Can Your Sewer Make You Safer?

Bomb makers use some pretty nasty chemicals, and when they want to dispose of excess material they often send it down the toilet rather than risking another method that might get them caught. In an effort to detect these chemicals and determine where bombs are being made, the Swedish Defence Research Agency wants to add sensors to sewers.

Called the Explosive Material Production Hidden Agile Search and Intelligence System (EMPHASIS) project, the thankfully acronymic system uses passive sensors to pin-point the location of bomb making facilities.

The idea behind the project is pretty simple. Since high volumes of explosive chemicals aren’t normally found in sewer systems, any concentration of those chemicals would mean something fishy is in the works. Using electrochemical sensors, EMPHASIS could monitor the entire length of a sewage system and alert officials when high concentrations of explosive chemicals make it down the drain.

If explosives are detected, an alert is sent to a central command post where more rigorous data processing can verify the sensor’s findings. If verified, a team of security personnel can sweep an area, “sniffing” out explosive chemicals with high-tech, hand held sensors. Then when the facility is located, the bomb makers can be taken into custody, hopefully preventing an attack from ever taking place.

The EMPHASIS project certainly isn’t foolproof. Explosive precursors aren’t always disposed of near the bomb-making factory. In fact, dumping at other locations could allow criminals to drive law enforcement away from their actual factories. On the whole, however, I’ve got to applaud the Swedish Defence Research Agency’s creativity in coming up with the EMPHASIS project. It takes a lot of hard work to protect people, especially when everyone’s minds are in the gutter.