Current Nationwide Threat Level Homeland Security ELEVATED Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report for 5 August 2009 Significant Risk of Terrorist Attacks For information, click here: http://www.dhs.gov Top Stories WPRI 12 Providence reports that the noxious gas that made over 100 people sick on Monday at a New Bedford, Massachusetts waste disposal company came from trash from a construction site. (See item 4) WLS 7 Chicago reports that a man was charged with endangering people’s safety by interfering with Chicago Transit Authority radio transmissions. The CTA says the radio hacker posed a threat to trains, buses, and riders. (See item 15) Fast Jump Menu PRODUCTION INDUSTRIES ● Energy ● Chemical ● Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste ● Critical Manufacturing ● Defense Industrial Base ● Dams Sector SERVICE INDUSTRIES ● Banking and Finance ● Transportation ● Postal and Shipping ● Information Technology ● Communications ● Commercial Facilities SUSTENANCE AND HEALTH ● Agriculture and Food FEDERAL AND STATE ● Government Facilities ● Water Sector ● Emergency Services ● Public Health and Healthcare ● 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 4, Associated Press – (National) Coast Guard: Gulf oil spill cleanup complete. The Coast Guard says crews have completed the cleanup of a 58,000-gallon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill occurred July 25, about 65 miles south of Houma. A Shell pipeline released the oil for reasons that are still under investigation. The Coast Guard said cleanup was completed on August 3, though repairs to the pipeline continue. -1- Source: http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090804/NEWS01/90804007/Coast+Guard++Gu lf+oil+spill+cleanup+complete 2. August 3, New Hampshire Union Leader – (New Hampshire) Explosion damages building at tanker terminal. The explosion on August 3 inside a J.P. Noonan Transportation garage in Hooksett, New Hampshire happened as a mechanic was removing a broken valve from underneath a tanker, an employee said this morning. The mechanic, who has worked at the transportation company for 19 years, is credited with having the foresight to move the tanker that was on fire out of the garage. He said the explosion blew off two of the five lids on the tanker, igniting vapors that set fire to the tank. The mechanic, who had been under the tanker, was up and moving after the explosion and seemed all right but flames were coming from two of the five compartments on the tanker. Instead of fleeing the area, he ran in the direction of the explosion and got the tanker out of the garage where firefighters poured water on it to extinguish the flames and cool it down. His co-worker was treated for injuries to his knees at a local hospital and released. What caused the explosion remains under investigation. Source: http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Explosion+damages+building+at+ta nker+terminal&articleId=1f5d27a2-2727-45c4-813d-0d0ea06a2350 3. August 1, Laurel Leader-Call – (Mississippi) Lightning strikes propane tank. The Jones County Emergency Management Agency avoided a major disaster on July 30 after lightning struck an 18,000-gallon propane tank off Old Highway 15 South in Glade. The executive director of the agency said volunteer departments from Glade, M&M and Powers helped minimize the danger of the situation. “The relief valve on the tank itself was damaged in the strike, allowed gas vapor to come out of the tank,” he said. “When it escaped, it caught fire. The fire was contained to the relief valve itself. The tank didn’t explode or anything, but the gas coming out of the valve was burning. It was a cause for concern because we couldn’t close the relief valve.” He said approximately 10,000 gallons of product was in the tank at the time of the incident. “We called a propane safety group from the state, and worked out a plan with the product owner and supplier to offload it,” he said. “It could have been a big event, but we managed to make it a small event,” he said. “It was right next to a chicken house, and we didn’t even lose a chicken.” The Jones Co. fire coordinator said the event could have been “catastrophic” for the property owner if the propane tank had ignited. “The valve was doing 99.9 percent of its job,” he said. “Working with the propane company, we were able to save all of the chicken houses, which is a multi-million dollar operation.” Source: http://www.leadercall.com/local/local_story_213115218.html For another story, see item 28 [Return to top] Chemical Industry Sector -2- 4. August 4, WPRI 12 Providence – (Massachusetts) Source of noxious gas narrowed to trash. The noxious gas that made over 100 people sick at a New Bedford waste disposal company came from trash from a construction site, authorities said on August 3. Investigators do not know yet what in the pile of trash caused the fumes. Crews are in the process of trying to figure out where the truck came from. A total of 119 people were treated and evaluated on August 3 following the hazmat situation at ABC Disposal Service, Inc. on Shawmut Avenue. According to the company’s website, it transports and disposes of non-hazardous waste. Sixty-six people were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, including employees and emergency personnel. Two of the victims are reported in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. Another 53 people were transported to Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River for treatment. All those treated are reportedly in good condition and have since been released. Five area businesses were also evacuated as a result. The situation was upgraded from a tier one, in which only the fire department responds, to a tier 3, which means about 45 hazmat members respond to a scene. Source: http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/national/northeast/nat_wpri_new_bedford_source_of_ noxious_gas_narrowed_to_trash_20090804805_2722877 5. August 4, Galveston County Daily News – (Texas) Four chemical tankers jump tracks. Four tankers containing hazardous chemicals derailed on August 3 in Texas City, but no chemical releases or injuries were reported, officials said. Placards on at least one of the leaning tankers near state highways 3 and 146 listed the contents as methylamine anhydrous, a highly flammable solution that can produce a poisonous gas when burned. Crews responded shortly after 2 p.m. to a Union Pacific transfer yard but declared the incident was no threat to the public, said the Texas City Homeland Security Coordinator. Roads near the derailment remained open. Two cars were returned to rails by 5 p.m., and crews using a crane were expected to have the remaining two back on the tracks by 6 p.m. Source: http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=b7674f3facbd0cb3 6. August 3, San Diego Union-Tribune – (California) Chemical spill closes northbound I15 at I-8. All northbound lanes of Interstate 15 are closed at Interstate 8 after an accident in San Diego involving a truck in which the chemicals it was carrying spilled, according to the California Highway Patrol. All traffic is being diverted off the freeway at Interstate 8 as crews clean up the spill. The closure is expected to last until about 4 p.m., according to the CHP. Witnesses said the truck flipped over several times in the crash, which was reported just after 1 p.m., according to the CHP. The driver told authorities the truck was carrying muriatic acid, chlorine and several gallons spilled on the freeway. No injuries were reported. Traffic is at a standstill in the area, prompting the CHP to issue a traffic advisory. Traffic is backed up to University Avenue, according to a Caltrans Web site. Source: http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/news/breaking/2009/08/north_i15_shut_down_at_i8. html [Return to top] -3- Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector 7. August 4, Morris Daily Herald – (Illinois) Tritium-tainted steam released during “unusual event.” One of two reactors at Braidwood Generating Station in Braceville, Illinois was shut down during an “unusual event” from late Thursday to early Sunday. During the shutdown of Unit 2 — which occurred when power coming into the plant was lost because of a transformer issue — the systems were depressurized and steam released into the atmosphere with a loud noise. The steam, according to a press release from Exelon Nuclear, contained from 