News Briefs: Cyberattack Causes Weeklong Payment System Outage in South Carolina

In this week's sewer and water news, a cyberattack took phone and online payment systems offline for 500,000 customers at Greenville (South Carolina) Water

A cyberattack recently took phone and online payment systems offline at Greenville (South Carolina) Water. The outage affected 500,000 customers and lasted nearly a week, according to officials.

Greenville Water’s CEO, David Bereskin, tells reporters with the Greenville News he’s fairly certain the utility’s confidential data wasn’t compromised in the attack.

“We have been preparing for potential attacks for years and put specific protections in place to ensure the safety of our data and the integrity of our water.”

In a statement, the utility says the incident didn’t impact the safety and delivery of water.

Lawmakers Release $760 Billion Infrastructure Investment Plan

The chairs of three U.S. House of Representatives committees released a framework for a five-year, $760 billion investment in infrastructure that would address some of the country’s most urgent infrastructure needs, from addressing the massive maintenance backlog, to designing safer streets, and putting the U.S. on a path toward zero emissions from the transportation sector and increasing resiliency.

The framework put forth by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio of Oregon,

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey, and Ways and Means

Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts would bolster the federal role in order to help communities around the country undertake transformative projects that are smarter, safer and made to last.

Among other things, the framework outlines major investments, including those in water and wastewater infrastructure, highways, rail, and transit systems, airports, ports and harbors, brownfields and broadband.

“Our country has changed dramatically since the 1950s, yet people and goods are now literally stuck trying to move on transportation networks first developed nearly 70 years ago. It’s past time for transformational investments to make our infrastructure smarter, safer, and resilient to climate change, or else we will keep throwing money at an antiquated system that is only holding us and our economy back,” DeFazio says in a press release.

Car Vs. Hydrant Crash Causes Boil-Water Advisory for Harvard

Residents lost water service and a boil water advisory was issued in Harvard, Massachusetts, after a distracted driver crashed a vehicle into a fire hydrant and caused a water main to break.

Police say the teen driver had been texting while driving, according to the Boston Globe.

Video released by the Harvard Police Department on Facebook shows water gushing out from under the hydrant. In a matter of hours overnight, the Harvard Department of Public Works reported the town’s main water tank was emptied due to the broken water main.

Here's a link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/HarvardPoliceDepartment/videos/2368873173403930/



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