Homeland
Security
Current Nationwide
Threat Level
ELEVATED
Daily Open Source Infrastructure
Report for 18 August 2009
Significant Risk of Terrorist Attacks
For information, click here:
http://www.dhs.gov
Top Stories

According to the Wall Street Journal, a series of minor earthquakes in North Texas may
have been caused by a wastewater disposal well connected to natural-gas production in the
area, Chesapeake Energy Corp. told State regulators on August 13. (See item 4)

Bloomberg reports that a Miami man and two computer hackers living “in or near Russia”
were charged on August 17 in New Jersey with stealing 130 million credit and debit card
numbers from Heartland Payment Systems Inc., 7-Eleven Inc., Delhaize Group’s
Hannaford Brothers Co., and two identified national retailers. (See item 16)
Fast Jump Menu
PRODUCTION INDUSTRIES
• Energy
• Chemical
• Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste
• Critical Manufacturing
• Defense Industrial Base
• Dams Sector
SUSTENANCE AND HEALTH
• Agriculture and Food
• Water Sector
• Public Health and Healthcare
SERVICE INDUSTRIES
• Banking and Finance
• Transportation
• Postal and Shipping
• Information and Technology
• Communications
• Commercial Facilities
FEDERAL AND STATE
• Government Facilities
• Emergency Services
• National Monuments and Icons
Energy Sector
Current Electricity Sector Threat Alert Levels: Physical: ELEVATED,
Cyber: ELEVATED
Scale: LOW, GUARDED, ELEVATED, HIGH, SEVERE [Source: ISAC for the Electricity Sector (ES-ISAC) [http://www.esisac.com]
1. August 17, KYW 3 Philadelphia – (Delaware) Freighter carrying 100,000 barrels of
oil ran aground near Delaware Memorial Bridge. A massive freighter was stranded
for hours after running aground near the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The 750 foot long
“Jill Jacob” became stuck while in the Delaware River at about 10 p.m. on August 16.
Despite reports it had been freed, the vessel appeared to remain stranded the scene at
-1-
about 10:30 a.m. on August 17. The ship was carrying approximately 100,000 barrels
of oil. No leaks or injuries have been reported. The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating.
Source: http://cbs3.com/topstories/tanker.oil.delaware.2.1131516.html
2. August 15, Virginian-Pilot and Associated Press – (Virginia) Half of diesel fuel
recovered after leak in Hampton marina. The U.S. Coast Guard says about half of
the diesel fuel that spilled into a Hampton harbor during floods on August 13 has been
recovered. About 100 gallons trickled beyond booms and is expected to dissipate into
the harbor during the weekend. The heavy rains on August 12 and 13 over-filled an
underground diesel fuel pipe at the Salt Ponds Marina and sent about 200 gallons into
the water. Hazardous materials teams from Hampton and Newport News worked with
the Coast Guard and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to contain
the leak from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Staff from the marina had suspected the underground pipe
had a leak and had called a company out to check. They opened the concrete to access
the tank, but the heavy rains seeped in and over-filled the pipe, which supplies two
10,000 gallon tanks, sending the fuel into the water on August 13. At 9 p.m. the two
cities’ hazardous materials teams cleared the marina, leaving the Coast Guard and
Virginia Department of Emergency Management to work with a private contractor that
would do the clean-up. Neither the marina nor nearby beaches were closed, and no
fishing advisories were issued. A private clean-up crew will continue to monitor the
site.
Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2009/08/half-diesel-fuel-recovered-after-leakhampton-marina
3. August 14, Associated Press – (International) Mexico nabs thieves who siphoned
millions of dollars of gas. Mexican police busted gas thieves twice this week, said a
spokesman at Mexico’s state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. In a
colonial village a few hours west of the capital, police caught nine people on August 13
who had siphoned more than 17,000 gallons of fuel from a pipeline into waiting tanker
trucks. On August 12, just one hour south of the California border near the popular
beaches of Rosarito, police plugged three different taps, including one that was
operating inside a small, wooden shack. But those busts will do little to plug a stream
of stolen petroleum products, millions of dollars worth of which is smuggled across the
border and sold to U.S. refineries, according to the U.S. Justice Department. While
Mexican authorities try to patch the leaks, U.S. officials are tracking proceeds from
various Texas bank accounts and taking a close look at several Texas companies to
quell the theft at their end. To date, the companies identified are small fuel distributors,
not the major U.S. refiners. Mexico’s federal police commissioner has said the Zetas, a
fierce drug gang aligned with the Gulf cartel, used false import documents to smuggle
at least $46 million worth of oil in tankers to unidentified U.S. refineries. Mexico froze
149 bank accounts this year in connection with that crime. A senior vice president at
Turner Mason & Co., a Dallas-based petroleum consultancy, said it’s unlikely any
major U.S. refiner knowingly bought stolen products.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,539601,00.html?test=latestnews
-2-
4. August 13, Wall Street Journal – (Texas) Wastewater disposal well may have caused
Texas earthquakes. A series of minor earthquakes in North Texas may have been
caused by a wastewater disposal well connected to natural-gas production in the area,
Chesapeake Energy Corp. told state regulators Thursday. Chesapeake said it had shut
down two disposal wells “as a precautionary measure.” The Dallas-Fort Worth area has
experienced more than a dozen small quakes since last October, though there have been
no reports of significant damage or injury. The area lies at the heart of the Barnett
Shale, a huge natural-gas field where thousands of wells have been drilled in recent
years. Many locals suspect a connection, especially because gas production in the area
involves injecting water into the ground at high pressure to crack open the gas-bearing
rock, a process known as “hydraulic fracturing.” Researchers from Southern Methodist
University in Dallas have deployed seismic sensors in the area to study the
phenomenon. On Thursday, the researchers said preliminary results suggest the quakes
do not appear to be connected to drilling or fracturing itself. But they said their research
does show a “possible correlation” between the quakes and a salt water disposal well
operated by Chesapeake on the southern end of Dallas-Fort Worth International
Airport.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125020088034530363.html
For more stories, see items 48 and 51
[Return to top]
Chemical Industry Sector
5. August 16, KVOA 4 Tucson – (Arizona) I-10, frontage road reopen after hazmat
situation. Part of westbound I-10 and the frontage road shut down between Orange
Grove and Ina reopened early August 16 after being closed for several hours. About
9:30 p.m. on August 15, firefighters say an 18-wheeler headed to California blew a tire
along the freeway. They say a highly flammable liquid was leaking from the truck. The
hazmat team later identified the substance as isopropanol. The truck carried 12thousand gallons of the chemical. Firefighters say a pressure relief device on a tank
holding the liquid failed, due to warm temperatures inside the truck. A private clean-up
company removed that tank and emptied the others. Firefighters say seven people —
including the truck driver — were evaluated at the scene for possible exposure.
