By Dan Kroll

Securing the games:
As the world sat glued to their TV screens this August watching the spectacular drama of the Olympic games unfold, few could fail to be impressed by the massive amount of effort that the Chinese put into providing a series of dazzling venues and breathtaking entertainments. While the visible show could not fail to impress, much hard work and effort lay under the surface and invisible to the general public. One of the key tasks and responsibilities of the organizers was to provide security for the thousands of athletes and spectators that would be in Beijing for the games.

Major events, such as the Olympics, are key targets for terrorists of all sorts. The focusing of so much attention on a given site is a stage that is hard to resist for those bent upon causing harm. This was demonstrated at the 1972 Munich Olympics when terrorists from the Black September group kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli athletes. The organizers at the Chinese games were cognizant of this threat and were determined to cover all potential avenues of attack. China spent $6.5 billion on security for the games to protect the 10,000 athletes, 30,000 journalists, 80 heads of state and the hordes of spectators gathering in and around the National Stadium (the "Bird's Nest"), the Olympic Village and surrounding hotels.

During the preparations, the security of the water supply was not overlooked. The Chinese were well aware that numerous studies have demonstrated that attacking water supplies (especially the distribution system) is an inexpensive and easy to orchestrate method of inflicting mass casualties. Depending upon what was used to poison the water, not only ingestion of the contaminated water but also inhalation and skin contact could have the potential to cause harm. A water attack on the Olympics would make just the sort of headlines that a terrorist organization would be seeking. The Chinese Organizers were resolved to prevent any such attack form occurring.

China's Beijing Health Ministry was put in charge of the water supply aspects of the security initiative. Since 9/11 a number of commercial products have become available to help in the detection and response to such potential attacks. However, with an eye to the future and wanting a long-term return on their investment, many of the potential technologies were not deemed to be appropriate by the Health Ministry.

Those tasked with making the decision wanted to invest in equipment and methods that would still offer value long after the Olympics were over. One of the factors that played an important role in their evaluation was the concept of dual use. They were looking for a system that not only would provide an unprecedented level of security for the games and afterwards, but that also would find use in day-to-day operations after the athletes and crowds had gone home. They determined that the ideal technology to serve both their immediate and long-term needs was multi-parameter monitoring coupled with intelligent algorithms.

Intelligent multi-parameter monitoring:
The concept of utilizing multi-parameter monitoring to detect unusual events in the water supply distribution system has been well demonstrated in a number of studies conducted by the USEPA, the US Army Corps of Engineers and others. Rather than attempting to develop individual sensors to detect specific contaminants, the approach is to utilize a sensor suite of commonly available off-the-shelf water quality monitors. In the case of the Olympics, the deployed system included pH, electrolytic conductivity, turbidity, chlorine residual and total organic carbon (TOC) linked together in an intelligent network. The logic behind this approach is that these are tried and true technologies that have been extensively deployed in the water supply industry for a number of years and have proven to be stable in such situations. Also, being that the sensors are not designed to detect specific contaminants, the system has the ability to alarm on a wide variety of potential problems and even unknown or unforeseen conditions.

Overlaying the operation of these basic water quality sensors is an intelligent algorithm that determines when anomalous conditions exist and attempts to classify the event as to its possible cause. Once every minute, the system chosen for the Olympics measures and analyzes sensor data from the five advanced water quality sensors and calculates a trigger signal, which is capable of indicating a deviation from the water quality baseline. If significant deviations occur an alarm condition exists. The system then analyzes the pattern of responses from the sensors to form a fingerprint, which is compared to a pre-programmed library of potential water threats. This is used to classify the event that caused the alarm. The library contains fingerprints for a wide variety of threat contaminants, ranging from VX and ricin to arsenic and herbicides.

Due to the huge number of potential water quality abnormalities that can be detected, not all of the hypothetical event profiles can be present in the library. Fortunately, a match for an unusual water quality event need not be present in the pre-programmed library for an alarm to be issued. Even if no match has been found an alarm condition still exists. This gives the system the unique ability to react to unknown and unanticipated threats. If no match for an event is found the profile of that event is stored in a separate library that is a part of the system and can be classified at a later date so that if the event recurs the system will recognize it and classify it appropriately. This allows for the detection and classification of both security related and operational events and leads to the dual use function that was deemed important by the Ministry.

The dual-use factor:
While the type of system that was deployed is primarily designed for water security, its ability to alarm on water quality perturbations of all sorts and its ability to store these profiles for later recall makes it a valuable operational tool.

For example, through many years of experience, the best old hands at treatment plant operations have developed "a sense" for knowing something in the treatment system is amiss. It can be a smell, color, clarity (or lack there of), sound or just tingling in the nape of the neck. One gains this sense only by extensive experience in a particular facility. These senses do not exist in distribution systems because there has typically been little measurement done upon which to gain these "senses" and, therefore; "Multi-Parameter Monitoring in the Distribution System with Interpretive Algorithms" has the potential to become the artificial "sense" able to quickly be taught the quirks of the distribution system and have those quirks labeled by those with extensive experience so that less experienced employees have the benefit of that knowledge without having to wait 5, 10 or more years. A good phrase to describe this knowledge base would be "institutional intuition."

With the aging of the work force and rapid employee turnover "institutional intuition" has the chance of quickly dying out. Above and beyond the obvious security benefits, multi-parameter real time monitoring coupled with algorithms could be a way to circumvent this loss of knowledge and to build a knowledge base where none has previously existed. This in turn could allow improvements in system operation that may result in cost savings and definitely will result in a higher quality product being delivered to the consumer.

Conclusion:
The Chinese did not make their decision in a vacuum. The concept of using multi-parameter monitoring coupled with intelligent algorithms has proven in a number of studies and deployments in the US to be one of the best options for continuous and accurate screening for water quality anomalies that might characterize an intentional or accidental contamination of the water supply. Fortunately, no deviations were reported during the games. If there had been, the monitor would have not only notified security personnel immediately, it would have also instantly signaled automatic samplers to capture real-time water samples at designated monitoring locations. In the event of a real terrorist event, the systems classification algorithm would have offered an invaluable tool for facilitating a rapid and appropriate response.

The success of the summer Olympic games is a point of immense national pride for China, and deservedly so. Unprecedented security measures were taken to deal with potential threats — one measure being the development of a highly strategic early warning system to alert officials of intentional contamination in the water supply. By continuously monitoring drinking water at key locations at the games, the installed early warning system helped to provide a sense of confidence for security officials that water quality was being guarded effectively and insured that when future generations think back to the Beijing games in the context of water, the only thing that comes to mind will be the records set by Michael Phelps in the Water Cube. Due to the wise selection by the Ministry of Health of dual use instrumentation, the citizens of Beijing will be able to enjoy both the security and operational benefits of continual real time water quality monitoring in the distribution system for years to come.