The federal Environmental Protection Agency will give grants to water systems to close loopholes in their security. EPA engineer Ralph Flournoy says the first step will be analyzing where a city drinking water system could have weaknesses.He says they want to know what’s their vulnerability to chemical, biological or radioactive contamination, the likelihood of attack on their computers over the Internet. Flournoy says up to 115-thousand dollars could be available to keep the water safe in bigger cities.They’re for systems serving more than 100-thousand people, the big cities that include more than half the nation’s population. The environmental engineer says local managers will be asked to identify key potential targetsTreatment units, pumps, pipelines, their vulnerability to attacks and how good their protection is now. The first grants will go for analysis, emergency plans and improved design for a dozen eligible water treatment plants in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.
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