Navy Radar Shuts Down SCADA Systems

Event Year: 1999 Reliability: Confirmed
Country: United States
Industry Type: Water/Waste Water
Description:

In November 1999, the US Navy was conducting exercises off San Diego during which two commercial spectrum users experienced severe electro mangnetic interference (EMI) to their Supervisory Control and Data Aquistion (SCADA) wireless networks operating at approximately 928.5 MHZ.

Impact:

The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) and the San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE) Companies were unable to remotely actuate critical value openings and closings as a result.  This necessitated sending technicians to remote locations to manually open and close water and gas valves.

Action Description: The cause of the EM interference was determined to be a NAVY AN/SPS 49 radar operating off the coast of San Diego. Resulted in restrictions in Radar operation.