Mark Your Calendar. Washington, D.C. Join our Global Village World Water Day Event on Tuesday, March 19th and Invite your family, friends and colleagues!

                          TANZANIA                                        DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

CONGRATULATIONS Ms Kimberly Fogg and GSP. GSP has been approved as the 1st Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) Implementation Site in the State of MD!

"It takes a village to raise a child"

Congratulations Kimberly L. Fogg,  Founder & Chief Mindfulness Officer (CMO), Global Sustainable Partnerships (GSP)      

 GSP has been approved as the 1st Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) Implementation Site in the State of Maryland!

GSP has been approved as the 1st Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) Implementation Site in the State of MD, and we provide Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) training (see attached). Our programs are based on “It takes a village to raise a child” an African proverb that conveys it takes many people (“the village”) to provide a safe, healthy environment for our children, where children are given the security, they need to develop and flourish, and to be able to realize their hopes and dreams.   GSP recognizes the urgent need to address the mental health challenges that teenagers, parents, schools, and community partners face today. GSP already provides Youth and Adult Mental Health First Aid for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) faculty/staff, therapist, Foster Care and Guardian parents, so by integrating Youth and Adult (MHFA) (see attached) for “The Village” our tMHFA “All hands-on Deck” approach, will create a “safety net” for our teens, open the door to encourage open communication, create opportunities for increased trust and shared understanding between teens and their parents/guardians, school staff, and will mitigate the trauma, especially when law enforcement/emergency services are called to a scene.   A “Win Win” for the community.  Please see the link to our tMHFA article https://www.mymcmedia.org/may-is-mental-health-awareness-month/ Kimberly L. Fogg  Founder & CEO, Global Sustainable Partnerships (GSP)  www.gspartnerships.org Chair, Women’s Program Engagement Council (WPEC) and Titans Tank             https://www.facebook.com/pg/TWPEC/posts/     Harriet Tubman Legacy Coin Visionary        https://youtu.be/NkZacHkCguk            www.tubmancoin.org and Facebook.com/harriettubmanlegacycoin     Tanzania       “If the millions of women who haul water long distances had a faucet        by their door, whole societies could be transformed.”         – National Geographic, April 2010         Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gspartnerships     Kimberly Fogg, CEO Global Sustainable Partnerships receives Proclamation from Montgomery County, Maryland Council of Montgomery County Proclamation for World Health Day October 10, 2023 for Vibe CHECKUP Mental Health Program.

Water Insecurity: Here’s how we can make water utilities more secure February 14, 2024

 