Source: http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=10937301
6. August 14, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – (Kansas; Nebraska) Pipeline firms
to pay $3.65 million to settle claims related to 2004 ammonia spills in Nebraska
and Kansas. A pipeline company and two of its former operating firms will jointly pay
a civil penalty of $3.65 million to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act resulting
from anhydrous ammonia spills in Nebraska and Kansas, the Justice Department and
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on August 14. The spills which
occurred in 2004 resulted in significant fish kills in surrounding waterways. Magellan
Ammonia Pipeline, of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Enterprise Products Operating, of Houston,
Texas; and Mid-America Pipeline Company, also known as MAPCO, also of Houston,
-3-
agreed to the settlement in the form of a consent decree filed today in U.S. District
Court in Kansas City, Kansas. In a complaint filed jointly with the consent decree, the
United States alleges that Magellan, which owned the pipeline, along with operating
firms Enterprise and MAPCO, were responsible for two anhydrous ammonia spills in
2004. The first spill occurred on Sept. 27, 2004, near Blair, Nebraska, killing an
estimated 1,000 fish along North Creek and a golf course pond; and the second spill
occurred on Oct. 27, 2004, near Kingman, Kan., killing more than 20,000 fish along a
12.5-mile section of Smoots Creek. The United States further alleges that as operators
of the pipeline system, Enterprise and MAPCO violated the federal Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Liability and Compensation Act (CERCLA) by failing to
immediately notify the National Response Center about the spills. Under the terms of
the settlement, Magellan has agreed to spend an additional $550,000 on improvements
to prevent or minimize releases along selected segments of its pipeline system, and will
establish a program to minimize third-party damage to the system. Magellan presently
operates the ammonia pipeline, having terminated its operating agreement with
Enterprise and MAPCO in 2007.
Source:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/2119DA1A49E5AB41852576120078A4D
C
[Return to top]
Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste Sector
7. August 17, Reuters – (Illinois) Exelon Ill. LaSalle 2 reactor shut. Exelon Corp’s
1,120-megawatt Unit 2 at the LaSalle nuclear power station in Illinois shut from full
power by early Monday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.
Electricity traders said the unit tripped Saturday due to a turbine trip.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN1733640720
090817
8. August 14, Reuters – (California) PG&E says will replace bushings at Diablo
Canyon 2. Pacific Gas & Electric Co workers will replace bushings on a key
transformer at its Diablo Canyon Unit 2 in California, a PG&E spokeswoman said on
Friday. She would not say how long the 1,150-megawatt Unit 2 would be offline. Unit
2 shut down Thursday. A replacement bushing for the transformer is on site, and
workers since Thursday have been preparing to replace the bushing in case tests
showed that was needed. The shutdown has not greatly affected wholesale power prices
because this summer has been relatively mild, and ample generation reserves are on
hand, traders said. Also limiting demand is this year’s recession.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN1432049920
090814
[Return to top]
-4-
Critical Manufacturing Sector
9. August 16, Los Angeles Times – (Alaska) Alaska’s Kensington gold mine gets a
green light. The controversial Kensington gold mine in southeast Alaska has won an
important go-ahead from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which approved an
amended permit that will allow the mine to dump millions of tons of waste into a
nearby lake. The project has been the subject of a national environmental fight over
whether navigable lakes and rivers can be used as repositories for toxic mine tailings.
The corps last week announced it was extending Coeur Alaska’s permit until 2014 and
reiterated that the company could construct a tailings storage facility in Lower Slate
Lake, below the mine. The U.S. Supreme Court this year upheld the project, but the
federal Environmental Protection Agency in July urged the Corps of Engineers to take
a second look at the lake disposal plan. The EPA and several conservation
organizations have advocated that mine operators think about turning the waste
material into a paste and depositing it on land on the other side of the mine. Opponents
of the lake disposal option at the mine about 45 miles north of Juneau said they had not
seen the corps’ full decision, and it was not clear whether the agency had ruled out
alternative disposal options. And, they said, the EPA still could step in and veto the
permit — although that would be a rare exercise of its authority. Most conservation
groups don’t oppose the mine itself, which would be an important new economic
engine for southeast Alaska.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-alaska-mine162009aug16,0,7610363.story
10. August 16, Reuters – (International) Gunmen attack bus near Freeport’s Indonesian
mine. Gunmen fired at a bus on a road leading to Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold
Inc’s mine in Indonesia’s Papua province, wounding five people, police said on August
16. The Grasberg mine, about 3,400 km (2,100 miles) east of Indonesia’s capital of
Jakarta, has the world’s largest recoverable reserves of copper and the largest gold
reserves. It is the second time since August 12 that a Freeport bus has been fired upon
and follows a series of shootings last month, in which an Australian technical expert
and a Freeport security guard were killed and several others injured. Two men were hit
by shrapnel and three were injured by glass that shattered when the bus carrying
Freeport employees was shot at on August 16, said a national police spokesman. The
vehicle was part of a 16-bus convoy guarded by 20 security officials, he said. Last
month, police arrested eight suspects, two of whom were working for Freeport, over a
spate of shootings near the Grasberg mine. The mine has been a source of friction over
its environmental impact, the share of revenues going to Papua and payments to
Indonesian security forces who help guard the site.
Source:
http://in.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idINLG222781200908
16
11. August 14, Reliable Plant – (Iowa) Blackhawk Foundry agrees to clean up Iowa
facility. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 and Blackhawk
Foundry and Machine, of Davenport, Iowa, have reached an agreement that requires the
-5-
company to address the presence of lead contaminated soils at its facility at 323 South
Clark Street in Davenport. The specific requirements are outlined in an Administrative
Order filed today in Kansas City, Kansas. The agreement requires Blackhawk to
excavate and properly dispose of lead contaminated soil. Blackhawk will then construct
a gravel cap over the excavated area. The cap will ensure that remaining soil does not
run off during rainfall and flood events and that any contaminated dust does not fly
away during dry and windy conditions. EPA also requires Blackhawk to prevent future
land uses of the facility that would cause unacceptable exposure to contaminated soil.
There should be no residential use of the property without cleanup to EPA-approved
residential standards (400 parts per million). In any subsequently issued property deeds,
Blackhawk must also identify the location of surface impoundments and prevent
installation of water supply wells. EPA will monitor the effectiveness and
protectiveness of the excavation and the institutional controls.
Source:
http://www.reliableplant.com/article.aspx?articleid=19449&pagetitle=Blackhawk+Fou
ndry+agrees+to+clean+up+Iowa+facility
[Return to top]
Defense Industrial Base Sector
12. August 14, Global Security Newswire – (California) Airborne laser passes another
test. A U.S. aircraft prototype for the third time in less than three months successfully
engaged a mock enemy missile, the Missile Defense Agency announced August 13.
