Managing Drinking Water Incidents and Emergencies

1
Managing Drinking Water Incidents and Emergencies

• Peter OReilly
• Senior Engineer
• Fingal County Council
• Nov 08

2
Outline

• Why prepare ?
• Minimising the risk
• Emergencies examples
• Customer expectations
• Training programme
• DWIRP/DWIM
• Outstanding issues

3
Why Prepare?

• Public Health - implications of service failure
• Maintaining consumer confidence in water supply
• Regulatory requirements

4
Expectations

• Quantity
• 148 lhd - FCC
• Quality
• EU DWD
• DW Regs 2007
• Continuity
• uninterrupted
• Cost !!?

5
But..Things Go Wrong !

• Prevention is better than cure!
• Risk minimisation

6
Minimise Risk

• Source
• Know your catchment
• Planning/Development
• Catchment management plan
• Treatment
• Quality system
• Distribution system
• Records
• Customer side
• Backflow

7
Source
8
Treatment
9
Distribution storage
10
Despite everything.

• Even the best laid plans
• Good old Murphys Law
• Emergencies happen!

11
Emergencies

• Are sudden
• Stretch resources
• Break continuity/confidence in service
• Need different levels of response as they vary in
  size and complexity
• Can involve a large number of stakeholders

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
Incidents/Emergencies examples
15
Source - Leixlip WTP
16
Treatment

• Camelford (UK)
• Aluminium sulphate in treated water
• Contaminated treatment chemical
• Cavan / Monaghan

17
Treatment Chlorine
18
Distribution system

• Bursts
• Drought
• Flooding
• Loss of system

19
Burst
20
Repair
21
Drought
22
(No Transcript)
23
Flooding Gloucestershire 2007

• Mythe WTP almost 2 weeks
• 150,000 homes
• 350,000 pop
• 250 tankers
• 4m bottles of water DAILY
• Army

24
Flooding 2008

• Limerick
• Meath
• Sligo
• Cork

25
Fingal 2008 incidents

• Over 120 incidents - mostly interruptions to
  supply
• 9 were significant incidents
• 1 required tankered water
• 3 required do not consume notices

26
Knocksedan
27
Communication - customers expect clarity

• What is the problem?
• How long will it last?
• What must I do?
• When will things return to normal?
• Where can I get information?
• Where/when will an alternative supply be available

28
Bottled water distribution
29
(No Transcript)
30
Staff

• Experienced
• Competent
• Well trained WSNTG courses
• Ready and available to respond
• Resources

31
Emergency Response Centre
32
WSNTG Workshop need for emergency planning

• Increase in number of Incidents
• Greater variation in Incidents
• Increase in Customer Expectations
• Need for Incident Management

33
Scope

• All Incidents
• Contamination
• Interruption
• All aspects of the drinking water system
• Sources
• Treatment
• Distribution System to the consumer's draw off
  point.
• Water Suppliers"
• Water Services Authorities
• Group Water Scheme sector.

34
Change in the Water Sector in Ireland

• Legislation
• Drinking Water Regulations (SI 278 of 2007)
• Water Services Act 2007
• Supervisory Role of the EPA/WSA
• Proactive role
• High profile incidents
• Media focus on drinking water quality
• Now front page news

35
International

• USA
• Homeland Security
• USEPA guidelines
• EU
• Citizen and Society
• CEN Security of drinking water supply
• Ireland
• Major Emergency Plan

36
CEN/ISO - terminology

• 6 steps to misery- in ascending order!
• Event
• Incident
• Emergency
• Crisis
• Disaster
• catastrophe

37
Framework for Security of Water Supply

• Preventative Measures
• Water Safety Plans
• Scheme Level
• Source to Tap

• Reactive Measures
• Incident Management
• Water Services Authority Level

38
Role of the EPA/WSA

• Supervisory role for the EPA for public water
  supplies
• Supervisory role for the WSA for group water
  schemes

39
Role of the HSE

• WSA to consult with HSE in determining if a
  drinking water supply constitutes a potential
  danger to human health (Regulation 9) and if so
• The actions by the WSA to restrict supply and
  inform consumers are subject to agreement with
  the HSE,
• The issue of a direction under Regulation 9(2) is
  subject to agreement with the HSE
• Generally the MoHs decision to implement a boil
  notice, if required
• Current liaison arrangements Water Quality
  Liaison groups / Incident Response Teams (IRT)

40
Roles and Responsibilities

• County/City Manager
• o/a responsible for preparation of DWIRP and
  allocation of resources
• Director of Services
• Ensuring Plan maintained
• Activation of Plan
• Drinking Water Incident Response Plan Manager
• Preparation of DWIRP
• Maintenance of DWIRP
• Training of personnel and coordination of
  resources
• Testing of Plan

41
Terminology

• Drinking Water Incident Management (DWIM)
• To describe the range of procedures and processes
  deployed to manage a Drinking Water Incident
• Drinking Water Incident Response Plan (DWIRP)
• A plan prepared by a water services authority to
  document the procedures, processes and
  information to support the management of a
  Drinking Water Incident.

42
(No Transcript)
43
Project Deliverables
2. Guidance Document
3. Research CD
1. Template
44
Progress to date

• 6 training courses delivered
• 118 trained
• 106 local authority
• 12 HSE
• EPA
• Group water sector

45
Outstanding Issues

• Circular/supportive letter
• Preparation of plans (DWIRPs)
• Designation of DWIRP manager
• Response testing

46
Other Issues

• Forum for sharing experiences
• Equipment
• Minimum supply during prolonged emergency (U.K.
  10 lhd)
• Non-domestic customers
• Nursing homes
• Restaurants and Food service outlets
• Institutions/services

47
Worries!

• Remember when
• Aluminium Altzheimers ?
• 2007
• Cryptosporidium
• 2008
• Floods
• Lead

48
Conclusions

• Emergencies happen
• Be prepared
• Have a plan
• Drinking Water Incident Response Plan (DWIRP)