Call sounded to protect infrastructure

The Associated Press

SPOKANE — The roads, rails, power lines and pipelines that crisscross the Northwest are vulnerable to terrorism and natural disasters, experts at an international conference said Friday.

Security experts who addressed the Partnership for Regional Infrastructure Security conference here said businesses and communities need to take stock of their assets and make plans for protecting them.

Composed of government and private industry representatives from five U.S. states and three Canadian provinces, the daylong session was sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Economic Region, a 12-year-old economic development organization.

Representatives met in closed-door sessions to plan a proposed regional assessment of "interdependent infrastructure," how to protect it, and what to do when it breaks.

"We need to start thinking about the unthinkable," said Tom Karier, a member of the Northwest Power Planning Council, a conference co-sponsor. "We thought about terrorism before Sept. 11 … but we did not push it far enough."

Infrastructure includes sectors of the economy that keep the country running, such as telecommunications, energy, transportation, banking, municipal water, emergency management, government services, agriculture and health care.

Paula Scalingi, president of an energy consulting group and former head of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection, said she hoped delegates would return to their respective countries and begin identifying and setting priorities for vulnerable assets.

"There are hundreds of thousands of critical assets across the country," she said. "We cannot protect them all."

She and others suggested determining which assets should be protected and how to mitigate the effects and recover from a natural disaster or terrorist act.

The complexity and interdependence of the nation’s infrastructure make it difficult to understand and protect, said Jim Peerenboom, director of the Infrastructure Assurance Center at the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago.

The World Trade Center attack showed the vulnerability of the nation’s infrastructure, he said.

New York City emergency services agencies were devastated early on Sept. 11. Airlines were grounded, and tunnels, bridges and borders were closed.

Massive disruptions of telecommunications occurred, shutting down Wall Street trading — affecting banking and financial services worldwide — and hindering communication among rescue workers and others.

The energy sector was affected by gasoline price-gouging and fears that refineries and nuclear plants would be attacked. Ships carrying liquid petroleum and other petroleum products were prevented from entering U.S. harbors, he said.

"The effects are still playing out today," Peerenboom said, urging the participants to develop an understanding of what happens if infrastructure is lost and how individual segments affect other segments.

It is estimated that up to 90 percent of the equipment used to make telephone calls, produce and deliver energy and goods, and transact financial services are owned by the private sector.

Tamara Doherty, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Administration in the Northwest, said there is not enough money in the federal government to deal with the effects, so public-private partnerships are crucial.

"I believe the only way we are going to prepare for this kind of event is by pooling our resources," she said. "We have to look at other ways of doing business."

Canadian representatives said they want to cooperate with their southern neighbor and biggest trading partner.

Natural gas from Canada flows through the Northwest in pipelines to California and high-voltage power lines carry electricity from Canadian dams.

"Infrastructure doesn’t end at the 49th parallel," said Bill de Laat of Canada’s new Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness. "Major gas pipelines, railroads and electrical lines cut across borders."