The Airborne Laser, a converted 747-400F jumbo jet designed to use advanced
technology to track and destroy ballistic missiles in the boost phase of flight, on August
10 acquired the target near the California coast and initiated the sequence to destroy the
weapon with three on-board lasers. Although the Airborne Laser underwent similar
trials in June, this was the first time data was collected using sensors on the practice
target. The aircraft is scheduled to continue engagement testing over the next few
months, leading to an exercise that calls for destruction of a target simulating the boostphase flight of a ballistic missile.
Source: http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20090814_9355.php
13. August 14, Nextgov – (National) Firm awaits decision on whether Defense will
disclose contractor ratings. The Presidential Administration upheld the previous
Administration’s practice of denying taxpayers access to a Defense Department
database that tracks contractor performance. An appeal to a recent Freedom of
Information Act request is pending, but industry groups say they are confident Defense
will respect their position to continue to bar public access to the ratings. Since 2007, the
FOIA Group Inc., which consults with major companies, law firms and nonprofits, has
unsuccessfully challenged Defense to disclose the aggregate scores each contractor
receives from federal agency from program managers, contracting officer’s
representatives, engineers and other agency officials who work with the companies.
The ratings are based on, among other things, the quality of the product or service,
timeliness, cost control and business relations. The ratings are stored in a database
-6-
called the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System. The database serves
as a kind of Consumer Reports for agency contracting officials who are evaluating
competitive bids for government work. Contracting officers and other federal managers
use the system to help make contract award decisions, and to improve governmentcontractor relations. Only federal officials can enter the password-protected database.
Contractors are able to see their data to ensure accuracy and provide feedback to the
government. “Just like a report card for your kid in school, as a taxpayer, you should be
able to know how poorly or how well these contractors,” which often receive contract
awards that exceed several hundred million dollars, are working, said the founder of
FOIA Group and a former staffer for the Army Command Counsel who served on
Defense’s FOIA task force. “If a contractor is doing poorly the public has a right to
know, the contracting community has the right to know.”
Source: http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090814_2834.php?oref=topstory
[Return to top]
Banking and Finance Sector
14. August 17, Bloomberg – (National) BB and T says Colonial loan losses may reach $5
billion. BB&T Corp., the North Carolina lender that took over Colonial BancGroup
Inc. recently, expects $5 billion in credit losses from the transaction with the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. assuming most of the charges, the company said in an investor
presentation today. A loss-sharing agreement covering about $15 billion of assets calls
for the FDIC to reimburse BB&T for 80 percent of losses of up to $5 billion, and for 95
percent over that amount, BB&T said on August 17. The bank plans to sell $750
million of stock to bolster capital. BB&T will have “no negative earnings impact until
losses exceed $5 billion,” the Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based bank said in the
report posted on its Web site. “If the entire covered portfolio were charged off,
BB&T’s maximum exposure would be less than $500 million (pretax),” the lender said.
Colonial, the Alabama lender facing a criminal probe, had its banking operations closed
by regulators and taken over by BB&T August 14 in the largest U.S. failure since
Washington Mutual Inc. collapsed in September. Branches and deposits of Colonial
Bank were turned over to BB&T.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a.Wzr900p6Ak
15. August 17, Pacific Coast Business Times – (California) FDIC deadline looms for
Affinity Bank. August 20 could be a big day for Ventura-based commercial real estate
lender Affinity Bank. That is the day the bank will have to show state and federal
regulators that it has either raised a lot of money, shed a lot of troubled loans or come
up with some other way to boost its ratio of freed-up money to total loans. It is the first
deadline set out in a cease and desist order the bank received in April from the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. and the California Department of Financial Institutions
demanding that Affinity Bank increase its capital ratios. The bank – which has nearly
70 percent of its loans tied up in commercial real estate and has not seen a profit since
2007 – needs to raise about $45 million, cut its loan portfolio by more than $500
million or find some combination to get to the ratio federal state regulators are looking
-7-
for.
Source:
http://pacbiztimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1037&Itemid=
1
16. August 17, Bloomberg – (National) U.S. indicts three in theft of 130 million
accounts. A Miami man and two unidentified computer hackers were charged with
stealing 130 million credit and debit card numbers in what the Justice Department said
was the largest such prosecution in U.S. history. The Miami man and two hackers
living “in or near Russia” were indicted on August 17 by a federal grand jury in
Newark, New Jersey, for the theft of data from Heartland Payment Systems Inc., 7Eleven Inc., Delhaize Group’s Hannaford Brothers Co., and two identified national
retailers. The hackers stole 130 million card numbers from Heartland, a bank-card
payment processor, starting in December 2007, by using malicious computer software,
according to the 14-page indictment. An undetermined number of card numbers were
stolen from 7-Eleven and 4.2 million from Hannaford, a regional supermarket chain,
according to the indictment. “This investigation marks the continued success of law
enforcement in tracking down cutting edge hacking schemes committed by hackers
working together across the globe,” an acting U.S. attorney said in a statement. The
case is U.S. v. Gonzalez, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZgn6q0t1XQI
17. August 15, Agence France-Presse – (National) Five more U.S. bank closures brings
total to 77. US regulators have shut down five more regional banks, bringing the total
number of US bank failures to 77 this year, the US government announced. The
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said Colonial Bank of Montgomery
became the largest US bank to fail this year after it was declared bankrupt and had the
bulk of its assets taken over by rival BB&T. All of Alabama-based Colonial’s 346
branches will reopen on August 15 “and operate as branches of BB&T,” the FDIC said.
The list of closed banks also included the Community Bank of Nevada in Las Vegas
that was closed by order of the Nevada Financial Institutions Division, which appointed
the FDIC as receiver. As of the end of June, the bank had total assets of 1.52 billion
dollars and total deposits of about 1.38 billion. Also shut down was the Community
Bank of Arizona in Phoenix, which will be taken over by MidFirst Bank from
Oklahoma City. The bank had total assets of 158.5 million dollars, most of which will
be purchased by MidFirst Bank, the FDIC said. The Oklahoman bank will also assume
all of the deposits of Union Bank of Gilbert, another Arizona institution shut down by
regulators. The closed financial institutions also include the Dwelling House Savings
and Loan Association of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Source:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gfBxbjghNylq15QkGCOPoJd
q5Z8A
18. August 14, KDVR 31 Denver – (Colorado) FBI launches $80 million credit card
fraud investigation. A major FBI investigation is underway in Colorado, involving
bank and credit card fraud. This investigation could involve as much as $80 million in
-8-
fraudulent transactions. Four people were arrested on August 14 and many more arrests
are expected as this investigation continues. Two of those people arrested two women
with Russian backgrounds appeared in federal court here this afternoon. And while the
Feds are being tight-lipped about their investigation it is apparently a very large scale
organized operation. Federal agents with police raided an Aurora car dealership and at
least a dozen other locations across the metro area looking for evidence connected to a
much larger bank fraud investigation. The owner of Maaliki Motors says agents told
him he is “not” one of the targets of criminal investigation, that they wanted his sales
records for evidence. “A bunch of people bought some cars on credit cards,” said the
owner, “And that’s really their credit card fraud I think, we had all the documentation
in the deal jackets so they can make copies and basically let us know what’s gonna
come of it.” Federal indictments against the two women who appear in court Friday
afternoon say each was part of an organized effort to defraud banking institutions out of
large sums of money, assets and property using a variety of schemes.
