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WaterOperator.org Blog

Learning Lessons from Supply Chain Disruption

Potassium permanganate

One of the most prominent economic impacts to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic was the breakdown of supply chains for many consumer, medical, and industrial products. Though the shortages of goods such as toilet paper, semiconductor chips, personal protective equipment and more made widespread headlines, the range of items affected spread much wider — including to the supply of critical water treatment chemicals. The American Water Works Association found in November 2021 that 45% of surveyed water utilities were experiencing shortages of water treatment chemicals, among other staffing and supply issues. 

Shortages of chlorine did make news in the summers of 2021 and 2022 due to the difficulty pool-owners had obtaining it to clean their pool water, but the threat it posed to water utilities — where chlorine is a critical component of the treatment and disinfection process — was much less widely known. In 2021, the pandemic spurred the shortage by causing a decrease in production capacity, an increase in demand (largely from a boom of newly-installed pools), and other logistical failures. However, non-COVID factors also played a role in the shortages.

Hurricane Laura, which struck Louisiana in August 2020, severely damaged the BioLab Inc. chemical plant, a major US producer of chlorine. In 2022, the labor dispute between rail workers and rail companies briefly led to an embargo on the rail transport of hazardous materials including chlorine and other water treatment chemicals. While further major disruptions did not occur in 2023, the EPA considers the chlorine supply chain to be “vulnerable to periods of reduced product allocation and/or price increases” and maintains a page tracking the status of chlorine availability and pricing. 

The most severe supply chain disruption in 2023 for water treatment chemicals came right at the start of the year — when a four-alarm fire devastated the Carus Chemical factory in LaSalle, Illinois, on January 11. Carus is the only producer of potassium permanganate in North America, which is used to oxidize contaminants in drinking water. While the company initially warned of  a 3-month outage in its production capacity, potassium permanganate production did not resume at Carus until August. Luckily, overseas imports were able to fill demand after some initial shortages, and the EPA found that supply had stabilized by May.

Other water treatment chemical supply chains that the EPA considered to be disrupted since 2020 include carbon dioxide, sodium hydroxide and hypochlorite, hydrochloric acid, ferric and ferrous chloride, oxygen, and fluorosilicic acid. However, none of these disruptions are considered to be ongoing.

While supply chains of water treatment chemicals have always been susceptible to periods of economic strain, such as the Great Recession of 2007-09, COVID-19 revealed many more risks in the system. According to the EPA’s “Understanding Water Treatment Chemical Supply Chains” report:  

“The supply disruptions that have occurred during the pandemic era revealed a range and intensity of supply chains stressors that had not previously been observed in such a short timeframe. While high-impact events such as a pandemic or repeated extreme weather events concentrated on industrial hubs may have been considered low-probability in previous assessments, supply chain risk planning may have to consider greater frequency and co-occurrence of such high-impact events.”

The most prevalent long-standing threats to the stability of supply chains include natural disasters, equipment failures, logistical problems such as transportation delays, and malicious acts like cyberattacks and sabotage — none of which will stop being a concern even as the pandemic is increasingly behind us. International markets can also be severely affected by trade barriers, armed conflicts, and natural disasters. 

Perhaps the most prominent chemical shortage preceding 2020 was a national shortage of chlorine in 1974. While a single cause of the shortage could not be identified, New York Times reporting at the time cited the new requirement to chlorinate wastewater, the closure of production facilities, and the energy crisis of the 1970s (which was peaking with the 1973-74 oil shock) as likely factors.

For more information on the supply chain history of various water treatment chemicals, the EPA’s supply chain profiles of 46 commonly used chemicals contains shortage histories for 2000-2022, as well as risk profiles for shortages of each chemical. Risk ratings for these chemicals can also be found in the “Understanding Water Treatment Chemical Supply Chains” report.

As for future concerns, chlorine availability could continue to be made vulnerable by natural disasters in the Gulf Coast region. 33% of American chlor-alkali facilities, in which most chlorine is produced, are located along the Gulf Coast, which is both historically prone to hurricanes and under greater threat as climate change intensifies storms. Disruptions in chlorine supply also lead to disruptions in ferric chloride supply, which requires hydrochloric acid. 

The EPA has many resources to assist in preparing for and responding to supply chain challenges. The critical steps to prepare are:

  1. Using federal and state support programs for operational efficiency and cost reduction
  2. Management of supplier relationships
  3. Coordinating with other utilities, state and local agencies, and water sector associations
  4. Instituting operational flexibilities 

To respond to disruptions, the EPA recommends:

  1. Seeking federal support
  2. Communicating with suppliers
  3. Coordinating with partners

Follow the Supply Chain Resilience Guide for more information, instructions, and tips to prepare and respond.  

