Y2K - less than half water companies are ready

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Computer Currents

News Story

 

Y2K Water Utility Predications

 

By: Sherman Fridman, Newsbytes.

December 14, 1999

URL: http://www.currents.net/newstoday/99/12/14/news1.html

 

The head of the administration's Year 2000 readiness team is advising

the nation not to get too concerned about a report released last Friday

that claims that less than half of the water utilities in the US are

ready for the date change.

 

"To put this as if it is somehow some sort of new phenomenon seems to me

misleading," John Koskinen, head of the President's Council on Y2K

Conversion, told Newsbytes, adding that a survey of the nation's water

authorities found, in most cases, "no show-stoppers in their systems.

 

"I'm not sure why that (report) ran," Koskinen added. "It was a survey

done in June that we released (based on data from the spring). Water is

not at the top of our list of concerns right now."

 

Koskinen's assistant, John Gribben, added that, "We are confident that

there are no systemic problems in the water sector throughout the

country."

 

The report was released last Friday by non-profit environmentalist group

Natural Resources Defense Council, in conjunction with the Center for

Y2K and Society, a non-profit organization with a stated purpose of

reducing possible societal impacts of the Year 2000 problem.

 

The NRDC and the Center for Y2K and Society claim that the most recent

detailed industry survey by the American Water Works Association (AWWA),

the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), and the National

Association of Water Companies (NAWC), shows that only 20 percent to 45

percent of drinking water systems in the country were Y2K compliant.

 

Even these figures were optimistic, the groups claimed, because there

has been little or inadequate response to industry-wide surveys.

 

The groups cited no more recent information than a July, 1999, report of

a telephone survey released by the General Accounting Office (GAO). That

report said that only five out of the 17 city-owned or city-operated

drinking or wastewater facilities contacted by the GAO responded that

they were Y2K ready.

 

The lack of recent data has been "very frustrating," according to Center

for Y2K and Society Executive Director Norman Dean, who added that the

National Rural Water Association has not released data from a recent

survey it conducted.

 

Also of concern to the NRDC and Center for Y2K and Society were what

they claim are the "even worse" prospects for wastewater facilities.

They cited a report issued by the President's Council on Year 2000

Conversion that said only 4 percent of wastewater treatment facilities

are Y2K ready.

 

According to Dean, "While we cannot predict which or how many systems,

this data strongly indicates some drinking and wastewater facilities

could have Y2K-related problems."

 

Dean said people should not panic, but instead should store 10 gallons

of water per person per household, assuming that people would go through

a gallon a day.

 

In addition to loss of water supply, some of the possible Y2K-related

problems the groups predict are loss of water pressure, lack of adequate

water treatment facilities, and/or chemicals and possible release of

toxic or hazardous substances. In addition, wastewater facilities might

discharge untreated sewage due to Year 2000 failures.

 

In contrast to the NRDC and the Center for Y2K and Society, the American

Water Works Association released a report last Friday, claiming that its

4,200 member utilities will provide safe, clean drinking water on and

after Jan. 1, 2000, accounting for almost 70 percent of the nation's tap

water.

 

Jack Hoffbuhr, AWWA executive director, countered the NRDC and Center

for Y2K and Society Report, saying, "Water utilities have to be prepared

for the kind of glitches and poser outages that some forecast for Y2K on

a daily basis. That's why over 90 percent of our members were fully Y2K

compliant five months ago."

 

Dean pointed out, however, that his organization had asked the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do a "stylistically valid"

study on water utility preparedness, and that the EPA refused to so.

 

Doug Marsano, a spokesperson for the AWWA, told Newsbytes that both the

association's members are confident that they are ready to provide a

continuing supply of drinking water into next year, adding that it was

easy for people to make charges that the water utilities were not ready.

 

However, Marsano also said that his members plan to have their pumping

stations manned by workers over the New Year's weekend, and that all of

the water utilities' facilities can be operated manually.

 

"Most of these facilities have been around longer than computers," he

said.

 

The Center for Y2K and Society maintains a Website at

http://www.y2kcenter.org

 

The NRDC's site is at http://www.nrdc.org

 

Information from the American Water Works Association can be found at

http://www.awwa.org

 

Reported by Newsbytes.com