Security Master Planning, Surprise AZ

GHD recently completed the development of a Security Master Plan for all water and wastewater facilities for the City of Surprise. The City of Surprise systems include 20 water supply wells, 5 water treatment, pumping and storage facilities, 2 wastewater reclamation plants, and wastewater collection and water distribution systems serving a population of 125,000 in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

The Security Master Plan included:

·         summary of water industry security guidance

·         site evaluation and identification of potential threats and vulnerabilities of each site

·         determination of risk level for each site

·         recommendation of a security improvement plan

·         development of security response procedures

·         recommended security standards and procedures for all future sites

The Security Plan identified multiple improvements to deny, deter, detect and respond to water and wastewater facility and system threats.  These improvements included administrative, physical and electronic barriers, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED principals, and access control and monitoring.   

The Security Master Plan was developed based on GHD’s risk assessment approach that identified potential security threats, determined site or facility vulnerability, identified likelihood and consequences of a successful security threat to determine risk levels for each site for each type of threat.   Potential security improvements were also evaluated using the risk assessment process to determine risk reduction benefits for comparison with improvement costs.  This unique approach enabled the City of Surprise to optimize their security improvement investment.