Loveland, CO — Hach Company announced it has received SAFETY Act Designation and Certification from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for GuardianBlue(TM) —the first and only early warning monitoring system designed to help cities protect their drinking water systems from terrorist contamination attacks and real-world events.

The SAFETY Act provides litigation protection for users and their contractors. SAFETY Act certification signifies the Department of Homeland Security approved the system as anti-terrorist technology. Hach's certification is based on a review of three years of test data including government testing using actual warfare agents. The GuardianBlue Early Warning System from Hach Homeland Security Technologies is now available for installation into water distribution systems.

The innovative GuardianBlue Early Warning System is the industry's first and only alert system — using patented Event Monitor technology — to detect, alert and classify contaminants from cyanide and pesticides to ricin and VX. The system can also detect, alert, classify and study real-world events and unknown contaminants in water distribution systems. This breakthrough capability means the GuardianBlue system can alert operators to threat agents, contamination and operational issues before they spread or impact the entire water system.

The GuardianBlue Early Warning System is comprised of the following components — the Event MonitorTM with Agent Library, Water Panel, TOCTM Total Organic Carbon Analyzer and optional Auto-Sampler. Municipalities will now be able to easily upgrade the current Hach Water Panel to a full GuardianBlue system.

"It is gratifying to provide cities and their citizens with a technological solution that allows them to be more confident about the security of their drinking water,” said Dr. Jeff Throckmorton, President of Hach Homeland Security Technologies.