Source: http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-credit-fraud-invest-081409,0,3844775.story
[Return to top]
Transportation Sector
19. August 16, Associated Press – (Maine) Derailed train closes Route 2. Traffic is
flowing again today on Route 2 in northern New Hampshire after a freight train
derailment closed the highway on August 15. The accident happened just over the
border in Gilead, Maine. Officials say the train derailed shortly before 2 p.m. —
sending 20 cars off the tracks. No one was injured, but route two was closed and nearby
residents were evacuated. The train was transporting paper products and was operated
by the Genesee & Wyoming company. Route 2 reopened early morning of August 16.
Source: http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=10939018
20. August 15, Associated Press – (Connecticut) Conn. woman charged with terrorism
for false claim. A Southbury woman has been charged with terrorism after authorities
say she told a telephone operator that an airplane was going to blow up on August 13 at
Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford. She told state superior court judge on August
14 that she made the claim because she wanted to get into an alcohol rehabilitation
program. Stratford police and the FBI, and police were able to trace the call to her
home in Southbury. The 40-year-old was charged with an act of terrorism, making a
false police report and threatening. Her lawyer said his client had previously appeared
at a rehabilitation clinic intoxicated. The judge ordered Mercaldi held in lieu of $25,000
bond.
Source:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20090815conn_woman_ch
arged_with_terrorism_for_false_claim/srvc=home&position=recent
21. August 11, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association – (California) Proposed power
plant could cause turbulence at French Valley. Exhaust plumes from a proposed
power plant 1,685 feet east of Runway 18/38 at French Valley Airport (F70) in
-9-
Riverside County, California could create turbulence in the traffic pattern and introduce
a hazard to aircraft, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) told the county on
August 10. French Valley Energy Partners proposed the 49 megawatt power plant,
which, according to its own analysis, would create light turbulence on the downwind
leg of the traffic pattern for Runway 18. While the FAA determined that the height of
the associated exhaust stack does not create a hazard to navigable airspace, the agency
is not required to evaluate the effects of exhaust plumes on navigable airspace. AOPA
also provided a copy of its letter to the Riverside County Airport Land Use
Commission (ALUC) for an August 13 meeting in which the commission will hear a
report regarding the French Valley plant. The ALUC staff report in July 2008 had
recommended that the commission draft a letter requesting that a forthcoming
Environmental Impact Report address the issues of turbulence and wind shear; the
commission ultimately issued a finding that the project was consistent with the 2007
French Valley Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan. AOPA is also working with the
FAA’s Obstruction Evaluation Service to have plume effects included in obstruction
evaluations.
Source: http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/region/2009/090811french.html
For more stories, see items 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6
[Return to top]
Postal and Shipping Sector
22. August 14, Santa Barbara Daily Sound – (California) White powder proves
harmless. A suspicious powder in a thick bundle of paper has been deemed harmless
by hazardous materials teams after authorities shut down Santa Barbara, California,
County’s social services building and quarantined two employees who were exposed to
the substance August 14. Fire and law enforcement officials responded to the scene.
Fire crews evacuated the building and isolated the two employees. The powder had
been spilled outside the building near the drop box as well as inside the building,
somewhat complicating the efforts of hazmat workers. A lieutenant with the Santa
Barbara County Sheriff’s Department said FBI agents had joined the investigation.
Depending on the contents of the note, which the official described as lengthy,
authorities may consider the incident a terrorist threat, he said.
Source: http://www.thedailysound.com/News/081409hazmat
[Return to top]
Agriculture and Food Sector
23. August 17, Reliable Plant Magazine – (Georgia) Georgia poultry processor faces
$380K in OSHA fines. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) is proposing $379,800 in penalties against Mar-Jac
Poultry Inc. for safety and health violations at its Gainesville, Georgia facility. The
company is being cited with four willful violations with a proposed penalty of
- 10 -
$252,000 for failing to update its hazard analysis in five year intervals as required, to
establish specific procedures to maintain the integrity of process equipment and to
institute equipment and procedural changes for the ammonia refrigeration system in
2004, 2005, and 2008. The employer also has failed to perform the required compliance
audits for 2000, 2003, and 2007. OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed
with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health. The
plant is being cited with 37 serious safety and health violations for $127,800 in
proposed penalties.
Source: http://www.reliableplant.com/Article.aspx?articleid=19447
24. August 16, WOWT 6 Omaha – (Nebraska) Nebraska beef plant catches fire. Omaha
Fire Department investigators still do not yet know if a fire at the Nebraska Beef Plant
was sparked by lightning early Sunday morning. A storm rolled through Omaha just as
the fire broke out at the plant near 36th and L streets around 3:30 a.m. There was a lot
of lightning in the area. No one was hurt. Firefighters arrived to find smoke and flames
coming from a window on the third floor in the back of the building. The blaze was
contained to a storage area and caused $60,000 in damage.
Source: http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/53347162.html
25. August 14, Associated Press – (Oklahoma; Arkansas) Judge in Oklahoma: Poultry
litter is solid waste. A federal judge ruled Friday that poultry litter could be classified
as a solid waste under federal environmental laws when applied in excessive amounts
on farmland. The decision was a partial victory for the state of Oklahoma in its
environmental lawsuit against 12 Arkansas poultry companies. The case has drawn
national attention because it could lead to similar lawsuits across the country
challenging how the industry does business. A trial is set for September 21. On
Thursday, attorneys for the poultry companies argued the litter should not be labeled
solid waste because it has a beneficial use as a fertilizer and a market value. The state
argued that litter was “patently” solid waste. The 1 million-acre watershed spans parts
of Oklahoma and Arkansas and has 1,800 poultry houses, which produce an estimated
345,000 tons of chicken waste each year.
Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/32419806
For another story, see item 6
[Return to top]
Water Sector
26. August 16, Chandler East Valley Tribune – (Arizona) Chandler uses emergency
funding to repair sewer leak. The Chandler City Council declared an emergency last
week after the Public Works Department was caught without the necessary equipment
to handle a major sewer line break that collapsed a large segment of McQueen Road
August 3. The council made an emergency allocation Thursday of up to $1 million to
bring in private contractor McCarthy Building Companies, according to a city
spokesman. The McCarthy construction firm already was working on a nearby $71
- 11 -
million project to expand capacity at the city’s Airport Water Reclamation Plant, a
wastewater treatment facility at McQueen and Queen Creek roads, from from 10
million gallons of sewage per day to 15 million. Had McCarthy not been there, the city
would have faced delays in investigating the leak and getting it and the roadway fixed,
he said. Because of the leak’s location, it represented a potential threat to Chandler’s
ability to treat wastewater and a public safety issue, according to a report from the
municipal services director and the assistant public works director. City officials were
alerted to the sewer line break early this month after an unrelated power outage at the
adjacent treatment plant, according to the report. After the break was found, city
officials rerouted the flow of sewage, he said. Customers were not affected, officials
have said.