11,500 to 38,000 picocuries of tritium per liter of water, or 0.1 percent of all airborne radionuclides released by Braidwood Station annually. Although the Braidwood Site vice president noted this kind of steam venting poses no environmental, health or safety impact to workers or the public, an official maintains the radiation standards are probably set too high. Source: http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/articles/2009/08/03/22790995/index.xml [Return to top] Critical Manufacturing Sector 8. August 4, East Liverpool Review – (Tennessee) Fire reported at New Cumberland industrial plant. Several fire departments responded to a blaze on August 3 inside a New Cumberland industrial facility. At approximately 9:30 p.m., the call went out for assistance at Jamegy, Inc. along South Chestnut Street. There were no injuries in the blaze. The New Cumberland Volunteer Fire Department Chief indicated employees were shoveling the chemical element zirconium when it ignited. The fire suppression system did not extinguish the fire, however, and nearby fire departments were summoned. There was no indication that officials were worried about any chemical release. State Route 2 remained open, but the street leading into the Jamegy plant was closed for a little more than an hour. The fire was reported under control at approximately 10:17 p.m., according to initial reports. The facility reprocesses scrap metals such as that from the TIMET facility in Toronto. Titanium is extracted from the materials and is then repackaged for sale to steel and other industries. Source: http://www.reviewonline.com/page/content.detail/id/517327.html?nav=5008 9. August 4, Occupational Health and Safety – (National) FAA requires ice protection changes for transport aircraft. Acting because of accidents and incidents in which flight crews did not operate the airframe ice protection system (IPS) in a timely manner, and also because of concerns over crews’ workload when they must manually cycle an IPS when they see ice accumulating, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a final rule yesterday requiring that transport aircraft certificated for flight in icing conditions have a system that operates continuously, a system that automatically cycles the IPS, or an alert to the crew each time the IPS must be cycled. The final rule will take effect Sept. 2, 2009; it will ensure crews have a clear means to know when to activate the IPS and will reduce the workload, FAA said. The final rule includes this language: “The FAA acknowledges that it is not a simple task to design and certificate an ice detection system. However, ice detection systems exist today that meet the reliability -4- requirements of part 25. Section 25.1309 ensures the degree of reliability of an airframe IPS is commensurate with the hazard level associated with the failure of the airframe IPS. In response to the contention that an ice detector would not be economically feasible, the FAA notes that on recent part 25 airplane certifications manufacturers sought and received approval for installation of ice detectors without an FAA requirement for such a system. Therefore, the FAA infers that these manufacturers consider the installation of ice detectors economically feasible.” Source: http://ohsonline.com/articles/2009/08/04/faa-requires-ice-protectionchanges.aspx 10. August 3, Columbia Daily Herald – (Tennessee) Fire damages Smelter Services Aluminum Plant in Mt. Pleasant. Firefighters battled a blaze which lasted 45 minutes on August 3 and consumed a large chunk of the roof at Smelter Services Corp. in Mt. Pleasant, one of the city’s largest employers. The Mt. Pleasant Fire Chief said firefighters were called out about 1:55 p.m. to the aluminum recycling plant located at 400 Arrow Mines Road, after Smelter employees reported fire coming from the roof. Within minutes, flames had spread across about half of the facility’s roof. A plume of black smoke could be seen for miles as it billowed over the town of about 4,500 people. Though the blaze had been extinguished, crews were still at the scene at about 4:30 p.m. Source: http://www.wdxe.com/wdxe.php?rfc=narticle.php&id=13623 11. August 3, St. Louis Post Dispatch – (Missouri) Gas line fails at U.S. Steel-Granite City Works. Company officials are “assessing our options” after a blast furnace gas line failure at U.S. Steel-Granite City Works on July 30, according to a spokeswoman. A U.S. Steel spokeswoman said on July 31 that at about 5 p.m. on July 30, there was a failure in an exhaust line that takes gases from the two blast furnaces at Granite City Works. She did not know which specific blast furnace was affected. The “A” blast furnace, the smaller of two at the facility, was brought on line earlier in the week after being idled for some time. There was a small fire that was put out by company fire and security personnel, and the area was evacuated. No injuries or explosions were reported. Source: http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2009/08/04/madison/news/doc4a734b0ade 3b0161062969.txt For another story, see item 48 [Return to top] Defense Industrial Base Sector 12. August 3, Aviation Week – (National) JSF faces showdown on F-35 cost. Pentagon belief in Joint Strike Fighter program cost estimates could be wearing thin, as delays to flight testing keep the program from proving whether it can break the mold of previous fighter development efforts and stay on budget. The Defense Dept.’s independent Joint Estimating Team (JET) has been told to update its projections for the F-35 program, and is expected to again conclude it will take longer and cost more to complete development than the joint program office (JPO) believes. This is raising concerns that the Pentagon -5- will eschew the JPO estimate and budget for development at the JET’s higher figure, forcing a major jump in projected program cost and potentially resulting in cuts to aircraft procurement numbers. Lockheed Martin briefed JET officials on progress with JSF development on July 29 in Fort Worth, the day after it officially rolled out the first F-35C carrier variant for the U.S. Navy, the third and final version of the multi-service, multi-national fighter. The F-35C’s first flight has slipped into January next year. The previous JET report estimated, based on legacy programs, that development would cost $5 billion more and take two years longer to complete than projected by the JPO in 2008. The estimators cited engineering destaffing, manufacturing span times, software development and flight-test productivity as drivers of expected cost and schedule growth. Program officials hope to convince the independent estimators that destaffing, manufacturing and software are on track to deliver the JPO’s lower projections. “We do not believe they are right,” says the Lockheed Martin F-35 program general manager. But lack of flight testing means a major part of the JET assumptions cannot yet be challenged. “It’s too early to prove them wrong,” he says. Source: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/F35JET080309.xml&headl ine=JSF%20Faces%20Showdown%20on%20F35%20Cost%20Estimates&channel=defense [Return to top] Banking and Finance Sector 13. August 3, Orange County Register – (California) Suspicious powder at credit union determined to be drywall dust. A suspicious white powder found at a credit union on August 3, prompting hazmat crews to respond, has been determined to be drywall, authorities said. Authorities were called to Schools First Federal Credit Union when an employee found the powder inside an envelope, said the captain of the Orange County fire authority. The powder was found inside a deposit envelope and discovered by an employee who opened it, said a sergeant of the Tustin Police Department. Two people were isolated and checked by paramedics as a precaution, although they were not experiencing any symptoms. At 11:35 a.m., hazmat crews determined that the substance was not hazardous and appeared to be dust from drywall, the sergeant said. Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/crews-union-credit-2516663-powder-hazmat 14. August 3, Reuters – (Florida) U.S. raids Colonial Bank office in Florida. The agency that investigates misuse of U.S. banking bailout money raided two Florida financial institutions on August 3 and Colonial Bank said one of them was its Orlando office. A local source who asked not to be identified said the search involved Colonial’s mortgage division but did not elaborate. A central Florida newspaper, the Ocala Star-Banner, identified the target of the second warrant as the offices of the Taylor, Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corp in Ocala. Its website showed police and federal agents entering the building, including one whose jacket bore the initials “SIGTARP.” SIGTARP is the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and investigates waste and fraud in the TARP program that buys assets from troubled financial institutions in order to stabilize the banking industry. A SIGTARP spokeswoman in Washington -6- would say only that its agents executed two search warrants in Florida on August 3. Source: http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=1856146 [Return to top] Transportation Sector 15. August 3, WLS 7 Chicago – (Illinois) Man accused of hacking CTA radio. A 20-yearold man was charged with endangering people’s safety by interfering with Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) radio transmissions. The CTA says the radio hacker posed a threat to trains, buses, and riders. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says the man bought a commercially available radio a year ago and programmed it to transmit and receive CTA frequencies. Initially, investigators say he began with prank calls. “It escalated to the point where he began issuing orders to train operators and bus operators,” said an FBI spokesman. It is alleged that at one point he gave orders that allowed a Blue Line train operator to bypass a red light. Another time, the FBI says he reversed previously given orders to a Green Line operator and told him he did not have to stand at the station. The CTA says early on its control center employees began to recognize his voice and eventually recorded his calls and blocked most of them from reaching train and bus operators. The CTA says he made more than 300 radio calls on CTA frequencies, most during the past month and half. Technology experts say his ‘playing around’ was not easy to do. While buying a radio and listening to frequencies is not against the law, hacking into a radio system takes some time and luck. “Even most secure systems could eventually be broken into,” said a professor from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6945913 16. August 3, Southern Illinoisan – (Illinois) Train damages miles of tracks, no one injured. A Union Pacific train did significant damage to the railroad track running through downtown in Johnston City Monday morning. The city fire chief said the department did not request any mutual aid to deal with the situation, and no injuries were reported in connection with the incident. “It did a lot of damage,” he said. “It totally destroyed the tracks all the way through town.” He said the train appeared to have lost a part en route through Johnston City and the piece was dragged underneath the train, tearing up concrete and tracks for several miles. An Illinois spokesperson for Union Pacific Railroad did not return phone calls placed by the Southern Illinoisan Monday. Marion Police Department dispatchers confirmed the train never derailed. Source: http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2009/08/04/local/29250850.txt 17. August 3, Aviation Herald – (Virginia) Delta Airlines B752 at Washington on Aug 2nd 2009, rejected takeoff due to engine fire indication. The crew of a Delta Airlines Boeing 757-200, performing flight DL-1234 from Washington National Airport to New York, New York, rejected takeoff from Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport runway 36 at low speed due to an engine fire indication for the number 1 (left hand) engine (PW2037). The airplane stopped safely, emergency services responded and foamed the engine, and the passengers were kept on board. The airport entered a ground stop for 67 minutes as result of the incident. The airplane was towed to the gate about an -7- hour later, where passengers disembarked. Witnesses on the ground said the engine appeared on fire just as the airplane started the takeoff roll. Source: http://avherald.com/h?article=41dae415&opt=4865 For more stories, see items 2, 5, 6, and 28 [Return to top] Postal and Shipping Sector 18. August 4, Lewiston Sun Journal – (Maine) Mailboxes blown up on West Side Road in Weld. A Franklin County, Maine sheriff’s deputy is investigating mailboxes being blown up on the West Side Road between Thursday night and Friday morning, a police official said. “We have suspects,” he said, and they are adults. The three or four mailboxes were blown up using household items that cause a chemical reaction, the police official said. A sheriff deputy responded to the first report Friday from a U.S. Postal Service representative in Weld. The other reports followed, the police official said. “We are going to involve a U.S. Postal Service inspector” and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he said. Blowing up a mailbox is a federal crime, the police official added. Source: http://www.sunjournal.com/node/48643/ [Return to top] Agriculture and Food Sector 19. August 4, Sarasota Herald-Tribune – (Florida) Raw-milk lovers skirt the law. Unpasteurized product must be labeled ‘pet use only,’ but people are drinking it. The label on the jug reads “for pet use only,” but in the privacy of their kitchens, thousands of people statewide mix smoothies with, churn ice cream with, and drink cold glasses of raw milk. It is illegal in Florida and many other states to sell raw milk as a human beverage because it can harbor pathogens such as Listeria and E. coli. Milk meant for people must undergo a heating process called pasteurization, which kills all bacteria. But no laws forbid drinking it. Its growing popularity coincides with rising national demand for organic food and a return to small farming. Nationally, somewhere between 500,000 to 3 million people consume raw milk, said the interim director of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund. No surveys document the number of consumers compared to previous years, but the interim director said nearly twice as many people are calling his office now than last year to find out how to sell raw milk without running afoul of the law. The federal Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United States Department of Agriculture all warn against drinking raw milk. Source: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090804/ARTICLE/908041056/2055/NEWS?Tit le=Raw-milk-lovers-skirt-the-law 20. August 1, Bangor Daily News – (Maine) More than 140 salmon found dead at -8- hatchery. Federal biologists are investigating an apparent mechanical problem that killed more than 140 endangered adult Atlantic salmon at the Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery in East Orland. The dead salmon, which had been used to produce eggs and baby fish for the Pleasant River, were discovered by hatchery staff around 8 a.m. on July 29. While the exact cause is still under investigation, staff said something caused the water flow into the giant tank to drop by half, resulting in low oxygen levels in the water. The manager of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatchery said the loss would not affect the facility’s production of young fish and eggs for the Pleasant River. The 142 salmon that died were 5 years old and were slated for release later this year after being spawned for three years. “We were mostly just holding onto them as a backup,” he said. The problem so far has stumped hatchery staff, and an engineer was brought in to investigate. The manager said there is speculation that air may have built up in one of the lines, thereby blocking the water flow. The Pleasant River’s system has since been restored to normal. This is the second mysterious incident this year that resulted in deaths at the hatchery. During the winter, almost 800,000 eggs for the Penobscot River inexplicably died. Fish experts at three different facilities looked for causes in the mass die-off of eggs but were unable to come to a conclusion. Source: http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/114078.html For another story, see item 3 [Return to top] Water Sector 21. August 4, Washington Post – (District of Columbia) More D.C. kids had elevated lead than stated. More than twice as many D.C. children as previously reported by federal and local health officials had high levels of lead in their blood amid the city’s drinking water crisis, according