Hanover Wants Water Cameras

Hanover Town leaders are proposing the installation of video cameras and extra fencing at Hanovers wastewater reclamation center, based on a state Department of Safety assessment that the facility is vulnerable to tampering.

State officials have conducted audits of every critical facility in New Hampshire deemed as potentially high risk, including many wastewater plants, and are offering the town $12,500 to install cameras that the towns dispatch center could monitor, Town Manager Julia Griffin said. She hopes to fund the cost of the modifications using state and federal grants.

Griffin said the towns water systems carried some risk, however small without proper security, someone could conceivably fly over our three open reservoirs.

Asked what risk there was of an attack on Hanovers water supply, Griffin said, I wish I knew how likely any terrorist attack is ... but certainly open water systems like our three public reservoirs are particularly easy targets if someone opted to try to contaminate a local water supply. Mind you, water supply contamination could be initiated by anyone, whether a member of an organized terrorist group or a single individual with a desire to wreak havoc by contaminating an open reservoir.

Hanover already has cameras in its parking garage and in its water treatment plant, among other places.

After Department of Safety officials made a visit to the water reclamation facility, located off South Main Street near Pine Knoll Cemetery, they submitted a document to the town recommending the security additions. Hanover dispatch coordinator Doug Hackett declined to share a copy of the report.

Clearly this document is not a public document, or it would show everyone what our vulnerabilities are, Hackett, who is also chief of police in Cornish, wrote in an email earlier this month.

He cited a provision of the 2002 Critical Infrastructure Information Act, a federal law that allows infrastructure owners and operators to share proprietary information with the government without having to later disclose that information through records requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

Upper Valley water systems have proven themselves prone to disruption in the past.

In August 2013, Norwich residents were forced to cut back on their water use for several days after a fire damaged the pump system that filled the towns reservoir.

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Hanover Wants Water Cameras