Water utilities stand at the forefront of critical infrastructure, yet they face unprecedented vulnerabilities in cybersecurity. Unlike many other organizations in different verticals, although they might suffer financially if hit by a cyberattack, the impact on water utilities in the event of a successful attack could jeopardize a critical resource for human well-being: water. For instance, in a 2021 attack on a Florida water plant, hackers attempted to increase sodium hydroxide in the water supply to 100 times higher than usual. If successful, this attack could have resulted in thousands of people being poisoned. Since then, cyber-attacks on water utilities have increased tremendously. Earlier this year, the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa in Pennsylvania confirmed that hackers took control of a booster station, although fortunately, the drinking water remained safe. Another successful attack targeted an Irish utility, disrupting the water supply for two days. Water utilities are vulnerable because they rely on operational technology (OT) systems and industrial control systems (ICS), which control critical processes such as water treatment and distribution. The increased digitization and connectivity of these systems have expanded the attack surface, making them prime targets for threat actors. Weak or default credentials, remote service technologies, and communication protocol vulnerabilities are entry points for attackers, who exploit the interconnectedness between IT and OT environments to infiltrate systems directly and deploy ransomware. Finally, water utilities often grapple with limited IT staff and budget constraints, hindering their ability to implement robust cybersecurity measures. The combination of resource constraints and legacy systems creates a perfect storm, placing the water sector in a precarious position. The prevalence of legacy systems where multiple old vulnerabilities reside makes the water sector especially vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Patching challenges   CISA recently took an important step to improve the security of water utilities by introducing a free vulnerability scanning service in September last year. While this will undoubtedly enhance the situation by aiding water utilities in identifying vulnerabilities under limited resources, it does not assist in remediating vulnerabilities, which teams can address by applying compensating controls or patches.   Patching vulnerabilities has become incredibly challenging for water utilities. First, utilities often have a large and geographically dispersed infrastructure, making managing updates across multiple locations difficult. They also operate in complex environments with diverse OT and IT systems that may have different patching requirements. Additionally, they may have poor asset discovery mechanisms and processes, which can lead to a lack of health monitoring. Further, utilities prioritize operational uptime, making scheduling downtime for patch deployment difficult. And finally, utilities may have legacy systems, which are hard to patch yet are still often critical to the facility's operation, meaning the utility cannot simply eliminate their usage. This complexity can make it challenging to implement a comprehensive security strategy.   How utilities can foster cyber resilience   Addressing cybersecurity challenges in the water sector requires collaborative efforts between public and private entities. Sharing threat intelligence, best practices, and experienced personnel can bolster defenses against cyber threats.    Moreover, coordinated efforts within utility organizations are essential to ensure systematic patching and efficient cybersecurity practices across departments and facilities. Water utilities must implement a centralized patch management system that lets utilities deploy patches across all sites from a single interface remotely.   This system should support automated patch deployment, scheduling, and reporting to streamline patching and ensure consistency across diverse OT and IT systems. It should also let utilities implement a risk-based approach to prioritize patching based on the criticality of assets and the severity of vulnerabilities. We recommend utilities conduct regular risk assessments to identify high-risk systems and vulnerabilities that require immediate attention, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively to mitigate the most significant risks first and that they can manage the entire process from a single interface. Otherwise, it’s more complex, and there are higher chances that vulnerabilities go unnoticed.    Finally, utilities must implement compensating controls or temporary workarounds for vulnerabilities that teams cannot immediately patch, especially in the case of critical systems or legacy infrastructure. These controls may include network segmentation, intrusion detection systems, or enhanced monitoring to mitigate the risk of exploitation until patches are applied.   Drinking water systems are an essential community lifeline. While the government must put significant efforts into protecting water systems from cyberattacks, cybersecurity software vendors could do more to contribute to this vital task – for example, by offering increased discounts or even free services for the water sector. Together, we can build a more secure and resilient future for our water infrastructure, mitigate the risks posed by legacy vulnerabilities, and safeguard critical resources.   Content retrieved on 14 February 2024 from https://www.scmagazine.com/perspective/heres-how-we-can-make-water-utilities-more-secure

Water Insecurity: U.S. Administration announces $5.8 billion in funding to clean up nation’s drinking water, upgrade infrastructure

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/20/health/epa-water-investment/index.html 

Administration announces $5.8 billion in funding to clean up nation’s drinking water, upgrade infrastructure

