LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After a hacker tried to attack a Florida water supply shortly before the Super Bowl, we took some questions to the Louisville Water Company to see how secure our water supply is here. We sat down with Kelley Dearing Smith, Vice President of Communications and Marketing.
She emphasized that the security process for Louisville's system involves three main steps, starting with numerous tests and treatments of the water in the Ohio River.
“If we do something wrong and mess up, we can’t recall the water…we’re not like a grocery store. Once the water leaves the plant, there’s no second guessing, we have to be absolutely sure," she said.
After working with organizations all over the river to monitor and treat the water, the next step involves tests at the plant.
“Before the water leaves the plant, our scientists do 200 water quality treatments every single day, then as the water travels through about 4,200 miles of pipe, we’re doing another round of tests,” Smith said.
Now to the cybersecurity aspect. In Florida, while the hacker did breach the system, it was caught early enough to ensure no one was hurt. While these attacks are alarming, Smith said they are not new to the industry.
Because of that, Louisville Water has been preparing for years to make sure they're ready if something like this did take place.
“It’s not just one department. It’s people in our treatment facility, it’s IT, it’s risk management and legal, so it’s a whole group of people looking at it from a different way," she said.
While the company cannot give specifics of its security plan for obvious reasons, we did ask about the budget surrounding the protection of the plant.
“I can tell you on a very high level it’s a multi-million dollar focus for Louisville Water. It’s a layered approach, it’s not just one system, it’s multiple systems. It’s not something you install and walk away, it is literally a daily conversation at Louisville Water," said Smith.
While attacks have happened at other plants across the country, Smith says Louisville Water is not aware of any similar situations that have occurred since the plant's creation.
Contact reporter Daniel Sechtin at dsechtin@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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