Court Blocks EPA's Water System Cybersecurity Improvement Plan
Following pushback from local legislators, the U.S. EPA’s plans to bolster public water system resiliency in the face of rising cyber threats has hit a roadblock.
“A U.S. appeals court … temporarily blocked a Biden administration plan to improve cybersecurity for public water systems, after Republican-led states complained it would thrust burdensome costs on small and rural water suppliers,” Reuters reported. “The EPA’s plan announced on March 3, which it called ‘guidance,’ meaning it was non-binding, recommended a series of novel rules placing more responsibility for securing water facilities at the state level. The agency issued the plan following several high-profile hacking incidents in recent years.”
Following these high-profile digital compromises at drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities, the Biden administration announced its plans to fortify systems with a monitoring pilot program and suggested new rules to increase security. But a legal challenge from attorneys general in Missouri, Arkansas, and Iowa has now motivated an appeals court in St. Louis to suspend the plan.
“A spokesperson for the National Rural Water Association, which intervened in the lawsuit challenging the EPA plan alongside the American Water Works Association, said in a statement that it supports enhanced cybersecurity, but that the EPA plan would be too burdensome for small water systems,” according to Reuters. “The lawsuit said the memo creates costly legal obligations, even though the EPA has referred to it as only guidance.”
While this handful of states as well as the leading organizations representing national drinking water and wastewater treatment utilities voice their opposition to the EPA’s plan, the agency has been emphasizing the need for action to combat ongoing cyber threats.
“The EPA did not provide a response to a request for comment… But the Biden administration warned in a June 30 filing that ‘(t)he risks to public health and critical infrastructure from staying the Memorandum are significant,” per The Washington Post.
Doubtlessly, drinking water and wastewater treatment operators as well as the ratepayers who depend on safe and reliable service, are hoping to find a solution to cybersecurity threats that they can implement at affordable costs as soon as possible.
To read more about how treatment operations manage their cybersecurity visit Water Online’s Resiliency Solutions Center.