More information, tools, and links from the EPA: 

Elevating Women in Water

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Contributed by Margaret Golden

Women make up over half of the population, but account for less than 20% of workers in the water industry. The work that women contribute to the water industry is necessary and important, offering valuable insight to bring the industry into the future.

With a new generation of workers on the rise, it is important that women feel empowered to work in the water. Brianna Huber, chemist with the City of East Moline, is on a mission to not only recruit women into the industry but see equity in their opportunities. Her non-profit, Her2O, is currently seeking members who are ready to forge lasting change.

Women across the country are already making great impacts, breaking glass ceilings and blazing their path to the top of the water world. Two leaders in the water industry recently discussed what it means to them to be a woman in the water industry.

Newsha Ajami, the Director of Urban Water Policy at Water in the West at Stanford University, discussed in a podcast what we need to do to transition to 21st century sustainable water management. Michelle Harrison talked about her favorite parts about working as a wastewater treatment operator at the Northwestern Water & Sewer District.

Many organizations take the time to specifically acknowledge the women in their work place during women's history month. Last spring the U.S. EPA highlighted Sandhya Parshionikar, Director of the Water Infrastructure Division, Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response. Rural Communities Assistant Partnership highlighted Ines Polonius, CEO of Communities Unlimited.

Cuyamaca College in El Cajon also hosts an annual symposium dedicated to Women in Water.

An EPA Guide for Climate Resiliency Planning

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Many utilities are developing plans to increase short-term and long-term climate resiliency in response to extreme weather events, changing water availability, or the risk and resiliency assessment requirements set forth in the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (AWIA). To assist in the early developmental stages of resiliency planning, the EPA's CRWU program designed the Resilient Strategies Guide for Water Utilities. This online application prompts utilities with a series of questions about their system and its resiliency concerns to provide recommend strategies that will decrease vulnerability. This web application was updated in August 2019 to allow utilities to specify their system size and find funding sources for the projects they want to pursue.

Both water and wastewater systems can use the tool. The foundation of the guide is built using the CRWU Adaptation Strategies for Climate Change and a funding list maintained by the Water Finance Clearinghouse. Completing the guide takes roughly 20 minutes. After answering a series of questions that identify your system type, size, location, assets, preferred resiliency strategies, and funding interests, the application will produce a report that can be used as a starting point to develop a more complex plan.

Once the guide is launched, you will start by answering questions about your facility and its resiliency priorities. The priorities indicate the concerns that your system wants to address. You can filter the list of priorities in the left hand menu to narrow your focus to topics such as drought preparation, flood protection, energy efficiency, etc. The ‘More Info’ button will elaborate on any option you're considering. Once you’ve selected your priorities, you’ll indicate what assets are present within your system. From there you can select your preferred planning strategies that have been suggested based on your previous answers. Filter the strategies with the left hand menu to narrow down your options by cost or category. For example, if you want to exclude strategies that require new construction, you could check the ‘repair & retrofit’ category instead. The last section recommends potential funding sources that might assist with the strategies you've selected earlier.

The strategies and funding sources will be used to generate the final report. Continue to the end and select ‘Generate Report’. This report will include a detailed summary of your answers, contact information for any funding sources you've selected, and case studies relevant to your utility. To save a copy of the report you will have to copy and paste the results into a Word document. If you have a CREAT account, you can select ‘Export CREAT File’ to download a file that can be imported into your CREAT account’s existing analysis. CREAT (Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool) is a more in-depth risk assessment and planning tool that can be used once you've done your initial research. You can preview the CREAT tool framework with their guide here.

Featured Video: Drought Response and Recovery in the Town of Castine, ME

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This week's featured video tells the story of how  the small town of Castine, ME headed off recent drought and infrastructure challenges - a story that may be adaptable to other small systems nationwide. This video is featured on the USEPA's Drought Response and Recovery StoryMap Project for Water Utilities (ArcGIS) and is included as a case study resource in their recently updated Drought Response and Recovery Guide for Water Utilities guide. 

Featured Video: The Future of Water

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Water is a scarce resource for many communities around the globe, and this scarcity is becoming more and more widespread. Our featured video this week from Quartz Media looks out how one locality half a world away has addressed this challenge, and how the rest of us can learn from systems like these where the "future of water" has already arrived.

While this video focuses on a larger metropolitan area, there are some interesting takeaways for smaller systems as well such as:

  •  Solutions to water challenges are best solved at the individual and/or community level. 
  •  Water reuse is most likely already happening in your community and efforts can be made to change public perceptions. For example, a wastewater pipe enters the Mississippi River every 8 miles - meaning almost every community using the river as a water source is already drinking someone else's wastewater!     