By Jen Christensen, CNN

 6 minute read 

Updated 3:13 PM EST, Tue February 20, 2024

CNN — The Biden administration on Tuesday announced $5.8 billion in funding that will go out to every state and territory to help fix an ailing water infrastructure that continues to put millions of Americans’ health at risk. Michael Regan, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Pittsburgh on Tuesday to promote the administration’s efforts to ensure a safer drinking water system and more reliable wastewater infrastructure. Projects underway in Pittsburgh – such as an effort to get rid of lead pipes – are among several across the country that are being funded through bipartisan 2021 legislation that designated $50 billion toward improving water infrastructure. “President Biden and I believe that every person in our country should have a right to clean water no matter where they live or how much money they make,” Harris said in a news release from the EPA. “With this investment, we are continuing our urgent work to remove every lead pipe in the country and ensure that every American has access to safe and reliable drinking water.” The federal government won’t pick the projects funded by the investment announced Tuesday. Rather, it will funnel the money to states, territories and tribes through the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs. The United States has a vast water system; more than 2.2 million miles of underground pipes carry drinking water, and more than 16,000 treatment plants handle wastewater, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. That allows most – but not all – Americans to have indoor plumbing and reasonably safe drinking water. But the infrastructure has been earning poor grades from the society for decades. The climate crisis has further tested the system, hurting the quality of source water due to salt water intrusion and increased runoff of sediment and pollutants, and decreasing the amount of water that is even available. The civil engineering society gave the country’s drinking water infrastructure a C- rating in 2021, the last time it did the analysis – and that was an improvement from the D it got in 2017. The society rated the wastewater system even worse in 2021, with a D+; stormwater got a D. It’s a report card the society said was not one “anyone would be proud to take home.” Many of the country’s water infrastructure problems stem from a general lack of investment, according to the EPA. Local governments typically can’t afford to update water systems on their own. And even when they try, changes can lead to problems like the one in Flint, Michigan, where in 2016, scientists learned that residents had high blood lead levels due to corroded pipes from a new drinking water source. No amount of lead exposure is safe, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exposure, especially for children, can damage the brain and nervous system and lead to slowed development and growth and cognitive issues. Flint captured international headlines, but its residents weren’t the only ones exposed to dangerous lead through their drinking water. One survey from the nonprofit National Resources Defense Council found that between 2018 and 2020, 56% of the US population drank from water systems with detectable levels of lead. The infrastructure bill provides $15 billion alone to replace lead service lines and that amount may sound like a lot, but Chicago-area based engineer Darren Olson said Chicago alone has 400,000 lead service lines that are not easy to replace. The lines can go under streets, trees and front yards that all need to be navigated around. “It’s not an insignificant amount of infrastructure and other conflicts,” said Olson, who is the head of the American Society of Civil Engineers Committee on America’s infrastructure. “It’s difficult to do and it’s expensive.” In Chicago, experts estimate it could cost up to $25,000 per lead service line to replace, Olson said. “We could use all of that money ourselves,” Olson said. New lead pipes have been banned in the US since the 1980s, but the EPA estimates that there are at least 9.2 million lead service lines carrying water to American residences. Nearly half a million children also risk exposure through school and child-care facilities. In 2021, the Biden administration set a goal of replacing all of the nation’s lead service lines within 10 years. The funding announced Tuesday will be used to clean drinking water, improve wastewater and sanitation, and remove contaminants, and it will also be used to replace lead pipes. For years, lead levels in Pittsburgh’s drinking water exceeded a key federal threshold for contamination, but officials have been working to clean it up. Since 2016, Pittsburgh’s Water & Sewer Authority said it has replaced nearly 11,000 public lead service lines and nearly 8,000 private ones, which puts the department about halfway to its goal of removing all lead service lines by by 2026. Its efforts were turbocharged by money from the EPA’s inaugural Aquarius Award in 2022, and those efforts have paid off. Lead levels in drinking water have declined significantly with the service line replacements and with the addition of orthophosphate, a food-grade additive that can protect pipes from corrosion, to the water. The latest testing showed lead levels at 3.58 parts per billion (ppb), well below the state and federal action level and a historic low for the city, the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority said this month. Over $1 billion from the latest round of federal funds will also help municipalities clean up another big health challenge in Americans’ drinking water: a group of synthetic chemicals called per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS, chemicals that are considered dangerous to human health. Almost half of the tap water in the US is contaminated with these substances, which are also known as forever chemicals, according to a 2023 study from the US Geological Survey. PFAS are a family of ubiquitous synthetic chemicals that linger in the environment and the human body. Exposure is linked to problems like cancer, obesity, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, decreased fertility, liver damage and hormone suppression, according to the EPA. In June 2022, the EPA issued health advisories that said the chemicals are much more hazardous to human health than scientists originally thought and are probably more dangerous even at levels thousands of times lower than previously believed. In March, the agency proposed the first national drinking water standard for PFAS. This month, the EPA proposed that labeling nine of the PFAS chemicals as hazardous. If the agency officially makes the change, it will be easier for the government to address PFAS as a part of its cleanup program. Olson, with the American Society of Civil Engineers, said he is happy that the federal government is helping to improve the country’s infrastructure but the money is essentially just a drop in the bucket. “The water sector needs all the investment it can get, but when you start to look at what the funding gap is for our water infrastructure, drinking water, wastewater, stormwater – all that is promised is like just one-tenth of what we need,” he said. In the 1970s, Olson said the federal government used to spend 63% of the money needed for capital spending for water infrastructure. That’s fallen to 9% in 2017, according to the US Water Alliance. States and individuals paying higher taxes have to pick up that cost, but the expense is too much, he said. “In my opinion, clean water is something that requires federal direction, federal leadership and more federal investment,” Olson said.

