Federal stream gauge information knocked out in 43 states
Published: Monday, October 29, 2018
About 10 percent of a national network of 8,300 stream gauges used to
measure potential flooding isn't reporting information and workers are
giving highest priority to fixing gauges where expected rainfall could
cause flooding, officials said Friday.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it's working with the National Weather
Service and other federal, state and local agencies to determine which
gauges in 43 states should get back online first.
Don Cline of USGS said a type of computer chip failed simultaneously in
1,100 gauges for unknown reasons a little over a week ago. The chips
transmit information to a satellite.
"We know what happened; we don't know why it happened," Cline said.
Workers are replacing the chips starting with areas that could
experience flooding in the next 10 days. Cline said to get all the chips
replaced will take about two weeks, and workers are putting in overtime.
Cline said it has been a wet four to six weeks in the Midwest and
eastern U.S., so additional rainfall has the potential to cause
flooding. The stream gauges, if they're working, can give emergency
responders and residents advance warning.
"Our first objective is the protection of life and property from
flooding," Cline said.
The publicly available stream gauge information is also used by city
managers for safe drinking water, irrigation users, energy producers and
water recreation enthusiasts.
Cline said the 8,300 stream gauges in the national system use a variety
of hardware. He said it's not clear why the 1,100 chips that are all the
same type failed at the same time. Officials doubt the system was hacked.
"We don't think so," Cline said. "There's no way for that to happen.
They're not open access. They're not on the network or anything like that."
He said the chips send information to the satellite but don't get
information in return.
He said the gauges are continuing to record information even though it
isn't being transmitted, meaning no historical information on stream
flows is being lost. /— Keith Ridler, Associated Press/