Source: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/143088
27. August 15, Spokane Spokesman-Review – (Washington) Phosphorous ban appears to
be working. A year after Spokane County became the only place in the country to ban
dish detergents made up of more than 0.5 percent phosphorus, data shows that water
coming into Spokane’s sewage plant had 10.7 percent less phosphorus than the annual
average the previous three years. That amounts to 181 pounds of phosphorus each day
and is better than expected. What flows into the river from the plant likely is not
affected much by the new law because treatment pulls out much of the phosphorus, said
the plant operations superintendent. The biggest impact is for homes on septic or drain
field systems, in which water — and phosphorus — filter back into the groundwater.
“Any phosphorus reduction you can see there is going to have benefit to the river,” he
said. Phosphorus is not dangerous to humans, but in rivers and lakes, it spurs algae
growth that can pull oxygen from the water, killing fish. The problem has been intense
in Long Lake, where treated waste water along the Spokane River ultimately flows. On
average, Spokane discharges 38 million gallons of treated water daily. By 2014, an
addition to the plant, expected to cost about $130 million, will cut phosphorus
emissions by 10 times or more, according to the city.
Source: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/aug/15/phosphorous-ban-appears-beworking/
[Return to top]
Public Health and Healthcare Sector
28. August 17, Baltimore Sun – (National) Rocket scientist or the next Unabomber. A 22
year old man, who had built 21 pipe bombs by the time he was 13, when he detonated
one in his mother’s Temple Hills apartment, was expected to appear in court August
17th to answer charges that he possessed another working pipe bomb while standing
near the University of Maryland BioPark facility in Poppleton last summer. The man
had expressed a desire to bomb the Los Angeles federal complex in his personal journal
and has claimed social connections to the Bloods gang. He has spent time in at least
three detention facilities and has been arrested while carrying a “creditable WMD”
recipe, according to the FBI.
- 12 -
Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/balmd.bomb17aug17,0,4109530.story
29. August 15, Associated Press – (New York) NYC health officials drill for bioterror
attack. The New York City Department of Health conducted a drill Saturday to assess
the city’s ability to quickly distribute medications to large numbers of New Yorkers. A
school on the Lower East Side was used for the exercise. During a major public health
emergency or outbreak of disease, sites like schools would be used as hubs for
distributing antibiotics or vaccines. Saturday’s scenario depicted a widespread airborne
anthrax release across the city.
Source: http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=10935659
30. August 15, ABC News – (Washington) Emergency room patient pulls gun, killed. A
police officer shot and killed an emergency room patient early today in Olympia,
Washington, after the man allegedly pulled out a gun as hospital staff were preparing
him for tests on a head injury and he refused to give up the weapon, police said. Police
had already taken two other weapons from the man, who was brought to the Providence
St. Peter Hospital by a family member sometime before 2 a.m., an Olympia Police
Department official said. Hospital staff immediately began treating the wounded man
for the gunshot wound, but they were unable to save him and he died there in the
treatment room.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=8337018&page=1
For another story, see item 39
[Return to top]
Government Facilities Sector
31. August 17, Greeley Tribune – (Colorado) Weld bomb squad detonates canisters
found near school. Five canisters were found and detonated Thursday about a halfmile from Mead High School in Weld County, Colorado. The canisters were found on
August 13 by construction workers grading dirt on Weld County Road 7. Members of
the Weld County Bomb Squad then responded and detonated the devices, according to
a spokeswoman for the Weld County Sheriff’s Office. School was not in session at the
time, the spokeswoman said. Two of the canisters, which were about the size of soup
cans, were believed to be smoke bombs. The other three, which had fuses and were
about the size of road flares, were likely used as training devices for lighting a fuse.
Source:
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090817/NEWS/908169981/1002/NONE&par
entprofile=1001
32. August 16, Lamar County Sheriff’s Office – (Georgia) Sheriff’s news release on
Gordon bomb threat. After a bomb threat to Gordon College was received on August
16, Gordon College Campus Police and Plant Operations, the Barnesville/ Lamar
County Fire Department, units from the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office, Barnesville
- 13 -
Police, a Grifin Police Department canine unit, the Georgia State Patrol, and Lamar
County Emergency Management searched over 1,000 student rooms, classroom
buildings, administrative buildings, and the athletic buildings. The bomb squad and the
Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) were also alerted. Students were
allowed to return to their rooms with instructions to remain vigilant toward unusual
circumstances about an hour and a half after the threat as made. Because of the
cooperation of over 50 emergency response personnel, working as a team, every room
on campus was searched in less than three hours of the receipt of the 911 call.
Source: http://www.barnesville.com/archives/1126-Sheriffs-news-release-on-Gordonbomb-threat.html
33. August 14, South Florida Sun-Sentinel – (Florida) Vero Beach student made bomb
threats to skip classes, prosecutors say. One of two students charged with making
bomb threats to Vero Beach High School in Vero Beach, Florida, this spring said it all
started because he wanted to skip classes, according to court documents filed by the
prosecution. Hundreds of students were repeatedly evacuated between March 3 and
April 30 by six anonymous false bomb threats made by phone. The suspect is charged
as an adult because he is accused of being the key person in the case. An 18-year-old
woman is charged with being involved with one of the false bomb threats. She is being
tried as a juvenile because she was under 18 at the time the alleged crime was
committed.
Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/sfl-vero-beach-bomb-threatsbn081409,0,6395136.story
34. August 14, Associated Press – (District of Columbia) Abu Ghraib lecture canceled
after threats. Organizers canceled a lecture at the Library of Congress by the woman
who became a symbol of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal after threats caused
concerns about staff safety. The former Army reservist had been scheduled to discuss
her biography Friday as part of a veterans forum on Capitol Hill. In a notice to
members, the president of the Library of Congress Professional Association said the
event was canceled due to staff safety concerns. A Vietnam War veteran and German
acquisitions specialist at the library who organized the event said he had been receiving
threats.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32417570/ns/us_news-military/
35. August 14, KTVB 7 Boise – (Idaho) Idaho may sue feds over Yucca Mountain
decision. It appears Idaho may be headed for another lawsuit over its stockpile of
highly radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory. The nation’s nuclear waste
repository in Nevada is supposed to open next year, but the President predicts the $13.5
billion facility is dead. With the help of Senate Democrats he is cutting off the money
supply to make sure the storage facility is not revived. Idaho has a long standing
contract with the Department of Energy to remove and then store nuclear waste at
Yucca Mountain. An Idaho Senator said this week that it is a political move and he can
not get an answer from the the Presidential administration about its alternate plan, so he
is making a prediction of his own - a lawsuit against the federal government.
