AWWA ACE56258

This paper profiles the creation, objectives, and benefits of the Bay Area Security Information Collaborative (BASIC). The BASIC group represents a very unique and beneficial partnership amongst large water utilities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Shortly after the events of September 11th, 2001, the staff of the major water utilities in the San Francisco Bay Area recognized a need to work together on counter-terrorism and security issues as they relate to the drinking water industry. Following September 11th, it was clear that all water utilities shared many of the same challenges with regard to a required new standard of security. These challenges included developing strategies to best implement increased water quality monitoring, improving control over access to facilities, and upgrading security systems. In addition, the need to better understand the terrorism threat to water utilities and develop appropriate response plans was necessary. In recognizing these common challenges, the BASIC group was formed. The group now consists of 8 large Bay Area water utilities, representatives from the California Department of Health Services, and Region 9 of the Environmental Protection Agency. BASIC meets monthly to share information, develop coordinated response plans, and work together to identify ways that the region can provide and utilize jointly developed resources. Since its inception, the BASIC utilities have worked together to eliminate the duplication of effort and cost in many areas of post 09/11 water system security. These group- based efforts have included sharing approaches to conducting individual utility vulnerability assessments, short and long-term security improvement strategies, and evaluating a regional approach to counter-terrorism in the water industry.