Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water Security topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Deputy director urges limits on system information; board member urges redaction and public review
Summary
Deputy Director Kimo Landgraf said federal and state partners advised limiting details about critical water infrastructure; Member John Helly said engineering analysis should be publicly reviewable and asked for redacted release of the full desalination study; Landgraf committed to redaction.
Deputy Director Kimo Landgraf told the Board that federal Homeland Security, State DOD, EPA and the FBI have advised the Department to limit the information it shares about water infrastructure to protect public health. "They really need to limit the amount of information they share," Landgraf told members, citing national- and state-level security guidance.
Member John Helly, citing his background in classified programs, said he respects security concerns but argued that the public needs access to the methods and engineering criteria behind proposals such as a desalination study. Helly said the executive summary alone is insufficient for informed public review and advocated releasing a redacted full study so decision-making methods are transparent.
Deputy Director Landgraf said the department is not withholding an executive summary but that some portions of full technical reports contain operational details that could be security risks. He told the Board he would redact sensitive sections and release the remainder. "There's an executive summary that's not being withheld from the public," he said; later he stated, "I will redact it," referring to the full study.
Why this matters: the Board must balance transparency and public review against operational-security concerns for critical infrastructure. Board members pressed staff to provide redacted technical backups to support conclusions in public-facing summaries.
