The following is a transcript of the WaterWorld Weekly Newscast for March 28, 2016.
Hi, I'm Angela Godwin for WaterWorld magazine, bringing you water and wastewater news headlines for the week of March 28th. Coming up...
Flint water contamination task force finds fault at all levels of government
Seven Iranians indicted for NY dam breach, other cyber attacks
Presidential memorandum focuses on drought resilience
California pushes huge underground water tunnels
[story1]
A task force appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to investigate the drinking water contamination crisis released its report last week.
In it, the task force called Flint "a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice."
The task force identified failures at all levels of government, but found that primary responsibility for the water contamination lies with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
The report also finds fault with the state's Emergency Manager law, which allowed a state-appointed emergency manager to replace the decision-making authority of locally elected officials.
[story2]
Last week, seven Iranian individuals were indicted by a grand jury for cyber attacks on several U.S. financial institutions as well as a breach of the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, New York.
The dam intrusion occurred between August 28 and September 18, 2013, when one of the attackers was able to gain repeated access to the SCADA system.
Through unauthorized access, Hamid Firoozi was able to obtain information regarding the status and operation of the dam as well as information about the water levels, temperature and status of the sluice gate.
According to the Department of Justice, Firoozi would have been able to remotely operate and manipulate the gate, but couldn't because it had been manually disconnected for maintenance at the time of the intrusion.
Iran's Foreign Ministry has denied any involvement in the attack.
[story3]
In a memorandum issued last week, President Obama formalized the National Drought Resilience Partnership (NDRP), a program that builds upon the National Integrated Drought Information System and will better coordinate federal support for locally-driven drought-related efforts.
This will help communities reduce the impact of current drought events, and prepare for future droughts.
USDA will serve as permanent co-chair of the NDRP, with the other chair rotating every two years between six other NDRP agencies: the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Interior, Energy, Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The memorandum, Building National Capabilities for Long-Term Drought Resilience, can be found on whitehouse.gov.
[story4]
California Governor Jerry Brown wants to restructure his state's water system by building two massive underground tunnels to divert water to farms and cities in the south. But his administration faces strong opposition for the $15.7 billion project. AP's Terry Chea has more.
[news package]
[OUTRO]
For WaterWorld magazine, I'm Angela Godwin. Thanks for watching.
