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Contributor:

L. Vance Taylor

​Luis Vance Taylor is the Chief of the Office of Access and Functional Needs at the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. He is responsible for ensuring the needs of individuals with disabilities and persons with access and functional needs are identified before, during and after a disaster.

Previously, Mr. Taylor served as a Principal at the DC-based Catalyst Partners, and before that, he served at the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) where he handled security-related policy issues affecting the drinking water and wastewater sector. Mr. Taylor applied his expertise in the area of critical infrastructure protection to advance the security posture of the nation’s largest water utilities by supporting the Water Sector Coordinating Council, serving as a Subject Matter Expert to the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, working as a partner to EPA’s Water Security Division, and facilitating security policy for the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (WaterISAC).

While at AMWA, Mr. Taylor also participated on teams responsible for drafting the drinking water and wastewater Sector-Specific Plan, developing RAMCAP-compatible vulnerability assessments for water utilities, and refining DHS’ Tier I & II Criteria for water.

Before working in the water sector, Mr. Taylor worked as an aide for two members of the House of Representatives; Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-01) and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (CA-16). While on Capitol Hill, Mr. Taylor provided advice and recommendations to members on such issues as homeland security, immigration, and grants.

Mr. Taylor is a nationally recognized public speaker and advocate for individuals with disabilities. He has a Master’s degree in homeland security from the University of Connecticut and an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in communications.

Chemical security – Keeping It Straightforward

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July 14, 2014

Last week, the House passed a bill reauthorizing the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. While the bill keeps the program going for 3 years at a time, the legislation institutes a program largely unchanged from its current form…which is a good thing.

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Water in West Virginia – An Ounce of Prevention…

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January 15, 2014

Last Thursday, a chemical storage tank leaked about 7,500 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol into the Elk River, just one mile upstream from the West Virginia American Water plant. Thankfully, the water plant owner was forward thinking enough to invest in preparedness before an immediate need arose. This undoubtedly helped the plant respond to the chemical leak. Something tells me there’s a lesson there.

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Risk in Full Disclosure – Chlorine Locations Posted

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October 17, 2013

Last week, the Center for Effective Government (CEG) posted online a comprehensive list of how much chlorine water utilities have onsite and provided the specific coordinates of where they are stored. This information, while already available in the public domain, has never before been put on a single website because it could more easily give bad actors information to use for nefarious purposes. Here are a few questions for the CEG.

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Facing Water Shutdown, Major Utility Gets it Right

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July 19, 2013

On Monday night, the Washington Sanitation and Suburban Commission (WSSC) announced that in order to do emergency repair work on a major main, it would be shutting down water service to roughly 150,000 people for a period of several days. Unfortunately, instead of celebrating this as a victory and recognizing how well WSSC handled this situation from top to bottom, there are those who are choosing to find ways to blame the utility for causing public alarm.

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Amid Controversy and Scandal, Missing the Real Security Issues

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June 13, 2013

Today’s political climate feels more like a twisted three-ring circus of controversy than an environment aimed at resolving (or even addressing) our nation’s true challenges. This puts our national security at risk, obscuring a focus on, for example, the miserable state of our nation’s drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.

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Security for Critical Water Infrastructure – How About Some Help for the Little Guy

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May 2, 2013

In an era of diminished budgets and vanishing security grants, a recent break in at the Carters Lake Water Treatment Plant in Georgia highlights how the federal government is leaving small water systems, and the communities they serve, hanging in the wind. I’m not suggesting DHS throw obscene amounts of money at rural water systems, but I would argue that these systems can make major strides with small amounts of money.

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The Politics of Fear – Is a Cyber Attack Really Imminent?

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February 20, 2013

National security leaders like Leon Panetta, Janet Napolitano and even President Obama have been telling members of Congress and the country that unless immediate action is taken, the United States will suffer cyber attacks guaranteed to shut down our power, communication, financial and water infrastructure sectors. Well, I’m not buying it. The politics of fear is a D.C. classic.

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Water and Chemical Security – Whitman Got it Wrong

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August 30, 2012

Yesterday, the New York Times ran an editorial by Christine Todd Whitman, titled “The Chemical Threat to America.” In the op-ed, the author calls on the Administration to expand and implement chemical security regulations in the water sector as a means to protect America. She advocates that the federal government should be able to mandate chemical processes and force water systems to use so-called Inherently Safer Technologies. Ms. Whitman is smart and capable, but on this issue she is wrong, wrong, wrong.

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In the World of Cyber Security, It's Go Time

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May 7, 2012

Once again, America is officially under attack. According to multiple reports, including an “incident response” report from the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), U.S. natural gas pipeline companies are at the center of a major cyber attack campaign. While I’m certain that some in Congress will use this latest cyber attack campaign as fodder to further their cyber security legislation, I do not believe we can legislate our way out of this problem.

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