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EPA Region 8 Wyoming Drinking Water
Monthly Newsletter
August, 2026
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Photo Credit: Lucien Gassie, Wyoming Sanitary Survey Rule Manager. Photo taken near Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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Defending Against an Active Threat to Siemens S7 Series PLCs
Overview
The National Security Agency (NSA) has issued a cybersecurity advisory to inform owners and operators of Siemens S7-series Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) of an active cyber threat to these industrial control systems (ICSs).
Recommended Actions
EPA recommends water and wastewater systems review the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) in the advisory and the potential operational impacts to learn more about this threat, and apply the recommended mitigation actions and preventative hardening actions to minimize the likelihood of an attack.
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EPA Hits Key Milestone in Expedited Review of Fluoride under the Safe Drinking Water Act
On August 3rd, EPA announced the next step in its review of public health risks linked to fluoride in drinking water: the release of the Protocol for Developing the Fluoride Human Health Toxicity Assessment expedited assessment of fluoride. This marks a significant milestone in the agency’s expedited assessment of fluoride under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), a priority set by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin as part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to Make America Healthy Again, while following gold standard science.
“Every American should be able to count on safe and healthy drinking water, plain and simple. In light of new science and real concerns from the public, the Trump EPA is working in lockstep with HHS to expedite our review of fluoride under the Safe Drinking Water Act,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “Today’s important milestone means we are another step closer to completing this assessment years ahead of schedule. Our new action outlines specifically how EPA’s assessment will be conducted and advances our commitment to transparency and gold standard science.”
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EPA checklist: Lab readiness for water contamination incidents
When a drinking water contamination incident occurs, utilities move through three phases: investigation, response, and recovery. Laboratories are critical in each phase by delivering timely, reliable results that inform decisions. To strengthen preparedness, EPA developed a “rip‑and‑run” checklist with clear, actionable steps labs can take before and during an incident.
Who should use it
Utility, commercial, municipal, tribal, state, and federal laboratories that support water sector emergencies.
What's inside
- Pre‑incident readiness (contacts, capabilities, QA/QC)
- Incident support (sampling/analysis priorities, chain of custody, communications)
- Surge capacity, safety, and recovery/after‑action steps
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Operational Alert: Tips to Protect Your System from Cyber Threats
EPA and CISA are currently observing a significant increase in cyber threat actors targeting programmable logic controllers (PLC) in the Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) Sector. This activity has resulted in operational impacts, boil water notices, and sustained manual operations at utilities of all sizes.
All drinking water and wastewater systems, including those with mature cybersecurity programs, should validate their external connections, as the current targeting activity includes cellular modems often installed by operators, vendors, or system integrators that may not be documented or included in routine attack surface scans. Operational technology (OT) assets exposed to the internet have an increased risk of defacement, configuration changes, operational disruptions, and, in severe cases, physical damage.
Drinking water and wastewater systems are urged to implement the following mitigations:
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Disconnect the PLC from the internet. Remote access for operational purposes should go through a VPN or gateway device, not directly through the PLC.
- Enable password protection and change default passwords.
- Allowlist IPs to only allow remote access from known engineering laptops or other critical OT assets.
For additional support, contact EPA's Cybersecurity Technical Assistance Program for the Water Sector or your CISA Regional Office.
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Strengthening Water Infrastructure For Tomorrow (SWIFT) initiative Technical Assistance Offer
The SWIFT initiative offers free natural hazard risk assessment technical assistance and workshops to support drinking water, wastewater, and storm water (water sector) utilities. SWIFT provides location-specific natural hazard data and practical risk assessment tools to identify and evaluate resilient strategies. With this support, SWIFT helps promote a better understanding of natural hazard threats and their impacts on vulnerable assets, providing the guidance needed to make risk-informed infrastructure and investment decisions. SWIFT also offers approaches to infrastructure financing, making necessary connections that help utilities fund the implementation of their disaster resilience projects.
Under Section 1433 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), there is an upcoming deadline of December 31, 2026, for small (3,301 to 49,999 population served) community water systems (CWSs) to submit an emergency response plan certification to US EPA. SWIFT’s technical assistance can support the development of or updates to Risk and Resilience Assessments and Emergency Response Plans (ERPs) required under Section 1433 of SDWA for all CWSs serving more than 3,300 people.
If you know of a utility that would benefit from SWIFT’s assistance, please tell them to contact Aliza Furneaux (Furneaux.aliza@epa.gov) or to click the button below.
Finally, SWIFT has an upcoming webinar pertaining to “Natural Hazard Technical Assistance for Updating your Emergency Response Plan,” which will be held on October 14, 2026, from 1:00–2:30 PM ET. Participants will learn about the SDWA 1433 ERP requirements and recertification, and how SWIFT can help develop or update ERPs. If you are aware of water sector utilities or stakeholders interested in this webinar, please tell them to click on the button below to register for this webinar.
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Public Water System Facility and Contact Changes
Please contact EPA Region 8 Drinking Water Program if your system has a change in the treatment process; you add or remove a water source; there is a change in the number of people served or the number of water connections; or different contact information becomes available for your water system. This allows us to keep you up to date on monitoring requirements and keeps our inventory current. Failure to notify EPA about water source or treatment changes may result in a violation.
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EPA Region 8 Drinking Water Program Contacts
- Kyle St Clair, Wyoming Liaison – 303-312-6791 – stclair.kyle@epa.gov
- Rob Parker, Field Services and Tribal Section Supervisor – 303-312-6664 – parker.robert@epa.gov
- Seth Tourney, Rule Implementation Section Supervisor – 303-312-6579 – tourney.seth@epa.gov
- Ándie Trujillo Guajardo, Partnerships and Data Section Supervisor – 303-312-6454 – guajardo.andrea@epa.gov
- If there is an after-hours or holiday emergency, please call 303-312-6327.
Questions related to a specific newsletter article, please contact:
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