Before
the
National
Telecommunications and Information Administration
U.S.
Department of Commerce
Washington,
DC 20230
Request for Comments )
)
Critical Infrastructure Industry )
Providers of Energy, Water and ) Docket
No. 010327080-1080-01
Railroad Services on the NTIA )
Spectrum Use Study )
)
COMMENTS
OF EAST BAY MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT
East
Bay Municipal Utility District (interchangeably "District"/"EBMUD"),
through counsel, hereby offers its Comments in response to a Request issued by
the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S.
Department of Commerce, pursuant to directives contained in the Agency Federal
Funding Legislation of 2000.[1]
1. The
District
A. Overview And Governance
The
District is a publicly-owned water utility organized under the Municipal
Utility District Act of 1921. It
currently operates and discharges its statutory obligations pursuant to Section
11501 et seq. of the Public Utilities Code of
the State of California. The District's
service area encompasses 35 jurisdictions -- 20 incorporated and 15 unincorporated
communities -- in the Northern California area,[2]
for which it provides potable water service
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to 1.3 million customers over a 325 square mile service
area. It is governed by its publicly
elected seven member Board of Directors.
The
District takes seriously its mission to manage the natural resources within its
service area, and has a long history of preserving and protecting the
environment as it discharges its obligation to provide potable water to its
customers. To that end, its operations
include active water conservation and water reclamation programs, water
distribution, wastewater treatment and long range water supply management (the
latter including storage capacity and protection of 55,000 acres of watershed
land).
B. The District Is An Interested Party
EBMUD
places heavy reliance on its FCC licensed systems and associated operating
networks,[3]
and has actively participated in numerous proceedings before the FCC involving
spectrum allocation and Critical Infrastructure Industries (CII). More specifically, EBMUD was a Party
Participant in Joint Supplemental Comments filed with the FCC in WT Docket No.
97-81,[4]
wherein the Joint Commenters urged the Commission,
inter alia, to recognize and designate as "dominant use"
spectrum that in which CIIs represented
the majority of users of Multiple Address Systems (MAS) systems and the primary
use of spectrum was for private internal communications. In adopting the Joint Commenters' request,
the FCC appropriately concluded to: (i)
restrict licensing in the band of 928/952/956 to CII eligibles;
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(ii) grandfather existing MAS facilities in the
928/952/956 band, as well the 928/959 band; and (iii) reserve a portion of new
channel pairs for CII eligibles in the then contemplated auctions for the
932/941 MHz band.
EBMUD
also participated as a Joint Party in the Petition filed with the FCC in
response to that Agency's Issuance of a Freeze on filing MAS applications as it
deliberated rule modifications it believed necessary to comply with directives
in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997[5]
and consistent with its expanded auction authority.
In
addition, EBMUD has an uninterrupted record of active participation in the
seminal MAS proceeding before the FCC where, among others, it joined with other
parties to successfully urge the Commission to expand the definition of
"public safety radio services" to include CII eligibles, thereby
shielding "dominant use" spectrum of these entities from
Congressionally mandated license auctions.
In sum,
EBMUD's record of participation shows an overwhelming desire to ensure that the
outcome of any proceeding potentially affecting its licenses or operations (i)
preserves or otherwise maximizes licensee flexibility in the use of FCC
licensed facilities (particularly important for licensees with statutory
obligations to provide critical services involving the protection of safety,
life and property); and (ii) avoids action(s) or the promulgation of rules
which require incumbent licensees to downsize, reconfigure, relocate,
recoordinate or in any other manner disturb existing authorization(s),
operations(s) or capacity(ies). These
considerations guide the District's participation in the instant matter.
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2. The
District's Response To NTIA's Request For Comment
NTIA
offers that the Agency Federal Funding authorization for Fiscal 2001 instructed
the Department of Commerce (along with the Departments of Justice, State and
the Judiciary) to collect data on the spectrum use by providers of energy,
water, and railroad services in the protection and maintenance of the nation's
critical infrastructure. These data are to be provided Congress as part of an
overall spectrum needs assessment for CII entities.