to congressional investigators, throwing into doubt assurances by those officials that the lead in tap water did not seriously harm city children. The new information was uncovered by a House subcommittee investigating the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention’s performance and has raised congressional concern about whether the agency properly alerted District residents to a health risk from unprecedented levels of lead in the water. Local officials could not say August 3 whether some children with unsafe lead exposure have gone without intervention to reduce health risks. The CDC and city health department had reported dangerously high lead levels in 193 children in 2003, the worst year for high concentrations of lead in city tap water. But lab data gathered by congressional investigators this year show that the actual number was 486 children. The subcommittee’s investigators uncovered the higher figures by seeking the data directly from all D.C. labs that analyze local test results. After the lead problem became public in 2004, blood tests from thousands of city children taken in 2003 were inexplicably missing from D.C. government files. In a written statement, CDC officials declined to comment on the new data, saying they had not seen it. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/08/03/AR2009080303003.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST200902 1100308 -9- 22. August 3, KOAA 5 Pueblo/Colorado Springs – (Colorado) 100 homes in Pueblo Co. without running water. A neighborhood in Pueblo County may have to go without running water for the rest of the week. Residents in the Zinno subdivision near 20th Lane are now getting their water from a water tank truck. On August 1, a pipe broke at a water supply building leaving roughly 100 families without running water. The subdivision’s water supplier says it could take until August 7 to repair the system. Source: http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x626727441/100-homes-in-Pueblo-Cowithout-running-water 23. August 2, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – (Wisconsin) Storm sewers oozing human fecal bacteria to beaches, rivers, study finds. Human sewage is flowing out of municipal storm sewers and into local waterways and Lake Michigan on rainy days without sanitary sewer overflows to blame for the load, and even during periods of dry weather, a three-year study has concluded. And the contamination cannot be pinned on raccoons or other animals living in the storm sewers. Genetic testing ruled them out. Human fecal pollution is found at several beaches and rivers throughout the Milwaukee area, creating an unseen though serious public health risk for anyone in the water, said an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Great Lakes WATER Institute and the study’s lead researcher. Testing storm water for the genetic marker for a human fecal bacteria uncovered a large number of storm sewers discharging the bacteria to the environment, though none should be doing that, she said. Her laboratory is capable of detecting a species of Bacteroides found in humans but not other animals. The work was done from 2006 through 2008. Most likely sources include broken sanitary sewers that leak into storm-water pipes, or sanitary pipes misconnected to storm sewers, according a community environmental liaison with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. The researchers called for an investigation to determine the problems and how they can be fixed. Source: http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/52319607.html [Return to top] Public Health and Healthcare Sector 24. August 4, Los Angeles Times – (National) Pneumonia vaccine may help limit swine flu deaths. In years past, the nation’s attempts to prevent flu-related deaths have focused on limiting transmission of the virus through widespread vaccination programs. This year, with school starting up well before a vaccine for the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus will be available, there will be little that can slow the spread of the virus for the next few months. However, public health authorities say most of the serious consequences linked to the virus are the result of pneumonia, and an underused vaccine called Pneumovax can prevent, or at least limit, such complications in many patients. The vaccine, made by Merck & Co., stimulates the body’s ability to neutralize the bacteria responsible for many cases of pneumonia, and it has the potential to prevent an estimated one-third of pneumonia deaths linked to swine flu. Source: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-pneumonia42009aug04,0,6872284.story - 10 - 25. August 4, Washington Post – (National) U.S. revises swine flu strategy. The Presidential Administration is finalizing guidelines that would scale back when the federal government recommends closing schools in response to the swine flu pandemic, several people involved in the deliberations said Monday. Such guidance would mark a change in the government’s approach from this spring, when health officials suggested that schools shut down at the first sign of the H1N1 virus. They later relaxed that advice. This fall, federal authorities would recommend closures only under “extenuating circumstances,” such as if a campus has many children with underlying medical conditions, a senior U.S. health official involved in the talks said. The official added that discussions are continuing that and no final decision has been made. Schools also might be advised to close if many students or staff members are already sick or otherwise absent, officials said. Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32277813/ns/health-more_health_news// 26. August 3, Seattle Times – (Washington) Fire at Cle Elum senior-center investigated. Fire investigators are unsure whether a fire that destroyed a popular Cle Elum senior center Saturday began as a grease fire or a propane leak, officials say. Between 90 and 100 people were in the Centennial Center when the fire began around 6 p.m. Saturday, said a Kittitas County, Washington emergency spokeswoman. One man was injured and flown to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center. Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009588972_webcleelumfire03.html For another story, see item 36 [Return to top] Government Facilities Sector 27. August 4, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader – (Pennsylvania) Blast levels house in Exeter. An explosion that leveled a house Saturday afternoon in Exeter, Pennsylvania critically injured the owner, damaged the neighboring John F. Kennedy Elementary School and rattled buildings up to two miles away. The Exeter police chief said state police are conducting a criminal investigation, but no details were available. The explosion caused structural damage to 20 to 25 nearby houses, the Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency director said. The borough building inspector condemned the elementary school, which sustained structural damage and broken windows. The Wyoming Area School superintendent said the district’s engineer will inspect the school this week to assess the damage. A report has been filed with the district insurance carrier. Source: http://www.timesleader.com/news/Blast_levels_house_in_Exeter_08-022009.html 28. August 4, Associated Press – (Indiana; Kentucky) Storm-fed flash floods hit Kentucky, Indiana. Heavy thunderstorms fed floods in Kentucky and Indiana on Tuesday, shutting down a university campus in Louisville, closing highways, and - 11 - cutting power to thousands of people. The storm shut down the University of Louisville, where about a dozen buildings were without power and a dozen more had some flooding on the main campus, said a university spokesman. Dozens of university of employees were evacuated, he said. Floodwaters gushed over guardrails on Interstate 65, bringing traffic to a standstill in Clark County, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville. The director of Louisville’s public library system said 3 1/2 feet of water inundated the main library’s lower level. He said tens of thousands of books were lost and the library was forced to close. He said staff vehicles and bookmobiles were also flooded. In Indiana, police and state conservation officers rescued several people, mostly stranded motorists caught in high waters, said a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. Duke Energy reported more than 24,000 customers without power just after noon, including nearly 14,000 in western Indiana. Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hpRdRCgreAyzdNBA3lRhw91 VSlzAD99S6O9O1 29. August 4, Augusta Chronicle – (Georgia) Tiny beetles infest two plutonium containers. The government’s elaborate plan for transporting its most dangerous nuclear materials ran into a glitch due to an infestation problem. According to a report from the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information, a beetle infestation compromised the process. “During unloading operations at the Plutonium Fabrication Plant at the Hanford Site, two 9975 Shipping Packages were found to contain live insects,” the report said, referring to the hardened, lead-shielded containers used to transport bomb-grade plutonium. The intruders were identified by a Clemson University researcher as drugstore beetles — a common species named for its habit of eating pharmaceuticals, kitchen spices and virtually anything else it can access. The infestations were detected in a packing material called Celotex that is placed around the secure metal containers as a shock absorber and as insulation against fire damage. “It was determined after initial investigation that the beetles were consuming the glue boundary layers between the Celotex layers in the assemblies,” the report said, noting that no nuclear material was compromised. The unprecedented discovery prompted an investigation led by Savannah River National Laboratory. “This is the first time that anyone I know in the packaging community had ever observed anything like this,” said the manager of the lab’s Packaging Technology Group. “If you look at the history of radioactive material packaging and the use of Celotex, tens of thousands of packages have been made with this,” he said. “It was very unusual.” The official said that Celotex will be replaced with a polyurethane foam in future containers. Source: http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/08/04/met_543165.shtml 30. August 4, Associated Press – (Hawaii) Depleted uranium no risk to public, Army contends. A preliminary study has concluded the public is not at risk from depleted uranium at the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, the military said. The Army conducted the study as part of its licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a site-specific environmental radiation monitoring plan. According to the report, only three pieces of the radioactive material have been found at Pohakuloa, and the remainder, if any, likely fell into cracks in the lava. The July 8 report - 12 - says, “If any significant quantity of DU was fired at PTA, it is expected to have quickly migrated through the pahoehoe and a’a basalt flows and is no longer detectable at the surface.” The migration theory “made me giggle,” said a Big Island resident who served 10 years as head of research at the Colorado School of Mines after a 25-year stint on a uranium project with the U.S. Geological Survey. “On the basis of that study, they can’t come to that conclusion,” the resident said. “That document they sent to the NRC, I think, was extremely superficial and often contradictory.” The Army confirmed the presence of the depleted uranium at the training area in 2007. The chief public affairs officer for the Army’s Pacific region said the NRC will help the Army set procedures to deal with the depleted uranium. “The NRC will issue us the policies, the procedures, the protocols on which we manage depleted uranium on our ranges,” he said. Source: http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090804_Depleted_uranium_no_risk_to_public_Ar my_contends.html 31. August 3, WIRED – (National) Marines ban Twitter, Myspace, Facebook. The U.S. Marine Corps has banned Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks, effective immediately. “These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries,” reads a Marine Corps order, issued on August 3. “The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel… at an elevated risk of compromise.” The Marines’ ban will last a year. It was drawn up in response to a late July warning from U.S. Strategic Command, which told the rest of the military it was considering a Defense Department-wide ban on the Web 2.0 sites, due to network security concerns. Scams, worms, and Trojans often spread unchecked throughout social media sites, passed along from one online friend to the next. “The mechanisms for social networking were never designed for security and filtering. They make it way too easy for people with bad intentions to push malicious code to unsuspecting users,” a Stratcom source told Danger Room. Yet many within the Pentagon’s highest ranks find value in the Web 2.0 tools. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has 4,000 followers on Twitter. The Department of Defense is getting ready to unveil a new home page, packed with social media tools. The Army recently ordered all U.S. bases to provide access to Facebook. Top generals now blog from the battlefield. Source: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/marines-ban-twitter-myspacefacebook/ 32. August 3, Mason City Globe Gazette – (Iowa) Names of juveniles in Charles City pop bomb case released. The names of the two juveniles arrested in connection with the discovery of a series of pop bottle bombs in Charles City have been released. The 14 and 15-year old suspects, both of Charles City, were charged in Floyd County Juvenile Court Monday morning with possession of explosive or incendiary materials or devices. Ten pop bottle bombs were discovered on the grounds of Washington Elementary School during the past two weeks. Two were discovered July 20, seven were found July - 13 - 26 and another was placed the evening of July 28 and found July 29. Four of the pop bottles had exploded, according to authorities. When the devices explode, acid or other chemicals can spray out. The bombs were made with common kitchen products containing acid. Source: http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2009/08/03/news/latest/doc4a772f63c6d86482424 112.txt For another story, see item 25 [Return to top] Emergency Services Sector 33. August 4, New York 1 – (New York) Emergency drill takes place in New York Harbor. The New York City Police Department and the Coast Guard boarded ships in New York Harbor as part of a drill aimed at stopping vessels that could be carrying radioactive materials. The exercise took place beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the waters south of the Verrazano Bridge. The drill is part of the ongoing Securing the Cities initiative meant to guard against the infiltration of a dirty bomb or nuclear device into the city. Source: http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/103463/emergency-drill-takes-placein-new-york-harbor/Default.aspx 34. August 3, Associated Press – (National) FEMA to focus on children’s needs during disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is going to plan more broadly for children and their needs as the government prepares for disasters. Most disaster plans are crafted around adult populations, and people with specific needs — such as children — are often an afterthought, a FEMA administrator said in an interview with the Associated Press. A new FEMA working group will work with the congressionally mandated National Commission on Children and Disasters, created in 2007. The FEMA group will focus on specific guidance for evacuating, sheltering and relocating children; helping childcare centers, schools and child welfare programs prepare for disasters; and making disaster preparation part of the Homeland Security Department’s grant programs. The working group’s findings could mean changes to the country’s blueprint for disaster response, known as the National Response Framework. Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gGakDBPKJTnaZFXtM5GcAw ceLfiQD99RIC183 35. August 3, Associated Press – (Arizona) Computer virus hits police system in Flagstaff. A virus has invaded a computer system used by Flagstaff police and the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s office technical support said each department’s individual computers and servers were infected with a virus that allows somebody else to control the system and use the power of the system that has been taken over. The most common side effect of the virus is locking out account users from the system. Authorities said the virus is not designed to compromise personal or sensitive - 14 - information. A Flagstaff police spokesman said officers wrote their reports in their vehicles and stored the information on flash drives to be printed out in hard copy later. Authorities are not sure when the computer system would be completely cleaned and fully back online. Source: http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=10828638&nav=menu216_2 36. August 1, Houston Chronicle – (Texas) Nearly a year after Ike, UTMB reopens its ER. The Galveston full-service emergency center that Hurricane Ike closed for nearly a year reopened Saturday morning, relieving overburdened trauma centers throughout the region. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston accepted a patient at 7:45 a.m., the first person treated in the emergency room since the storm inundated the UTMB campus September 13. Officials expected to treat between 120 and 150 patients on Saturday. Before Ike, UTMB had one of the area’s three Level 1 trauma centers, which have the facilities and doctors to treat the sickest patients at any hour. The 10 1/2month hiatus means the center, which treated 64,000 patients a year, lost its top rating from the American College of Surgeons. But officials said the facility can provide the same emergency and trauma care offered prior to the storm. The hospital is working to have the ER “redesignated” as a Level 1 trauma center. Opening the doors takes the pressure off Ben Taub General Hospital and Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, which have the area’s only other Level 1 trauma centers. Patients have crowded area emergency rooms since Hurricane Ike, and ambulances have been forced to take patients long distances or remain out of service for hours. Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6557383.html 37. July 31, Greenville News – (South Carolina) Fountain Inn police station evacuated after meth bust. The Fountain Inn police station was evacuated for about two hours the morning of July 30 when officers started to feel sick after arresting three suspects and processing equipment from a suspected rolling meth lab. Greenville County narcotics officers and state Department of Health and Environmental Control staffers were called to the police station and arrived at about 1 a.m. to check the building for contamination but found no evidence of leaks or spills, according to the police chief. “It was perhaps residual odor from some of the apparatus that they (suspects) had that they’d used prior,” he said. One person was taken to the hospital as a precaution, and all people in the building were checked by medical staffers, he said. Five officers, one dispatcher, and three suspects were in the building at the time. None reported medical problems later that day. The incident started about midnight when an officer made a routine traffic stop, approached the vehicle, and saw open containers of alcohol and began to further search the vehicle. Officers found equipment commonly used to manufacture methamphetamine, seized the equipment, and brought it back to the police station, the police chief said. Source: http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20090731/NEWS/907310321/1069/YOURUPS TATE01/Fountain-Inn-police-station-evacuated-after-meth-bust For another story, see item 47 [Return to top] - 15 - Information Technology 38. August 4, ComputerWeekly – (International) Apple sneaks out data leakage patch. Apple has released an upgrade for its GarageBand audio editing application that includes a security patch not mentioned in the update announcement. According to Apple’s support web site, GarageBand 5.1 “addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and fixes a number of other minor issues”. But a security advisory reveals that the update includes a fix for a security flaw in GarageBand that allows Safari browser users’ web activity to be tracked by third parties and advertisers. The advisory says that when GarageBand is opened, Safari’s preferences are changed to always accept cookies. The default preference is to accept cookies only for the sites being visited. Apple warns that the altered setting may allow third parties and advertisers to track a user’s web activity. Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/08/04/237166/apple-sneaksout-data-leakage-patch.htm 39. August 3, The Register – (International) AES encryption not as tough as you think. Cryptographers have found a new chink in the widely used AES encryption standard that suggests the safety margin of its most powerful cipher is not as high as previously thought. In a soon-to-be-published paper, five researchers show that the 256-bit version of AES is susceptible to several so-called related-key attacks that significantly diminish the amount of time it takes to guess a key. One technique against the 11-round version of the cipher can be completed in 270 operations; an improvement that a cryptographer says was strong enough to be “almost practical.” Another attack uses only two related keys to crack the complete key of a nine-round version in 239 time, a vast improvement over the 2120 time of the best previous attack. A third attack breaks a 10-round version in 245 time. Like previous attacks on AES, the latest techniques are still wildly impractical, cryptographers say. But because most of the world depends on the encryption standard to keep sensitive records and communications secure from outsiders, the findings are nonetheless significant. AES is also the foundation of several candidates for a new cryptographic hashing algorithm called SHA-3 that will be adopted by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. “When you’re trying to build a system with a long life span, you want to have ciphers that are very conservative, so if there is a new attack that comes along, you have a long safety margin,” says the president and chief scientist at Cryptography Research, a San Francisco-based consultancy. “If you’re trying to design a system that will be in the field for 30 years, you start worrying about stuff like this.” Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/03/new_crypto_attack/ 40. August 3, Associated Press – (New Jersey) Man is first to be charged with Web name theft. A northern New Jersey man is charged with stealing a prime piece of Internet real estate and reselling it to a basketball player in one of the nation’s first prosecutions of a suspected domain name thief. The 25-year-old, of Union, hacked into an online account belonging to one of the owners of the P2P.com domain name, New Jersey State Police said on August 3. He allegedly shifted ownership to himself and resold the Web site address on eBay to a Los Angeles Clippers forward who did not know the name was - 16 - stolen. The suspect, who works for an online research firm, was arrested on July 30 on felony charges of theft by unlawful taking or deception, identity theft and computer theft. A state police spokesman said each of the three counts carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32270824/ns/technology_and_sciencetech_and_gadgets/ 41. August 3, The Register – (International) Twitter starts filtering links to malware sites. Micro-blogging site Twitter has begun filtering links to known malware sites. The tactic, noticed by security researchers on August 3 but yet to be officially announced by Twitter, is designed to prevent surfers straying onto sites packed with dangerous exploits. Adoption of the approach follows the increased targeting of Twitter by worms, spam and account hijacking attacks over recent weeks. The widespread use of URL shortening in Twitter messages (which can be no longer than 140 characters) makes it easy to hide the true destination of links. A blog posting by an individual of F-Secure explains how surfers are served up a warning message when they attempt to follow a link from Twitter towards a known bad site. A security researcher at Kaspersky Lab adds that Twitter appears to be using Google’s Safe Browsing API. “It won’t catch everything but is definitively a step forward,” he adds. