Natural Resources

NCSL Report Examines Water Security Information Requirements

Updated August 27, 2004

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, almost every state has considered amendments to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to exempt security information related to drinking water systems from public disclosure under a FOIA request. The objective has been to prevent information that assesses the vulnerability of a public water supply's infrastructure and security from getting into the hands of terrorists. At least 36 states have enacted such legislation in the last two years, bringing to 46 the number of states that appear to afford such protections to water system security information. In an effort to determine which states have statutory authority to protect such information from public disclosure, the National Conference of State Legislatures conducted an extensive review of state FOIA statutes and contacted state drinking water agency staff in a select number of states where the statute was unclear to obtain clarification of the status of water system security information protection. The results of NCSL's study are published in a September 2003 report co-authored by Cathy Atkins and Larry Morandi entitled Protecting Water System Security Information and located below.

PDF Logo (printer-friendly versions)

To read portable document format (.pdf) files, you must install Adobe Acrobat Reader

Return to previous page Water Resources page

Visitor counts for this page.