In
specific terms, NTIA notes:
Energy,
water and railroad services are primary components
of
the nation's critical infrastructure.
Processing voice and
data
information via wireless radio systems is an efficient means
of
communications during situations requiring emergency response.
Without
adequate radio spectrum, providers of energy, water and
railroad
services would be unable to address major service
interruptions
due to natural disaster, equipment malfunctions
or
in come cases, terrorist activities.
It states further that:
Wireless
telecommunications are frequently used by utilities to
monitor
power transmission lines, water pumps and also to send
commands
to various remote control switches. In
addition, some
utilities
must comply with State statutes requiring them to respond
to
service interruptions within a specified time period. Interruption
of
these services could disrupt emergency response efforts and impede
law
enforcement activities.
It then offers:
Furthermore,
lack of interoperability can be a major hindrance to
mission-critical
public safety communications. Multi-jurisdiction
coordination
between Federal and non-federal entities during crisis
situation
can be severely impacted because of inadequate radio
spectrum.
Notice at 1.
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NTIA
also advises it is the President's principal adviser on telecommunications and
information policy, and manages the Federal government's use of radio
spectrum. In furtherance of the Funding
directive and in its capacity as Adviser to the President, NTIA poses specific questions regarding spectrum
use and requirements of CIIs, and also requests copies of existing or proposed
system studies which may help inform the Agency on spectrum use, needs and
projected demand. EBMUD is pleased to
provide its categorical responses, as hereinafter set out below.
A. District Operations And Its Present
OP/NET System
EBMUD
operates numerous microwave facilities as part of its water Operations Network
(OP/NET). This includes its MAS system
network, which encompasses 14 Masters and numerous remotes spread throughout
its service area. More than 50% of the
District's MAS systems are presently grandfathered under bandwidth guidelines,
and operate at 25 kHz, which is wholly consistent with the Commission's
well-settled policy of maximizing licensee flexibiity, as adopted in the FCC's
1988 comprehensive overhaul of MAS spectrum licensing.[6]
The
District's present OP/Net system was installed in the mid 1980s, with a life
expectancy of 15 years. It is one of
open architecture, and the integrated network requires the skills of both
EBMUD's staff and outside vendors and consultants.
The
OP/NET system is critical to its management of water production, treatment and
its distribution systems. As such, it
aids in maximizing reliability of the monitoring and control of the District's
water system, and the more than 300 water operation facilities in its service
area (which includes the reservoirs, hydroelectric power plants, aqueducts,
treatment plants, rate control valves and pumping plants). OP/NET also provides historical data on
reservoir and system outages, as well as data on shutdown studies for Seismic
Improvement Projects, vibration studies (for predicting pump failures) and
turbidity studies. These data are also
invaluable in the calibration of models to forecast emergency conditions.
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The OP/NET system is also used in hydrant testing, to
determine operational status, pressure zone investigations, water studies, and
to meet water reporting requirements.
Because
of current demand, the Districts' facilities are operating at or near full
capacity, which has accelerated the need for it to implement an overall system
upgrade.
B. System Upgrade And Spectrum Usage
Given a
projected life of 15 years and the issue of loading, the District sometime ago
concluded a system upgrade was essential in order for it to continue to address
demand, maximize efficiencies, continue savings in energy costs, and improve
security and maintenance. Accordingly,
and as these Comments make evident, the District is in the midst of
implementing its system wide upgrade.
Beyond
the matters of age and loading, there were specific "real time" needs
involving control and reliability, which included: (i) an over reliance on third parties for essential
communications needs; (ii) an over reliance on leased line systems for data
communications and erratic pricing; (iii) recurring costs of leased facilities;
(iv) an ever increasing bandwidth demand for existing and contemplated service
offerings; (v) replacement of analog systems (which includes the replacement of
the SCADA system with an Ethernet interface); (vi) maintenance costs for the
older system and difficulty in locating replacement parts; and (vii) redundancy
requirements in communications paths, particularly for critical telemetry
sites, and to improve overall operational safety and reliability.