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/03/twitter_applies_malware_filter/ Internet Alert Dashboard To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US−CERT at soc@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 Nothing to report [Return to top] Commercial Facilities Sector 42. August 4, WEWS 5 Cleveland – (Ohio) Rec center to reopen after teens sent home sick. A local recreation center reopened August 4 after a carbon monoxide scare. Cleveland Heights, Ohio emergency crews said five girls tested positive for carbon monoxide after they said they were not feeling good at the Cleveland Heights Recreation Center. The girls said they became dizzy while ice skating. The Cleveland Heights Parks and Recreation Commissioner said there were no signs of carbon monoxide found in the building. The commissioner said the Zamboni was not a suspect because it is electrical, not gas-powered. Fire investigators are scheduled to re-test the building to search for the source of the gas. - 17 - Source: http://www.newsnet5.com/news/20274530/detail.html 43. August 3, Modesto Bee – (California) Fire guts Modesto building that’s home to 18 businesses. Early on August 3, a handful of people came to look at the smoldering remains of a Modesto, California office complex gutted by a weekend fire. The heat was so intense that it popped open file cabinets, stripped nearby trees of their bark and buckled the plastic trim on the neighboring Burger King. An employee of the management group that owns the building on North Carpenter Road said he was amazed the fire did not spread. “You have a building the size of a football field and you don’t see any damage to any other buildings,” he said, praising firefighters. By 9 a.m. Modesto investigators reviewed surveillance video from the Burger King and two other cameras to find the cause of the fire, said Battalion Chief. The fire caused at least $1 million in damage, said a Modesto Fire Department investigator. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but witnesses said it appeared to have started on the south side of the building. The blaze destroyed 18 businesses. Someone calling 911 from the Burger King restaurant next door reported the fire at midnight. It took 27 firefighters about an hour to get the blaze under control, added the investigator. Source: http://www.modbee.com/2391/story/803455.html?storylink=omni_popular 44. August 2, Associated Press – (Indiana) Fire at Kokomo apartment injures 8. Authorities say a fire at a senior citizens’ apartment building in Kokomo, Indiana slightly injured six residents on August 2 and forced the evacuation of more than 100 others. The Kokomo Fire Department says six residents and two firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation after the 2 a.m. fire at the government-owned Terrace Tower Apartments. Investigators say the fire began on the fifth floor of the seven-story building, forcing the evacuation of all 100 residents, some of whom had to be carried down the stairs. The residents were taken to a nearby high school until they were could return home. The Red Cross was finding temporary housing for others. Although the fire was contained to one apartment, investigators say smoke and water damaged 17 other units. Investigators have not determined the cause of the fire. Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-kokomofire,0,1223392.story 45. August 2, Newsday – (New York) 13 injured as car crashed into Queens street fair. A livery cabdriver lost control of his car and smashed into a Queens street fair the afternoon of August 2, New York City police said, leaving 13 people with minor injuries. Police said the car crashed into a food stand that contained a propane tank, which was knocked loose and wound up pinned underneath the car. A possible explosion was averted by EMS workers who removed the tank, a New York Fire Department spokesman said. An Ecuadorean Heritage Pride Parade was underway during the time of the crash. Eleven people were treated at the scene. Two others with minor injuries were taken to Elmhurst Hospital, the Fire Department spokesman said. The driver is not expected to be charged, according to a police spokesman. Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/13-injured-as-car-crashes-intoqueens-street-fair-1.1343973 [Return to top] - 18 - National Monuments & Icons Sector 46. August 3, Associated Press – (California) Evacuation order lifted after Calif. wildfires. Authorities lifted an evacuation order on August 3 as firefighters cleared vegetation around homes in Shasta County (northern California) that had been threatened when weekend lightning strikes ignited more than 40 blazes. The mandatory evacuation went into effect on August 2 for Big Eddy Estates and Sam Wolfin Springs in the county 160 miles north of Sacramento. Fire officials said the blazes in the area had burned about 1,500 acres and were 10 percent contained. Twelve fires had been fully contained. A 1,000-acre fire was burning in Lassen National Forest along Highway 89, which prompted the temporary closure of a stretch of the road. A 1,600-acre fire in the county was 50 percent contained, with full containment expected by August 7. In Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County, a fire that began July 26 had grown to 4,600 acres as firefighters struggled in steep, rugged terrain, a CalFire spokeswoman said. Three people have been injured, including a firefighter who broke his foot. The cause was under investigation. Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32271475/ns/weather/ 47. August 3, Northern Arizona Today – (Arizona) Renovations to clinic building in Grand Canyon National Park begin. Work recently began on renovations to the clinic building on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Over 1,900 square feet of space in the north corner of the Mission 66 clinic building will be renovated during this second phase of improvements for emergency responders. This project will provide new office space for the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center and improve office space for the park’s emergency medical services (EMS) program. The building’s HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and utility systems will also be renovated during the project. Once completed, these improvements will allow for a more consolidated and efficient emergency response in the park as most of the South Rim’s emergency response personnel will be working in one location. Currently, communications center staff work out of several small rooms in Park Headquarters about 1.5 miles away from many of the Grand Canyon emergency responders they support. In addition to allowing staff to work more closely and efficiently, the renovations will provide improved connectivity and internet access for the EMS program, upgraded 911 equipment, improved radio communications across the park, and up to 20 percent more space for the communications center including two complete operator consoles and one workstation with a radio base-station where a third dispatcher could be dedicated to a singe incident. The Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center is a major law enforcement, fire, EMS, search and rescue (SAR), and public safety telecommunications operation. The center provides support for the day-to-day and emergency operations of the entire greater Grand Canyon area, including Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks and Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon, and Wupatki National Monuments, as well as the outlying communities of Tusayan, Demotte Park, and adjacent county areas. Source: http://www.naztoday.com/news/local-news/2009/08/renovations-to-clinicbuilding-in-grand-canyon-national-park-begin/ - 19 - 48. August 3, U.S. Department of Justice – (Pennsylvania) Five companies agree to $21 million settlement for environmental damages in Pennsylvania. Five companies have agreed to compensate the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania nearly $21.4 million in cash and valuable property to address natural resource damages resulting from decades of zinc smelting operations at the Palmerton Zinc Pile Superfund site in northeast Pennsylvania, the Justice Department and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania announced on August 3. The settlement is the largest natural resource damage settlement to date in Pennsylvania. CBS Operations Inc., TCI Pacific Communications Inc., CBS/Westinghouse of Pa. Inc., HH Liquidating Corp. and HRD Liquidating Corp., agreed to make a cash payment of $9.875 million and to transfer 1200 acres of valuable property, known as the Kings Manor property and valued at approximately $8.72 million, to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The companies’ cash payment will be