- 14 -
Source: http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-aug1409yucca_mountain.de7fd9b1.html
36. August 13, Associated Press – (Louisiana) Thibodaux student booked in making
threats. Lafourche Parish, Louisiana’s sheriff says a student at Thibodaux High School
was taken into custody for making threats at the school. The sheriff said the school’s
resource officer acted after the boy became orally abusive with the school’s
administration and threatened to blow up the school. The teen was booked with
communicating false information of a planned bombing on school property, interfering
with the educational process, and disturbing the peace. Investigators said there is no
reason to believe he had any tools to carry out or any intention to actually carry out the
threats.
Source: http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national46/1250169061263220.xml&storylist=louisiana
For more stories, see items 22 and 28
[Return to top]
Emergency Services Sector
37. August 16, Austin American-Statesman – (Texas) Police, sheriffs establishing
regional intelligence center. Beginning next year, law enforcement agencies in
Central Texas plan to start sharing information at a federally funded, multimilliondollar intelligence center — one of dozens of such “fusion centers” across the nation.
As part of the information exchange, the Austin Regional Intelligence Center will give
investigators broader access to confidential information about suspects or criminal
organizations. For instance, officers now can troll national and state databases to see
whether a suspect has been convicted of crimes or has outstanding warrants. The center
will also allow investigators to access reports from neighboring departments that show
any involvement suspects may have had with police there, including investigations into
crimes they may not have been charged with. Investigators at the center also will be
able to access certain databases created by other agencies, such as those documenting
suspected gang members and drug traffickers. Officials currently do not have
immediate access to such information from neighboring agencies but can seek it as part
of an investigation, a process that detectives said can take days and stall their work.
Too often, they said, they may not know when to turn to neighboring towns or counties
to further their investigations.
Source:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/08/16/0816fusion.htm
l
38. August 15, WLS 7 Chicago – (Illinois) Fire truck and vehicle collide, 7
injured. Seven people, including five firefighters, were hurt Saturday when a Chicago
fire truck and another vehicle collided on the South Side. The fire truck was responding
to a fire call when the accident happened. The two vehicles ended up crashing into a
- 15 -
traffic light pole and knocking it over. The firefighters were all hospitalized in stable
condition Saturday night. One of the civilians was in serious condition and the other in
critical condition. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6967306
39. August 13, Lewiston Sun journal – (Maine) National Guard drill at high school to
prepare for possible H1N1 riot. Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris,
Maine, was the site of a National Guard riot control drill on the morning of August 13
morning to prepare in the event of a panic over distribution of serum to treat the swine
flu. The school has been designated by state officials as a distribution site for the H1N1
flu vaccine. The drill is to prepare for a worst-case scenario should the serum have to
be transported from Augusta and people rush to get it. On Thursday morning, National
Guard humvees traveled from Augusta to Paris with vials of fake serum. The National
Guardsmen enacted the roles of panicked citizens and military police and practice what
they would do, such as using tear gas, in the case of a riot.
Source: http://www.sunjournal.com/node/105339/
[Return to top]
Information Technology Sector
40. August 17, Wall Street Journal – (International) Hackers stole IDs for
attacks. Russian hackers hijacked American identities and U.S. software tools and used
them in an attack on Georgian government Web sites during the war between Russia
and Georgia in 2008, according to new research to be released on August 17 by a
nonprofit U.S. group. In addition to refashioning common Microsoft Corp. software
into a cyber-weapon, hackers collaborated on popular U.S.-based social-networking
sites, including Twitter and Facebook Inc., to coordinate attacks on Georgian sites, the
U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit found. While the cyberattacks on Georgia were
examined shortly after the events in 2008, these U.S. connections were not previously
known. The research shows how cyber-warfare has outpaced military and international
agreements, which don’t take into account the possibility of American resources and
civilian technology being turned into weapons. Identity theft, social networking, and
modifying commercial software are all common means of attack, but combining them
elevates the attack method to a new level, said a former cybersecurity chief at the
Department of Homeland Security. “Each one of these things by itself is not all that
new, but this combines them in ways we just haven’t seen before,” said the former
cybersecurity chief, now CEO of computer-security company NetWitness Corp. The
cyberattacks in August 2008 significantly disrupted Georgia’s communications
capabilities, disabling 20 Web sites for more than a week. Among the sites taken down
were those of the Georgian president and defense minister, as well as the National Bank
of Georgia and major news outlets. Taking out communications systems at the onset of
an attack is standard military practice, said the chief technical officer at the USCCU
and a former cyber-sleuth at the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence
Agency.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125046431841935299.html
- 16 -
41. August 14, Dark Reading – (National) New virus appears as response to Craigslist
ad. Email security experts at Red Condor are warning email users about a new virus
currently undetected by most virus scanners. The virus is embedded in an email that
appears to be a response to a craigslist advertisement. The email containing the virus,
which was detected August 12, 2009 by Red Condor’s Zero Minute Defense Network,
includes the subject line, “Re: Car For Sale on craigslist.” The email content suggests
that the user requested pictures for a car being sold on craigslist and invites the
recipient to view the images in a Picasa album. Clicking on the link to the album
installs a virus. “Only 13 out of 41 virus scanners detected the file as a virus when Red
Condor first identified it,” stated the chief executive officer of Red Condor. “This
means that if the message was delivered and a user clicked on the link, they’d likely be
infected even if they had an anti-virus program running on their desktop computer.
With increasingly more ways to get malicious content onto computers and corporate
networks, it is important that companies’ security solutions are capable of responding
quickly and appropriately to eliminate potential threats. Traditional signature-based
virus engines are simply not enough protection against today’s spammers and
cybercriminals. After all, it only takes one click.”
Source:
http://www.darkreading.com/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=2194
00086&subSection=Vulnerabilities+and+threats
42. August 14, SCMagazine – (International) Microsoft leads browsers in malware,
phishing defense. It appears that the comprehensive security features built into Internet
Explorer 8 (IE 8) are paying off for Microsoft. The browser, released in March with a
number of enhanced phishing and anti-malware components, blocked an average of 81
percent of socially engineered malware and stopped 83 percent of suspected phishing
sites — topping four other major browsers, according to new tests conducted by NSS
Labs. NSS based its findings on two weeks of analyzing 593 phishing sites and 608
unique URLS that contained malicious software, the company’s president told
SCMagazineUS.com on August 13. “Everyone thinks Microsoft stinks at security,” he
said. “They need to get some credit for some of the good stuff they’ve done. Microsoft
has been a big target for attacks for a long time, and that’s actually a benefit to them.
