Ed Thomas, National Rural Water Association

1

• Ed Thomas, National Rural Water Association
• Mike Boykin, U.S. EPA Region 10

2

• Summary
• Objectives of the track were to
• Foster dialogue among water utilities, public
  health agencies and response agencies
• Determine the pool of stakeholders, and the
  resources, systems, and expertise available to
  them
• Identify critical needs and gaps
• Make recommendations and explore potential next
  steps

3

• Observations
• Not all stakeholders know the function, role, and
  mission of other stakeholders
• Definition of responder has broadened now
  includes public heath, public works, public
  utilities
• Incident Command Systems (ICS) bring a common
  language to a diverse group of responders not
  always shared by public health, public works,
  public utilities
• Lack of consensus in states about which agency is
  lead in drinking water wastewater response
• Training and resources are available but not
  always accessible

4

• Key Gaps and Needs
• Communications info sharing
• Inter-agency, inter-organizational,
  inter-jurisdictional
• Central clearinghouse
• Planning, i.e. with LEPCs, Emergency Managers
• Resources and money
• Availability of expertise, technologies,
  training, funding
• Development of Technologies and Capabilities
• Telecommunications
• Analytical capability
• Field detection capability

5

• Short-term next steps
• Information clearinghouse that works for diverse
  users
• Use your personal network to encourage
  interactions between water and wastewater
  utilities local law enforcement, management, and
  responders and the LEPC and other emergency
  managers
• A friend is better than a plan
• Creation of a resource capabilities list and
  response protocol for incident response
• Clarify chain of command
• Develop and promulgate best practices for WMD
  response for wastewater facilities

6

• Long-term steps
• Funding
• Education and training
• Information sharing and communication
• Support for early movers on capital
  expenditures
• Development of information security protocols
  that do not penalize public utilities