 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is advising water and wastewater systems to consider the risks of disclosing sensitive operational information following multiple public records requests from artificial intelligence (AI) service providers, as reported by the WaterISAC and the American Water Works Association (AWWA).
In at least one instance, an AI service provider requested “all SCADA logs for 2026 for all treatment, distribution and wastewater management systems.” The requestor also indicated they were seeking “daily or hourly historical logs” for specific environmental and physical process indicators, including inflow and outflow water volumes and flow rates, aggregate water quality baseline metrics, historical reservoir and tank storage levels, and aggregate daily energy consumption or equipment run-times.
This type of information carries significant operational sensitivity given the insight it provides to a utility’s operations. EPA concurs with the WaterISAC’s and AWWA’s recommendation that water and wastewater utilities recognize that the aggregation of operational data across multiple utilities has the potential to reveal patterns, vulnerabilities, and system behaviors in the water sector. Such data, if obtained with malicious intent, could be used to jeopardize continuity of service, endangering public health and national security.
EPA encourages water sector utilities to evaluate the potential sensitivity of information requests and to make risk‑informed decisions about whether—and under what conditions—to respond, consistent with applicable state information protection laws.
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