Water Insecurity: Nuclear Waste. Savannah River Site Tops 15 Million Gallons of Salt Waste Processed

Savannah River Site Tops 15 Million Gallons of Salt Waste Processed AIKEN, S.C. — The Savannah River Site’s (SRS) liquid waste program has processed more than 15 million gallons of radioactive salt waste since 2008 through the work of three major facilities. To reach this milestone of 15 million gallons processed, SRS has relied on the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) for the past three years, along with the past performance of the Actinide Removal Process/Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (ARP/MCU) and Tank Closure Cesium Removal (TCCR). Radioactive liquid waste is generated at SRS as byproducts from processing nuclear materials for national defense, research, medical programs, and for NASA missions. The waste — totaling 33 million gallons — is stored at SRS in two groupings of underground waste tanks known as tank farms. Jim Folk, DOE-Savannah River assistant manager for Waste Disposition, said waste is being safely removed from the aging tanks and the site’s treatment of liquid waste is moving forward. “We are now processing more waste faster, further reducing the risk to people and the environment,” he said. In its first three years of operation, the Salt Waste Processing Facility processed approximately 7.5 million gallons of tank waste, significantly contributing to the liquid waste program’s output of 15 million gallons of radioactive salt waste since 2008. In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 last year, SWPF set a single-year record by processing nearly 3.2 million gallons of radioactive salt waste. This facility was the final piece needed to finish treating and disposing of the liquid waste. SWPF separates and concentrates the highly radioactive waste — mostly cesium, actinides and waste slurry — from the less radioactive salt solution. The process begins by transferring the waste from H Tank Farm to SWPF, where it undergoes a two-step cleanup process. The first step, known as the alpha strike, removes actinides, such as uranium and plutonium, from the waste. The second step, known as caustic side solvent extraction, is designed for the removal of radioactive cesium. After the separation process is completed, the concentrated high-activity waste is sent to the nearby Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). There, the waste is combined with sludge waste, immobilized in glass and stored in stainless steel canisters in reinforced, underground vaults called Glass Waste Storage Buildings (GWSB). The canisters will be safely stored in the GWSBs until a federal repository is established. The decontaminated salt solution from SWPF is mixed with dry materials to create a grout at the nearby Saltstone Production Facility (SPF) for disposal onsite. The grout is pumped from SPF into Saltstone Disposal Units. There, the grout solidifies into a monolithic, non-hazardous low-level waste form called saltstone. Dave Olson, president and program manager of Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), EM’s liquid waste contractor at SRS, said that SWPF is now the facility in the SRS liquid waste program that will treat most of the volume of the waste in the tanks. “SWPF operates at a much larger scale than earlier salt waste processing facilities,” Olson said. “We continue to engineer improvements at SWPF that we expect to help us achieve even greater production goals.” SWPF’s radioactive commissioning began October 2020. In its first three years of operation, SWPF has safely processed nearly 7.5 million gallons of tank waste. To reach these levels, optimizations were made to enhance the facility’s existing design capabilities. These improvements are already demonstrating that SWPF requires less downtime for maintenance, which means more time for production. SRMC’s planned modifications will help boost the system to process even greater quantities, moving toward the processing goal of 9 million gallons each year. ARP/MCU Processes First Salt Batches The forerunner to SWPF was ARP/MCU, which began operations in 2008. ARP/MCU were designed as a demonstration project to show that salt waste in the high-level waste tanks could be separated from the more radioactive constituents. Although ARP/MCU were expected to operate temporarily, the facilities performed well for 11 years before suspending operations in 2019 to prepare for startup of SWPF. During their lifetime, ARP/MCU processed 7.4 million gallons of radioactive salt waste. TCCR Supports Processing The TCCR project, which operated from fiscal year 2019 until the project was suspended in 2022, consisted of a self-contained ion exchange process for the removal of cesium from the liquid salt waste to provide a supplemental treatment capability. TCCR removed cesium from more than 371,000 gallons of tank waste. The high-level waste constituents, such as cesium, must be removed from the tanks before the tanks can be operationally closed and removed from service. Cesium’s characteristics make it a top priority for removal. -Contributor: Jim Beasley