They’ve learned how they can turn that around and protect themselves better.” In
catching and stopping socially engineered malware, a significant drop-off occurred
after the Microsoft browser. Firefox 3 was next in line, blocking 27 percent. Apple’s
Safari 4 thwarted 21 percent, followed by Google Chrome (seven percent) and Opera
10 (one percent). The browsers, as a group, performed relatively better in offering
phishing protection. Firefox deterred 80 percent of suspected fraud sites, Opera caught
54 percent, followed by Chrome (26 percent) and Safari (two percent).
Source: http://www.scmagazineus.com/Microsoft-leads-browsers-in-malware-phishingdefense/article/146505/
43. August 14, The Register – (International) Hacktivist vuln still plagues UN.org. The
official website of the United Nations has yet to fix a vulnerability that more than two
years ago allowed hacktivists to replace official content with their own activist
messages. According to the Errata Security CEO, the same SQL injection flaw that
- 17 -
plagued the site in August of 2007 remains unfixed now. It is invoked by doing nothing
more than adding a stray character to the ASP parameter of a un.org link, such as
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/statments_full.asp?statID=10’5.
“Despite the fact a high-school intern can fix the bug in 5 minutes, the bureaucracy
means that the organization must spend tens of thousands of dollars to fix the bug,” the
CEO wrote. “The other lesson is that the cost of NOT fixing the bug is low. The UN
can simply live with the problem, and clean up after every hack.” As The Register
reported in 2007, hacktivists used the bug on the UN’s Apache-powered website to
replace speeches by the Secretary-General with pacifist messages. While that attack
appeared to be the work of activist critics of the global organization, it is not a stretch
to imagine criminals hacking the site to surreptitiously send visitors to sites that push
malicious drive-by exploits.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/14/united_nations_website_vulnerable/
Internet Alert Dashboard
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US-CERT at sos@us-cert.gov or
visit their Website: http://www.us-cert.gov.
Information on IT information sharing and analysis can be found at the IT ISAC (Information Sharing and
Analysis Center) Website: https://www.it-isac.org/.
[Return to top]
Communications Sector
44. August 15, Helena Independent Record – (National) Computer problems behind
Bresnan outage. Internet and telephone customers of Bresnan Communications found
themselves without service for up to several hours on August 13 and 14. A company
spokesman said computer problems in Colorado were to blame. “The outage was
caused by corruption of routing tables on a particular type of server,” the spokesman
said, who also noted that the company’s television service was never interrupted. “That
corruption spread throughout the network, and as one router was fixed, the corruption
spread to another router.” The spokesman said engineers worked throughout the night
to incrementally restore service to the company’s customers in Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado and Utah. By midday August 14, he said, service was nearly completely
restored. “We’re a communications company and we really understand the impact this
has had on our customers,” he said. “And we apologize to the customers who were
affected.”
Source: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2009/08/15/local/80lo_090815_bresnan.txt
[Return to top]
Commercial Facilities Sector
- 18 -
45. August 17, Associated Press – (Florida) Nation Digest: Tropical Storm Claudette
threatens Florida coast. Brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Claudette
brought heavy rain to the Florida Panhandle on Sunday. Claudette had winds of at least
50 mph but was not expected to cause significant flooding or wind damage. Lurking
more ominously in the Atlantic was Tropical Storm Bill, which was quickly turning
into a powerful storm over the open Atlantic with sustained winds of 65 mph. Ana, a
tropical storm that had also been churning in the Atlantic, weakened to a depression.
Heavy rain began in the afternoon in Pensacola, Florida as Claudette approached. On
Pensacola Beach, the National Park Service closed low-lying roads that connect the
restaurants and hotels to the undeveloped National Seashore.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/08/16/AR2009081602247.html
46. August 15, WBBM 780 Chicago – (Illinois) Aurora casino evacuated after suspicious
package found. An Aurora, Illinois casino was evacuated Saturday morning after a
suspicious package was found attached to an employee’s vehicle. Emergency personnel
responded about 11:50 a.m. to the Hollywood Casino after a casino employee found a
device attached to his personal vehicle after he finished work Friday night. The
employee went home with the device Friday night and turned it in to casino security
when he returned to work Saturday morning, the release said. The casino was
evacuated and New York Street was closed between Illinois Route 25 and River Street
for about an hour, according to the release. The Kane County Bomb Squad determined
the device was not incendiary and did not pose a threat, the release said. Nobody was
injured. Aurora police are investigating.
Source: http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/5013337.php
[Return to top]
National Monuments and Icons Sector
47. August 15, Associated Press – (California) Pot growers responsible for Los Padres
forest fire, authorities say. Investigators have determined that a week-old wildfire
burning in the Los Padres National Forest was started by a cooking fire set by
marijuana growers. Santa Barbara County sheriff’s officials said in a news release
today that its narcotics unit and U.S. Forest Service special agents found that the camp
where the blaze started was part of a drug organization run by Mexican nationals, who
were growing pot plants at the site. In the weeks before the fire, the sheriff’s narcotics
unit had been working to shut down cultivation sites in the area. Investigators believed
the suspects were still in the forest and trying to escape on foot. The fire has charred
131 square miles and forced the evacuation of more than 230 homes.
Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/pot-growers-responsible-forlos-padres-forest-fire-authorities-say.html
For another story, see item 45
[Return to top]
- 19 -
Dams Sector
48. August 17, Associated Press – (International) Explosion at Russia’s largest
hydroelectric plant kills 8. An accident during repair work at Russia’s largest
hydroelectric plant killed at least eight workers Monday, while 54 others were missing,
investigators said. The explosion of a transformer caused the engine room to flood at
the Sayano-Shushinskaya power station in southern Siberia, the Investigative
Committee of the federal prosecutors office said. The plant’s dam was not damaged,
and the accident posed no threat to towns further south along the Yenisei River, the
Emergency Situations Minister said. The accident caused an oil spill, however, and the
slick was floating downriver, the ministry said. Two of the plant’s 10 turbines in the
engine room were destroyed, and a third was seriously damaged, said the acting chief
executive of the plant’s owner, RusHydrop. He said the repairs would be difficult.
“We’re probably talking about years rather than months to restore three of the 10
turbines,” he said on state-run television.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,539913,00.html?test=latestnews
49. August 17, Springfield News-Leader – (Missouri) Divers retrieve broken blade at
Stockton Dam. On the morning of February 4, the 320-ton hydropower turbine at the
Stockton Dam steel blades had sheared off and plunged 60 feet to the bottom of the
water outflow tube inside the dam. “We heard a loud boom! and then a second boom!
and all the vibration alarms came on,” recalled an electrical trainee. “It was shaking the
building below our control room — bad enough that tools were shaking off the walls.”
