Understanding Water and Terrorism.

Understanding Water and Terrorism. By H. Court Young; published by BurgYoung Publishing, 866/411-KNOW (phone), www.burgyoungpublishing.com (Web); 216 pages; $14.95.

 Water security and terrorism is a vast and important topic given little attention by book publishers. Author H. Court Young tries to rectify that situation by focusing on this neglected arena. While the book does outline the U.S. water infrastructure and identify issues of concern, it falls short on solutions. Overall the book is a relatively basic discussion of water systems generally, with little information on the terrorists who threaten those systems.

The first half of the book provides a history and description of water systems and their vulnerabilities, primarily in the United States. But scarcely nine pages are devoted to terrorists themselves. In a section called "Who are the Terrorists?" less than a single page is devoted to answering that question. Subsequent pages outline terrorist groups only in a general sense.

With the author's apparent experience in the water sector--a brief bio in the book notes that he is a geologist with 25 years working with water systems--the reader expects a wide array of methods to address vulnerabilities. Those never materialize, with only 10 pages covering "countering terrorism of water supplies." Instead, the text seems to be a collection of research gathered incidentally in the course of working on some other subject, then, because of its common theme, put together in one book.

The second half of the book discusses various divisions of the Department of Homeland Security, their responsibilities, and their role in protecting major U.S. critical infrastructures. The information is useful but available elsewhere. Water system providers unfamiliar with the Bioterrorism Act and how to comply with it will find a useful section on those topics, however, as well as appendices and a list of Web sites with further information.

Reviewer: Joe N. Smith, Jr., CPP, CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner), is the manager of security services for the Salt River Project, a water and electric utility, in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a member of the ASIS International Utilities Security Council.