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LAS VEGAS -- Terrorists discussed recruiting treatment plant employees to poison drinking water supplies in major urban areas prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a federal bulletin obtained by a Nevada newspaper.
A federal bulletin distributed nationwide to law enforcement agencies and water facility operators advised several protective measures to secure facilities against two scenarios, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
The newspaper withheld details of the scenarios and the 15 protective measures federal Homeland Security officials advocated for guarding against them, citing public safety concerns. It said Nevada law enforcement officials and water treatment officials advised that describing the measures would help terrorists.
The document did not offer evidence of an imminent credible or specific threat, or information that operatives were dispatched to the United States after the 2001 terrorist attacks to carry out such a plot, the Review-Journal said.
"It's just an alert to be vigilant about in-house employees at these facilities," said Jim O'Brien, director of emergency management for Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.
Southern Nevada Water Authority spokesman Vince Alberta told The Associated Press that the alert was distributed on a Web site maintained by the Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a network involving water and wastewater treatment utilities and federal security agencies.
"We've seen the document," Alberta said, adding that while the warning was taken seriously, "There was not anything specifying Las Vegas per se."
One unnamed place in the northeastern United States was mentioned as an example, but Alberta said there was no urban area or town named.
The Review-Journal reported the four-page bulletin detailed unnamed terrorists' discussions monitored by the government that focused on the possibility of poisoning drinking water during the chlorinating process.
"To accomplish this objective, they discussed recruiting insiders to work with them," the document said, adding that terrorists thought it would be futile to try to poison a large water reservoir because of the dilution factor.
The bulletin said the terrorists' discussions showed "a certain degree of operational sophistication" regarding unsecured water facilities.
"Such targeting would be consistent with al-Qaida's stated objective to cause mass casualties and to disrupt and undermine vital economic interests in this country," it said.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority, made up of the Las Vegas area's seven water providers, already had adopted most of the changes advocated in the bulletin, Alberta said.
He said the water authority spent several million dollars improving security since the 2001 attacks, and conducted at least two exercises with federal and county emergency management officials "to enhance communication, coordination and prevention of potential threats."
The most recent exercise was in April, Alberta said.
In northern Nevada, officials at the Washoe County Department of Water Resources reacted to the bulletin immediately after receiving it.
"We have now completed our vulnerability analysis and are improving security," John Collins, the agency's manager of utility services, told the Review-Journal. "But we don't think it will apply to us because it says they're more worried about larger systems."
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