systems that involve the injection of toxins. The thesis of theresearch described here is that a combination of conventional sensors and intelligent softwarecan provide reliable, low cost security monitoring for water distribution systems. The types ofsensors envisaged are already widely used to measure water chemistry properties, such asspecific conductance, pH, and residual chlorine. The capabilities of the intelligent software,called a Decision Support System (DSS), should include automatically learning andremembering "normal" patterns of water quality behavior; detecting unprecedented patterns(anomalies) that could indicate an attack; generating alarms; and making recommendations tooperators about what to do. Additional capabilities could include automated recognition(classification) of toxin types, and predicting concentrations and fate and transport within thedistribution system. It should be noted that developing and deploying these capabilities wouldnecessarily be achieved without ever risking toxin injection in an actual distribution system.This research involves experiments in a flow loop to collect data about water chemistryresponses using combinations of different field grade sensors, toxin types, and toxinconcentrations. These data will then be used to develop an intelligent prototype decisionsupport system (DSS) with the above capabilities. A field trial will be conducted in thedistribution system in Charleston, South Carolina to test the performance of the sensors andDSS together. The trial will include periods in which fluoride concentration is modulated to simulate an attack. Includes 39 references, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 04/10/2005 Number of Pages: 18 File Size: 1 file , 790 KB