Spectrum
usage in the present system is located in the 2 GHz, 6 GHz and 23 GHz bands,
and the system employs Motorola Starplex radios with associated modules to
permit both voice and data. The upgrade
envisions an optical ring (OC-3 SONET) which will be owned and operated by the
District.[7] Because of the lack of capacity in the lower
bands, the District's plan contemplates a migration to the 6 GHz and 11 GHz
bands, respectively, while expanding operations in the 23 GHz band.
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The
District has completed its Prior Coordination process in furtherance of its
plan and in accordance with the rules and procedures of the FCC.
C. Additional Capacity And Meeting The
Demand
The
District's overall cost of the upgrade -- including pre-engineering studies and
other pre-construction consultative activities -- may exceed $5 million. This estimate could increase if the District
encounters unanticipated and substantial delays.
Notwithstanding,
and while the upgraded system will permit the District to address most of its
concerns, the increase in bandwidth can neither be considered a luxury nor will
the capacity lie fallow. In fact, the District
is already planning a number of additional services that, in the short term,
will likely consume much of the added capacity -- which may include video
conferencing, remote administration, establishment of an internal voice radio
system, incorporation of data base control functions into the network, and an
expanded ability to address and accommodate the ever increasing demand of its
wide area network (WAN).
D. The Need For Stability In Licensing
As a
publicly-governed water utility, the District's budgetary process is required
to undergo various stages of public discussion prior to final adoption and/or
approval. While this guarantees its
customers are fully informed, it can also mean that budgetary matters often
require lead times in excess of those normally required in the purely private
industry sector. For this reason alone,
CII entities should not be faced with wholly unexpected barriers to licensing
and/or system modification(s), particularly where such potential problems may
be related to the clamor for additional spectrum by competing interests. Stated differently, EBMUD recognizes and
appreciates the almost universal interest in locating and allocating additional
spectrum for license auctions and, indeed, some such discussions may involve
spectrum adjacent to frequencies now contemplated for use by the District. The one delay, perhaps, EBMUD would least
like to address in its planned upgrade is a FCC proceeding involving either
spectrum modification or a reallocation.
Not only would such an event prove costly, it could jeopardize its
investment to date and, worse yet, cause long term harm to the District and its
customers.
-8-
Because
forward looking planning is so critical to CII entities such as EBMUD, it would
urge NTIA to recommend that any contemplated new licensing must, as a threshold
consideration, consider the present needs of and potential impact on critical
infrastructure providers.
3. Conclusion
EBMUD
requests the foregoing comments, plans and recommendations be fully considered
by NTIA, incorporated in its report, and included in the broader assessment of
the needs and mission critical requirements of CII providers.
Respectfully
submitted,
EAST
BAY MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT
By:_________________________________
Curtis
T. White
Law
Offices of Curtis T. White
4201
Connecticut Ave., NW
Suite
402
Washington,
DC 20008-1158
Its
Attorneys
June 8, 2001
[2] Incorporated cities are Alameda, Albany,
Berkeley, Danville, El Cerrito, Emeryville, part of Hayward, Hercules,
Lafayette, Moraga, Oakland, Orinda, Piedmont, Pinole, part of Pleasant Hill,
Richmond, San Leandro, San Pablo, San Ramon and part of Walnut Creek. Unincorporated communities are Alamo,
Ashland, Blackhawk, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Crockett, Diablo, El Sobrante,
Fairview, Kensington, North Richmond, Oleum, Rodeo, San Lorenzo and Selby.
[3] in addition to relying on its FCC
authorized spectrum to handle day-to-day operations in furtherance of its
statutory mandate to provide potable water, EBMUD's network is used as part of
on-going program to glean energy data for further analyses, and to collect
historical data to assess patterns,
reduce costs and improve overall efficiencies.