An open letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:

Secretary Janet Napolitano
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528

Subject: Contamination of public drinking water supplies by terrorists.

Secretary Napolitano:

The contamination of public drinking water supplies by terrorists is by far the easiest and cheapest way to do great and indiscriminate harm to the public. Deadly drinking water contaminates, in the form of potent pesticides and herbicides, can easily be purchased at any farm or garden supply store. And, believe it or not, local water departments actually provide the delivery means of the contaminated water to the unsuspecting public!

Once safe drinking water leaves the fence line of a water treatment plant, there are many direct access points that allow for its contamination. The videos below, particularly Demonstration , Three Contamination Methods & Public Buildings At Risk , show just how very easy it is to contaminate public drinking water supplies using residential backflow prevention valves.

Out of curiosity, is Homeland Security actually proactive when it comes to preventing terrorism? Or do you just sit back and wait for bad things to happen?

If you, Madam Secretary, truly believe that one of your agency’s missions is to “protect the nation from biological attacks”, then it is incumbent on DHS (and EPA), acting through all of the nation’s water utilities and government entities, to totally ban all residential backflow valves (RP, RPZ & Double-check) because they do provide direct and easy access to the public’s drinking water supply.

Can you imagine the nationwide fallout if even just one community was poisoned by a lone terrorist using that community’s drinking water supply as the delivery method for deadly pesticides and herbicides (which, by the way, are not affected by chlorinated water)? What responsible person or parent would not worry that their own community's public water supply was being contaminated?

I hope and pray that it won’t take a drinking water contamination event by a lone terrorist to give DHS (and EPA) a wake-up call that residential backflow valves are dangerous and must be banned.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions.

Thank you,

David Brown
1805 Burlington Circle
Sun City Center, FL 33573-5219
Phone: 813-634-6048

Homeowners who pump their lawn water from a pond or lake are being required by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to install expensive backflow valves.

Backflow valves are an expensive solution to a problem that simply doesn't exist. No one has ever died in the state of Florida from a residential backflow contamination incident. In fact, no one has ever even gotten sick in Hillsborough County (population: 1.2 million) from a backflow contamination incident.

I recently completed a special video which details three methods to contaminate a public water supply using backflow valves. It it can be viewed by clicking here.

I am very enthusiastic about all the benefits of using AMRs (Automatic Meter Reading water meters) in residential areas, including that they instantly detect terrorists' public drinking water supply tampering and also detect those very rare backflow incidences. AMR's are to water safety and utilities what Mozart is to music.

On the other hand, I am totally opposed to the use of RP (RPZ) and Double-check backflow valves in residential areas for a number of reasons. After viewing all the videos on this site, please visit my website: 26 Reasons to Ban Residential RP Backflow Valves.

Because of my total distrust of RP backflow valves, I have creating a series of videos about their many vulneabilities. The files are .wmv files which are compatible with Windows Media Player.

Please view the following videos in order. You may consider some of the videos a bit risque, but please keep in mind that by requiring these valves in residential areas, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is the king without any clothes. I'm just the kid in the crowd pointing it out.

• Introduction
• Demonstration
• Public Buildings At Risk
• Port Locks
• Stealing Valves
• Double Standard
• Environmental Impact
• Cost Benefit
  • Reasons to ban RP valves.
• Ethics
• Internal Emails
  • Text of many backflow valve related internal emails.
• Dishonest Water Utility Employees
• Epilogue
• Summary

If you want to contact Van Hoffnagle about the dangers of RP valves in residential areas, here is his contact information:

• Van Hoofnagle, Administrator, Drinking Water Section - 850-245-8631 - van.hoofnagle@dep.state.fl.us
• Department of Environmental Protection, 2600 Blair Stone Road, Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400

The DEP planned to have their revised rules all in place by Fall of 2009 but that hasn't happened. They have had to delay their backflow valve rulemaking efforts several times in order to work on federally mandated rules governing other water matters. I suggested to the DEP that in the interim maybe they should issue user-friendly status reports to keep everyone updated and informed. Unfortunately, they didn't care for that idea.

So, I decided to provide monthly Updates:

• For all of the 2010 Updates, combined into one document, click here
• Update #1 - Review of the DEP's public workshops.
• Update #2 - Florida Statute 120.52(8) vs DEP's regulations.
• Update #3 - Annual cost of testing and maintaining RPs.
• Update #4 - Who's responsible for the safety of a neighborhood's drinking water supply?
• Update #5 - Secretarial Hearing vs ERC Hearing?
• Update #6 - Well done, Broward County!
• Update #7 - Do backflow valves violate state and federal laws?
• Update #8 - DEP's official statement about the unreliablity of RP backflow valves.
• Update #9 - Does Home Rule status override DEP's reporting requirements?
• Update #10 - Two public water supply contamination methods using backflow valves.
• Update #11 - A third contamination method using backflow valves.
  • A video detailing all three contamination methods.
• Update #12 - Good News! - The law is working.
• For all of the 2011 Updates, combined into one document, click here
  • Update #13 - A Comprehensive list of facts concerning RP & DC backflow valves in residential areas.
  • Update #14 - The Governor’s “Executive Order Review Questionnaire”.
  • Update #15 - DEP's Questionnaire response & Florida's Building Code Commission meeting.
  • Update #16 - Impact of bin Laden's death & Backflow prevention device correction.
  • Update #17 - TV news story about stealing valves & Backflow valves on church property.
  • Update #18 - Dept. of Homeland Security's recent report that ignored contamination of public water supplies by terrorists.
  • Update #19 - Florida Supreme Court's decision affecting state agencies' rule revisions, such as those concerning backflow valves.
  • Update #20 - Rule revisions are moving forward, perhaps.