Our Water Infrastructure is Breaking

Three weeks ago, a major sewer line collapsed in Washington DC, resulting in close to a billion gallons of raw sewage entering the Potomac (spills are still ongoing). It is the largest sewage spill in U.S. history, causing immense ecological damage.

Had it occurred a few miles north, the U.S. capital city would be without drinking water for weeks.

We hear a lot about critical infrastructure resilience, but the vast majority of those conversations revolve around our grid and sources of electricity. Far less attention is paid to the most fundamental human need: water.

But events like this in Washington should be a wake-up call to the vulnerability of the systems that deliver water, and how damaging the disruption of those operations could be.

The Potomac disaster is one of aging infrastructure (and a reminder of our struggle to build and repair physical infrastructure). But the notion of intentionally disrupting our water supplies isn't lost on our adversaries.

In 2023 the FBI told Nick Lawler, the general manager of the Littleton, Massachusetts water utility that China had gained access to the utility's system. The utility was one of 200 that were targeted.

No operational control was assumed, but the larger message was delivered: they were there and could be activated to disrupt or corrupt water quality at a moment's notice.

In speaking with logistics leaders in government and business for some time, the brittleness of our water systems is routinely brought up as a "keep you up at night" scenario.

There are a stunning 170,000 water utilities in the U.S. Such a distributed network means the vast majority are small operations and do not have the technology or know-how to identify outside intrusions into their systems or, let alone, ward them off.

A Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing last week highlighted the challenges of small water utilities and talked about what could be done to strengthen resilience against adversarial attacks.

At the hearing, Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) noted "As we look to upgrade and modernize our water systems in the face of these threats, it is more urgent for our utilities, federal agencies and water sector and cybersecurity experts to work together to increase that system resiliency."

And that "A one-size-fits-all mandate from the federal government will likely be overly burdensome and unworkable, particularly for our smaller systems, and can hinder utilities' ability to take achievable steps towards meaningful progress."

Whenever there is a water line break in your neighborhood you know the inconvenience it can cause. Now imagine that at city-wide scale for extended periods of time and with far more severe public health and ecological consequences. That is a real threat on the table, and one our government and private sector must work together to mitigate.