Hach wins SAFETY Act designation for water monitoring system
LOVELAND, CO, March 22, 2007 -- Hach Company announced it has received SAFETY Act Designation and Certification from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for GuardianBlue™ -- the first and only early warning monitoring system designed to help cities protect their drinking water systems from terrorist contamination attacks and real-world events.
The SAFETY Act provides litigation protection for users and their contractors. SAFETY Act certification signifies the Department of Homeland Security approved the system as anti-terrorist technology. Hach's certification is based on a review of three years of test data including government testing using actual warfare agents. The GuardianBlue Early Warning System from Hach Homeland Security Technologies is now available for installation into water distribution systems.
The system is the industry's first and only alert system ¿ using patented Event Monitor technology ¿ to detect, alert and classify contaminants from cyanide and pesticides to ricin and VX. The system can also detect, alert, classify and study real-world events and unknown contaminants in water distribution systems. This breakthrough capability means the GuardianBlue system can alert operators to threat agents, contamination and operational issues before they spread or impact the entire water system.
The GuardianBlue system is comprised of the following components ¿ the Event Monitor™ with Agent Library, Water Panel, Total Organic Carbon Analyzer and optional Auto-Sampler. Municipalities will now be able to easily upgrade the current Hach Water Panel to a full GuardianBlue system.
"It is gratifying to provide cities and their citizens with a technological solution that allows them to be more confident about the security of their drinking water," said Dr. Jeff Throckmorton, President of Hach Homeland Security Technologies.
About The system
The GuardianBlue Event Monitor integrates multiple sensor outputs from the Water Panel and TOC Analyzer. Every 60 seconds, the system applies a patented algorithm to the sensor measurements, calculating a site's water quality baseline. The system sends an alert when the trigger signal exceeds a user-set threshold, indicating a water quality deviation. The system's Agent Library contains many fingerprints of contaminants, including cyanide, pesticides, ricin and VX. The system is also equipped with a Plant Library that learns and reports the reoccurrence of operational events.
The GuardianBlue Event Monitor, Water Panel and TOC Analyzer were included in the Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) study sponsored by the USEPA for continuous multi-parameter water monitoring in distribution systems. The system also underwent rigorous testing at the Army's Edgewood Chemical and Biological Command (ECBC).
About the SAFETY Act
As part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Public Law 107-296, Congress enacted the SAFETY Act to provide "risk management" and "litigation management" protections for end-users and manufacturers of qualified anti-terrorism technologies and others in the supply and distribution chain. SAFETY Act creates certain liability limitations for "claims arising out of, relating to, or resulting from an act of terrorism" where qualified anti-terrorism technologies have been deployed. For more information on SAFETY Act, go to www.dhs.gov.