Water security guards against contamination at 2008 Olympic games

Water security guards against contamination at 2008 Olympic games

BEIJING, China, Sept. 4, 2008 -- While world records were being made and broken at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, strategically placed Hach GuardianBlue® Early Warning Systems were quietly and carefully analyzing the drinking water to guard against contamination.

Everyone enjoyed watching the recent Olympics as the finest athletes of the world competed for the gold. China spent some $6.5 billion on security for the games to protect the 10,000 athletes, 30,000 journalists, 80 heads of state and others gathering in and around the National Stadium (the "Bird's Nest"), the Olympic Village and surrounding hotels. The Hach GuardianBlue Early warning system was included in the state-of-the-art security measures to quickly alert officials in the event contaminants were introduced into water supplies.

China's Beijing Health Ministry chose the GuardianBlue Early Warning System several months before the games after reviewing recommendations on how to guard against intentional contamination of water supplies.

GuardianBlue is proven to be the best option for continuous and accurate screening for water quality anomalies that would characterize an intentional contamination of the water supply. Hach technicians were also contracted to provide expertise in site selections and installation of the early warning systems.

Continuous Monitoring
The GuardianBlue EWS is the first and only early warning system for drinking water certified and designated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as an approved product for security. Once every minute the system measures and analyzes sensor data from five state of the art water quality sensors and calculates a trigger signal, which indicates a deviation from the water quality baseline. If significant deviations occur, the trigger signal alerts security officials in real-time.

No deviations were reported during the games. If there had been, the monitor would have not only notified security personnel immediately, it would have also instantly signaled automatic samplers to capture real-time water samples at designated monitoring locations. In the event of a contamination, The system uses the GuardianBlue Agent Library to classify the deviation. The library contains fingerprints for a wide variety of threat contaminants, ranging from VX and ricin to arsenic and herbicides.

The success of the summer Olympic games is a point of immense national pride for China, and deservedly so. Unprecedented security measures were taken to deal with potential threats -- one measure being the development of a highly strategic early warning system to alert officials of intentional contamination in the water supply. By continuously monitoring drinking water at key locations at the games, the GuardianBlue EWS helped to provide a sense of confidence for security officials that water quality was being guarded effectively.