The 24-foot-wide turbine spun wildly out of balance, sending vibration pulses through
the concrete-and-steel powerhouse. On Wednesday, a commercial dive team from
Kentucky retrieved the severed blade — which weighs nearly five tons — after eight
trips deep inside the outflow tube. Working 61 feet below the surface and with less than
a foot of visibility, divers placed powerful jacks beneath the curved blade, lifting it
enough to slide steel rollers underneath. A shore-side crane used cables to pull the
blade out of the tube, and divers then looped heavy lifting straps around it for the slow
hoist out of the water. The blade had a 5-foot-long crack, will be shipped off for
metallurgical testing. The turbine’s five other blades also will get close scrutiny to see
if they might be prone to a similar fate. The Stockton Dam operations manager, said the
dam has lost $37,000 a day in electrical sales — based on what the dam produced in
2008 — because of the break. It will cost about $33.5 million to bring the dam back
online. Stimulus funds will be available to help with the repairs.
Source: http://www.newsleader.com/article/20090817/NEWS01/908170362/1007/Divers-retrieve-broken-bladeat-Stockton-Dam
50. August 16, Sierra Sun – (California) Army Corps looking at Martis Creek Dam
stability. The Army Corps of Engineers are ramping up end-of-summer work on Martis
Creek Dam before winter weather arrives. According to a press release, increased
crews and heavy equipment will be on and around the dam for the end of summer. The
Corps is investigating the dam’s stability, ranked as one of the six riskiest Army Corps
dams in the country. The dam was built more than 30 years ago on glacial till, which
- 20 -
could allow seepage under the dam, destabilizing it. Recent studies also indicate
earthquake faults near or under the dam. The risk to down-stream residents in kept to a
minimum, however, by keeping the lake at a very low level, according to the release.
Source: http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20090816/NEWS/908149988/1051
51. August 15, Associated Press – (International) Farmers seize 13 policemen, 4 civilians
at Peruvian dam, demanding ransom of fertilizer. Farmers freed 13 police officers
and four civilians seized at a hydroelectric dam in Peru’s Andean region after local
officials agreed Saturday to provide them with fertilizer. Authorities said the hostages
were held for nearly 24 hours at a church in Huallamayo, a town about 215 kilometers
(133 miles) northeast of the capital, Lima. The director of police, told radio RPP that
talks involving government officials, the power plant company and farmer
representatives produced agreement on releasing the prisoners. He said the government
promised fertilizer would be delivered within 15 days. Enersur, a French-Belgian
company that operates the power station, said the dam’s electricity output was under 40
percent of normal because of damage inflicted by the farmers. It said a control room
was destroyed and a floodgate damaged.
Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-peru-famershostages,0,721439.story
52. August 15, Rochester Post-Bulletin – (Minnesota) Rushford levee could need more
repairs. Two years after Rush Creek spilled over its banks and soaked the city of
Rushford, repairs to the city’s flood-damaged levees are nearing completion. While the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has funded the $1.5 million repair project, recertifying
the levy is the next hurdle for city officials. The levees protecting Rushford many need
a makeover to meet Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standards. The
Rushford city administrator said the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has
awarded the city a $282,000 grant so it can do a recertification study. According to a
preliminary study done by a private engineer from called USR Corp., the levees are
allowing water to seep underneath them. He believes more repairs will be needed to
make the levee certifiable. The city has until August 2011 to prove to the FEMA that its
levees meet federal standards. The levees are provisionally certified until then. ”The
2007 event was a 500- to 600-year flood and we’ll never be able to protect the city
from that kind of flood,” he said. Once repaired, he said the levees suppose to protect
the city from a 100-year flood.
Source:
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=412
016
53. August 14, WABI 5 Bangor – (Maine) Erosion threatens homes in Winslow. Some
folks in Winslow are being warned about a possible safety issue. Six homes on Dallaire
Street that sit on a slope overlooking the Sebasticook River are in danger because of
erosion. The problem began last summer when the halifax dam was breached. The
heavy rains we received this summer have caused considerable movement in the soil,
causing concern. The town has applied for a grant from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) to buy the properties in danger, and relocate the
- 21 -
residents. In an effort to minimize the safety risk, the town hired engineers to monitor
the problem. They also hope the data will help their effort to get the grant. “The town
has been working diligently using this engineer information to try to put this grant
together so we can purchase houses and remove the houses before they become a huge
issue and be fair to the citizens so they can get the money that is due to them.” added
the Winslow fire chief. The town expects to hear from FEMA in September as to
whether or not they will receive the grants. Meanwhile, residents on Dallaire Street are
being asked to check their homes for cracks, or changes, and to notify officials if they
see anything.
Source: http://www.wabi.tv/news/7120/erosion-threatens-homes-in-winslow
54. August 13, WWL 4 New Orleans – (Louisiana) N.O. East residents divided over plan
to use clay to build levees. It is a plan that has split residents in a high-priced New
Orleans subdivision: whether or not to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to extract
113 acres of clay from the Eastover subdivision to build levees. Some say it is the only
way the neighborhood will survive, while others worry about the damage such a project
could cause. “The only option on the table is ... to sell the dirt and make a lake out of
it,” a resident said. “We have to make the best out of a bad situation. Nobody’s come
up with any other plan to help us.” That was the plan a subdivision developer said was
unanimously approved by the Eastover Homeowners Association in February 2007,
allowing him to sell the clay to the Army Corps of Engineers, then develop that
property into a lake to enhance the neighborhood. But at Thursday’s corps meeting,
which ultimately factors in to whether or not the Eastover site will be approved as a
clay source, some New Orleans East residents protested outside of the meeting, while
others asked their pointed questions inside. A corps representative said there would be
truck traffic, road damage, noise and vibration, but they did not expect long-term
impacts to New Orleans East.
Source: http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl081309cbeastover.da1cf1d5.html
[Return to top]
- 22 -
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Contact Information
About the reports - The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a daily [Monday through Friday]
summary of open-source published information concerning significant critical infrastructure issues. The DHS Daily
Open Source Infrastructure Report is archived for ten days on the Department of Homeland Security Website:
http://www.dhs.gov/iaipdailyreport
Contact Information
Content and Suggestions:
Send mail to NICCReports@dhs.gov or contact the DHS Daily
Report Team at (202) 312-3421
Subscribe to the Distribution List:
Visit the DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report and follow
instructions to Get e-mail updates when this information changes.
Removal from Distribution List:
Send mail to support@govdelivery.com.
Contact DHS
To report physical infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact the National Infrastructure
Coordinating Center at nicc@dhs.gov or (202) 282-9201.
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US-CERT at soc@us-cert.gov or visit
their Web page at www.us-cert.gov.
Department of Homeland Security Disclaimer
The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a non-commercial publication intended to educate and inform
personnel engaged in infrastructure protection. Further reproduction or redistribution is subject to original copyright
restrictions. DHS provides no warranty of ownership of the copyright, or accuracy with respect to the original source
material.
- 23 -