Resources to Complete Your Risk & Resilience Assessment and Emergency Response Plan

Drinking water utilities should be aware of the risk and resilience assessment (RRA) and emergency response plan (ERP) requirements mandated by section 2013 of the America’s Water and Infrastructure Act (AWIA) of 2018. Under section 2013, community water systems (CWS) serving populations of 3,300 people or more are required to perform a risk assessment using the results to develop or update their ERP. The due date to certify the completion of these requirements is dependent on the population served by the system. If a CWS provides water to a consecutive system, they must include the population of the consecutive system in the total population served. 

*After submitting the RRA, the ERP must be submitted and certified within six months. Community water systems will be required to review and revise, as necessary, their RRA and ERP every five years after the initial certification dates. 

These new AWIA requirements amend section 1433 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), originally created from the Bioterrorism Act of 2002. The Act focused on incidents of terrorism and required CWS’s serving more than 3,300 people to conduct a vulnerability assessment (VA) and develop an ERP. The new AWIA requirements place an emphasis on the risks of malevolent acts, natural disasters, and cybersecurity. Since the vulnerability assessments from the Bioterrorism Act are now more than 10 years old, AWIA approved the destruction of these assessments. Utilities that want their VA returned instead can submit a request letter to the EPA before the due date of their risk assessment.

To assist in meeting the new requirements, the EPA has developed several resources designed specifically for AWIA. Resources and tools are uploaded on this EPA web page as they become available. The risk and resilience assessment is the first requirement due under section 2013 and necessary to develop your ERP. The assessment must include six criteria. Following the assessment, the ERP must include four criteria in addition to any state requirements. In this blog we will provide information about these AWIA resources in addition to other documents that can be useful to complete your RRA and ERP. 

EPA's AWIA Resources:

Resiliency and Risk Assessment:

• Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool (VSAT) 2.0 
  U.S. EPA
  This downloadable tool was updated to help utilities conduct risk and resilience assessments under AWIA. The tool can estimate risks from malevolent threats and natural hazards while evaluating potential improvement strategies. 
  
  
• Baseline Information on Malevolent Acts for Community Water Systems 
  U.S. EPA
  AWIA requires that the RRA addresses risks to ‘malevolent acts’. The EPA provides baseline information on malevolent acts and how to assess their potential threats in this 51-page guide.

Emergency Response Plans:

• Community Water System Emergency Response Plan 
  U.S. EPA
  This 13-page document includes a emergency response plan template with instructions developed to assist systems in meeting the ERP requirements under AWIA.

Other Helpful Resources to Get Started:

Resiliency and Risk Assessment:

• CREAT Risk Assessment
  U.S. EPA
  CREAT is a risk assessment tool to help utilities to adapt to extreme weather events. New users will be required to fill out a registration form. While your account is processing, check out a more preliminary EPA climate adaptation tool, the Resilient Strategies Guide for Water Utilities.
  
  
• Reference Guide for Asset Management Inventory and Risk Analysis 
  Southwest Environmental Finance Center
  This 9-page guide acts as a starting point to inventory assets and consider potential failure risks. The table suggests the information that should be collected while taking an inventory of assets.
  
  
• Financial Planning: A Guide for Water and Wastewater Systems 
  Rural Community Assistance Corporation
  Utilities need to include a financial infrastructure assessment in their RRA. The 59-page guidebook provides a process for developing and monitoring a utility budget, evaluating rates, and developing a 5-year financial plan. 
  
  
• Simplified Vulnerability Assessment Tool for Drinking Water 
  Kansas Department of Health and Environment
  In this 24-page guide systems will learn about risk minimization, the probability of asset threats, consequences of threats, and threat deterrents. 

Emergency Response Plans:

• Flood Emergency Action Procedures: Preparation Guide for Small Communities 
  Midwest Assistance Program
  The 50-page document provides a flood preparedness planning methodology for small rural communities. 
  
  
• 15 Cybersecurity Fundamentals for Water and Wastewater Utilities 
  Water ISAC
  This updated 56-page guide explains the best practices water utilities can use to reduce security risks to their IT and OT systems.

To certify the completion of your RRA or ERP, the EPA has developed guidelines for certification submittals via their secure online portal, email, or mail. If your system needs any additional help to meet these requirements, the EPA will be hosting in-person and online training sessions for each region. If these document suggestions don’t meet your system needs, check out our document library to find a variety of resources on risk assessment and emergency response.

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

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. 

Emergency Planning Goes Digital

They call this the age of the internet, so it probably comes as little surprise to hear that there is a whole host of computer and mobile tools designed to make emergency and adaptation planning easier and more effective for utilities and communities.  

We’ve highlighted a few U.S. EPA tools below, but there are many more with a range of features. If you’d like support finding the right tool for your system, drop us a line at 1-866-522-2681 or info@wateroperator.org. And for those who just prefer hardcopy, click here for a list of free emergency response plan templates.  

Tabletop Exercise Tool for Water Systems

This PC-based tool contains materials to assist those interested in planning and facilitating tabletop exercises that focus on water sector-related issues. Fifteen customizable scenarios address natural hazards and man-made incidents and introduce the potential impacts of climate change on the water sector.

Water Utility Response On-The-Go

The homepage of this mobile-friendly website displays a menu of links for tracking severe weather, contacting response partners, responding to incidents, taking notes and recording damage, informing incident command, and accessing additional planning info. Some of the external links from the site are not formatted for mobile viewing, and the .pdf forms may require an Adobe Reader app if you wish to fill them out on your mobile device. However, the site overall is well organized and easy to navigate, and can be a great tool for utilities dealing with weather emergencies and natural disasters. Click here to watch a short video about the site.

Community-Based Water Resiliency Tool

The CBWR Tool is an easy way to find out how prepared your community is to handle emergencies that impact water systems and learn about tools and resources that can be used to build resilience. A summary report is provided after the self-assessment with suggestions and recommended resources for increasing resilience. Users can then navigate to the CBWR toolbox, where they can find the best tool for their needs from over 400 tools and resources. Learn more about the benefits of the CBWR tool in this A Day Without Water video.

Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool

This risk assessment tool allows water utilities to evaluate potential impacts of climate change. The tool guides users through identifying regional climate change threats and designing adaptation plans. After assessment, CREAT provides a series of risk reduction and cost reports to allow you to evaluate various adaptation options as part of long-term planning. Visit the U.S. EPA YouTube channel for a complete introduction and videos showcasing how systems throughout the country have used CREAT to boost their preparedness.