Water utility's high cell bill attributed to cyber attack; Water pollution top enviro problem worrying Americans; Research to focus on relationships between water agencies, community; Okla. energy producer breaks ground on water recycling facility
The following is a transcript of the WaterWorld Weekly Newscast for April 3, 2017.
Hi, I'm Angela Godwin for WaterWorld magazine, bringing you water and wastewater news headlines for the week of April 4th. Coming up...
Water utility's high cell bill attributed to cyber attack
Water pollution tops list of environmental problems worrying Americans
New research project to focus on building relationships between clean water agencies and community
Okla. energy producer breaks ground on water recycling facility
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis released an Intelligence Note indicating that "unknown cyber actors" targeted a water and sewage authority in the United States between November 2016 and January 2017.
According to an FBI source, the cyber attack compromised four out of seven Sixnet devices connected to the authority’s industrial control system.
As a result, the devices experienced high traffic and data usage, causing the utility's cellular data bill to skyrocket -- from the average $300 per month to $45,000 and $53,000 in December and January, respectively.
According to Gallup's annual Environment poll, conducted March 1-5, 2017, 63% of Americans are worried "a great deal" about water pollution. That's the highest percentage since 2001.
For more than 25 years, it also continues to be the top concern on a list of six environmental problems that Gallup ranks.
According to the poll, water pollution ranked particularly high with non-whites, with 80% worried a great deal while only 56% of whites expressed that same level of concern.
Results of the Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,018 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
The Water Research Foundation (WRF) has announced a new project that will help clean water agencies explore how to leverage emotional motivators in public engagement programs to develop sustainable relationships with their customers.
Ultimately, the study aims to assess which emotional motivators and customer engagement practices are effective, and to identify leading practices in customer engagement.
The project will develop a report and toolkit that provide best practices, lessons learned, and evaluation metrics for utilities to use when developing messages and education and engagement programs.
Newfield Exploration Company announced it has broken ground on a water recycling facility located in its STACK play in the Anadarko Basin in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma.
The complex, named the Barton Water Recycle Facility, is expected to process approximately 30,000 barrels of water per day utilizing aerated biologic treatment technology to convert produced water into recycled water for hydraulic fracturing operations.
To date, Newfield has invested more than $40 million in water management infrastructure in its STACK play.
The new recycling facility is expected to be completed early in the third quarter of 2017.
For WaterWorld magazine, I'm Angela Godwin. Thanks for watching.