deposited into the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Trust Fund to be used to restore, replace, or acquire the equivalent of natural resources injured as a result of releases of hazardous substances at the Palmerton Zinc site. The settlement will resolve claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response and Compensation Act, also known as the Superfund law, the Clean Water Act and the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act, under which federal and state trustees of natural resources are authorized to seek compensation for damages to resources that are injured by releases of hazardous substances. Large quantities of the hazardous materials were carried by wind and deposited over surrounding areas resulting in defoliation and contamination of thousands of acres throughout the ridge and valley area of eastern Pennsylvania. The National Park Service owns and maintains approximately 800 acres of land that has been acquired to protect the Appalachian National Scenic Trail in this area, which winds along the Blue Mountain ridge and through the associated gaps. The Pennsylvania Game Commission also owns several thousand acres of State Game Lands on Blue Mountain. Hazardous materials subsequently contaminated several miles of Aquashicola Creek and the Lehigh River as a result of erosion, surface runoff, and shallow ground water contamination. Source: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/August/09-enrd-762.html 49. August 2, Deseret News – (Utah) Plenty of wildfires still burning in Utah. Firefighters have successfully contained the lightning-caused Cliff fire that has burned in Zion National Park and adjacent Bureau of Land Management lands since last July 28. Yet a number of fires continue to burn across the state. While Mother Nature is the main culprit in these fires, fire officials are urging those who recreate outdoors to remain vigilant and ensure their actions do not spark more with two months still remaining in the fire season. The Cliff fire began at Black Ridge in BLM forest six miles south of the Kolob Canyons Visitor Center during a strong thunderstorm that passed over the area, according to a release from Zion National Park. The fire was driven by winds and spread quickly in a northeastern direction into Zion. The fire burned a total of 744 acres, with 306 of those being in the park. On August 1 firefighters mopped up the remaining hot spots along the fire line, and all but 20 were released and made available for other assignments. A fire burning in Fishlake National Forest approximately 12 miles west of Salina was started by lightning on July 5 and has burned an estimated 1291 acres as of - 20 - July 31. The fire is burning through mixed conifer, mahogany, juniper and aspen. No structures are in danger, and the fire is being allowed to burn for resource benefits. Source: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705320813,00.html [Return to top] Dams Sector 50. August 4, Idaho Statesman – (Idaho) Anderson Dam to get some armor. Eight years after the September 11th attacks, Anderson Ranch Dam may finally be made more secure against potential terrorists. To gear up for the change, a public meeting will be held Tuesday to discuss proposed security enhancements to the dam, which is 28 miles northeast of Mountain Home on the south fork of the Boise River. The dam is one of three Idaho dams on which the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation wants to increase security. Lower Deer Flat Dam on Lake Lowell in Canyon County and Palisades Dam in Eastern Idaho are the others. The project manager with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the focus now is on embankment dams rather than concrete dams. There are no plans to revamp concrete dams on Lucky Peak and Arrowrock reservoirs, he said. For Anderson Ranch Dam, the bureau plans two 4-foot-tall concrete barriers with rock in between to separate the opposite lanes of traffic crossing the dam. The biggest concern for the dam’s safety is explosives, and the barrier would reduce vulnerabilities associated with vehicle traffic, he said. Two-way traffic would still be allowed, and any disruptions would be small, the bureau said. The barrier will most likely be put in place by late next spring, he said. He said studies began soon after the September 11th attacks attack to evaluate and set priorities for further securing America’s dams. The “extensive analysis” nationwide explains the eight-year lag, he said. Source: http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/855050.html 51. August 4, WISC 3 Madison – (Wisconsin) Buffalo lake dam safety under review. The Wisconsin State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and local officials are working to prevent a situation like last year’s dam breech at Lake Delton from possibly happening on another lake. The view from Sunset Drive in Montello is of peaceful Buffalo Lake, a man-made water body created in the late 1800s by damming the Fox River. The half-mile wide lake stretches nearly 12 miles in length, and all comes to a head on Sunset Drive, where a dike beneath the pavement holds back the water. Officials said that recent soil samples find the strength of the earth is weakening, which could lead to washout. They warn about what could help if steps are not taken. If the dam were to fail, a dam safety engineer with the DNR said, “We will lose the embankment certainly. We will lose the lake, and mostly probably, we will inundate a number of homes along Main Street.” Even though the DNR said failure is not imminent, the concern is real. The engineer said he hopes for repairs within the next 12 months, but is not yet certain of cost. He estimates repairs could range between $100,000 and $1 million, depending on the solution. Source: http://www.channel3000.com/news/20271758/detail.html 52. August 3, Billings Gazette – (Wyoming) Malfunction drops Bighorn River. The abrupt loss of about 2,500 cubic feet per second of water — almost three-quarters of the - 21 - Bighorn River’s total flow — was caused by the malfunction of new automated gate equipment at the Yellowtail Afterbay Dam caused by an electrical surge, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. During the failure, the river’s flow fell from around 4,000 cfs to 1,500 cfs for about 45 minutes. Anglers reported small trout stranded and flopping on land after the quick drop, and fish jumping in a panic, saying that it looked like a salmon run. An alarm warned workers at Yellowtail Dam who quickly reacted to remedy the drawdown. The Montana area manager the Bureau of Reclamation said, “We believe this malfunction was triggered by a significant electrical surge, but regardless of the cause, it points out the need for additional fail-safe mechanisms in our control system. Although we’ve already taken steps to ensure a similar malfunction doesn’t occur again, that doesn’t change the fact that the fishery resource was likely impacted — to what extent we won’t likely know immediately,” he said. Source: http://www.trib.com/articles/2009/08/04/news/wyoming/7e852bd4ebd0eafd8725760600 7852cf.txt 53. August 3, Houma Today – (Louisiana) Hurricane Ike damage still present on Dularge levees. Levee board officials got a look at the real height of many of Terrebonne’s sinking levees and highways at their board meeting Monday night. It is a picture that looks especially bad for Dularge, where levees are untouched and unrepaired since Hurricane Ike. Levees there were overtopped by storm surge last September, and officials found large dips and holes in the levee during their inspection tour last week. The levee protecting lower Dularge is about 7 feet tall, but officials found areas that had been washed out to less than 4 feet. The levees are still unrepaired, and parish risked losing federal emergency money if it tried to do any repairs itself, said the Terrebonne Levee director. The levee board did not get the go ahead from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the agency paying for the repairs, until this summer. Officials noted with concern that much of lower Dularge itself is below sea level. Some parts of west Dularge are as much as 4 feet below sea level. Source: http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20090803/HURBLOG/908039912?Title=Hurricane -Ike-damage-still-present-on-Dularge-levees [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 inal sso ource m maaterial. original - 23 -