Solving the Rural Water Crisis

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Every fall, Americans from all walks of life and locations drive through the countryside to enjoy the changing foliage, apple orchards and park-lands, often barely glancing at the small water or wastewater utilities along the roadsides that serve area residents. Yet if they took the effort to speak to the people who are struggling, often at great odds, to provide or clean water in these rural areas, they might begin to understand that even in this country, with all its resources and technological advances, there are many places — just around the bend — where clean water is not a given. In fact, according to this recent article, of the 5,000 drinking water systems that racked up health-based violations in 2015, more than 50 percent were systems that serve 500 people or fewer. 

The challenges of these small rural systems are many: aging infrastructure (add to this a lack of overflow capacity for wastewater systems), water quality issues, comparatively lower water operator wages, increasing man-made and natural disaster hazards such as extreme rain events, stricter health standards, a small pool of paying customers, and, always, a lack of funding. The new infrastructure bill just recently signed by the president is providing some hope for the future (it has a significant catch, though — its authorizations still require yearly appropriations installments), but for now, many communities live in a constant state of worry about their water.

On top of this, many rural communities are dealing with the political and economic pressure to sell their utilities to private companies, if they haven't already done so, a particularly tempting option in times of crisis. According to a recent special series on the rural water crisis from NPR, this "complicated mix of public and private ownership often confounds efforts to mandate improvements or levy penalties, even if customers complain of poor water quality or mismanagement."

But there is hope on the horizon. Certainly increased funding for infrastructure is part of the solution. But according to California water commissioner Maria Herrera in this recent article, more can be done. She suggests that legislation should also increase technical assistance funding and give communities an opportunity to hire consultants to develop shovel-ready projects and fund safe drinking water projects. Also on her wish list: "We need to not only fund mitigation of contaminated wells and treatment plants, but also help communities develop redundant water sources, promote consolidation of small systems to larger ones, and help them with drought contingency planning. Communities need guidance and technical assistance in order to develop solutions and participate in water planning."

In Louisiana, circuit rider Timmy Lemoine says in this article that he is "seeing a shift as small systems allow larger systems with a certified operator take over management." And at the University of Iowa, engineers are testing new wastewater treatment technologies, hoping to defray costs for aging small-town systems. In addition, organizations such as the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) have a wealth of resources to support rural utilities and help them save money, such as this energy efficiency video. The question remains if solutions such as these will be sufficient to ensure that rural residents can count on clean water now and into the future. 

Featured Video: The Big Empty

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Many rural and small water and wastewater systems throughout the country face significant management and operational issues. O’Brien, Texas is just one of thousands of small communities in the United States that struggle to find the resources to ensure that the water coming out of the tap is safe to drink. Watch this documentary short produced by Tom Roseberg and Earth Institute fellow Madison Condon that details O'Brien's drinking water crisis. 

Featured Video: NASA's SMAP: Mapping the Water Under Our Feet

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NASA's SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) satellite provides worldwide soil moisture readings every 2-3 days. This data is invaluable to scientists, engineers, and local decision makers alike, improving flood prediction and drought monitoring. To see some of the images it has produced in the past, go here.

Top 2017 Resources from WaterOperator.org's Bi-Weekly Newsletter

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2017 was a great year for the WaterOperator.org newsletter team. We not only reached our 200th edition milestone this past fall, but we also were successful in connecting a significant number of water professionals with useful and relevant resources, resources that could be used on-the-spot to solve pressing issues, or help guide utility best practices, or help water decision-makers plan ahead for their communities. 

While many of the events, articles and resources featured in our newsletters garnered interest, here is a list of our most clicked-on resources of 2017.

Did you use one these resources at your utility this year? If so, we'd love to hear from you! Do you have a favorite "go-to" resource to share? Again, we'd love to know! Our email is info@wateropertor.org , or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter

Featured Video: Energy Efficiency at Wastewater Treatment Facilities

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As winter gets underway, many of communities are thinking about energy costs and energy savings. Utilities will recognize these concerns as well. Did you know 30-40% of a municipality's energy budget is spent on the treatment of drinking water and wastewater? Chances are someone at your utility has been made aware. With energy costs rising everywhere, it doesn't hurt to save money where you can and perform an energy audit at your utility.

This 7-and-a-half minute video from the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) doesn't go into the details of a full energy audit. But it does outline several areas where energy audits often find opportunities for savings. It can be a great way to introduce water boards, mayors, and other decision-makers to the benefits of energy audits. And even without being a full audit, it might give you some good ideas for your utility. Though the video highlights wastewater treatment facilities, most of the tips could be easily applied to drinking water utilities as well.

Energy Efficiency at Wastewater Treatment Facilities from RCAP on Vimeo.

If you're interested in getting an energy audit for your utility, RCAP staff are able to carry out energy audits for both water and wastewater utilities. To find the RCAP partner that serves your region, check their website.