AWWA WSC61416

Many lessons were learned from three exercises conducted at the direction of the WashingtonState Department of Health, Office of Drinking Water, under a grant from the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency. The exercises were conducted separately with waterutilities, emergency responders, regulatory agencies, and others in different regions ofWashington State in July 2004. The purpose of these exercises was to provide a learningenvironment to acquaint participants with each others' emergency responsibilities andprocedures, and to determine shortfalls and successes in emergency response that areapplicable to water system emergencies in general. Scenarios involved a chemicalcontamination event, biological contamination event, and perceived biologicalcontamination.Lessons learned from the exercises can be useful in conducting future water systememergency exercises, and in preparing for real-life emergency response. After threeexercises, the project team recognized particular themes that applied to all the emergencyscenarios. These are:a need for communication and information exchange between all agencies involved inwater system emergencies;understanding roles and responsibilities before an emergency will smooth recovery duringan emergency;water sampling procedures are vital and need to be developed for each water system;communications with the public can be improved, and water systems must be prepared towork with the media; and,conducting a successful exercise and capturing the lessons learned from it may requireparticular techniques.Lessons learned within each theme include issues related to the theme, what went well andwhat did not, and possible solutions to address the issues. Includes figure.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

04/10/2005

Number of Pages:

14

File Size:

1 file