New York Rural Water Association

No matter what we call our readiness plan to handle an emergency situation, it is helpful to have a plan rather than not. Most of us have plans for emergency events, but never put them down in writing. What if we were out of work during a happening, a vacation, a sickness or some other event? Could our subordinates handle the situation? We are the ones that are entrusted to do the job, and therefore, must make plans for the inevitable happening. These happenings can be simple water leaks, pump breakdowns, filter breakdowns, chemical pump disoperation, problems with chlorination, and many others that we handle routinely. Now we have the threat that terrorists may make a definite effort to cause us harm and problems. This is something we never expected in these United States, but it is here. My first feeling was, what would be the advantage to some alien entity to attack and do harm to some small community water or wastewater system? On second thought, what would hit us harder then some small community being decimated for no reason at all, just for spite, to prove it can be done? The people in these small communities, like ours, are innocent of any wrong doing towards any government, nation or religion. Most of us don't even know where some of these troublemakers come from or what they represent. It's unfortunate that these conditions exist, but it's up to us to be diligent, on alert and have plans to be able to prevent and abate any situation that arises. Always remember prevention is better than emergency response. Just a thought, Pearl Harbor, 9/11 Twin Towers!!! Prevention would have been better.I will be using the word "must" instead of "should" because if we think we only should, we will have to be sorry and this is a result of could've, should've, would've. To start, we must make our Decision Makers aware of the need for preparedness. These are our esteemed Board Members. Next, we have to get our Fire Company Officials, Police Services, whatever they may be, and ourselves and our crews actively involved. I know that some will express the opinion that they have the situation in hand and can handle their end, but can they? When a catastrophe happens, such as has happened, who will provide the triage and delegate what comes first, second, etc? This involves teamwork and not each entity pulling towards their concerns only. I know that in a small community this is hard to get going. There is only one way to accomplish it and that is to meet, plan and delegate responsibility. This is not a joke! The emergencies that can be handled with planning and delegation can range from terrorist attacks, to floods, to large fires, to power outages, to water and sewer emergencies, to ice, snow, tornadoes and such. How many of us have experienced some of the previous events and found ourselves trying to function in total chaos. It wasn't pleasant, was it? Many times these things come in groups. The simple way to try and get ahead of these disastrous events is to plan. Sometimes planning ahead may throw up a red flag and show us a way to prevent a happening. Something as simple as removing the street signs that tell people where Reservoir Rd. is, big signs that indicate the water and wastewater plants, Water Tank Rd. signs. For those of you who indicated, on your Annual Water Quality Report, the exact location of your wellheads, it may be a good idea to leave that out the next time you do the report. We ourselves can be a wealth of information to terrorist, vandals or just delinquents. We mean well, and let the good people know where these things are, so they feel assured we are in compliance with all Health Department mandates. There are those that can take that same information and use it against us and do harm. There are very few of those, but even one in a million is too much.Some of the things we have to consider are:

Do we have enough bright lighting in sensitive areas, so intruders would be seen?Do we keep our fence gates and doors locked, even for a short absence?Is there anyone that will see these intruders and alert someone?Do we have illegal entry alarms that will notify us of an intruder?Do we have any alarm system to warn us of a deviation in process control?Do we patrol the sensitive areas such as reservoir, water shed, and wellhead areas? These areas are hard to fence, but are non-the-less, vulnerable and should be monitored.Watch simple fishermen, the hi-jackers looked like simple ordinary people.Do we know our chemical supply delivery people? Possible ID's
Do we know the fuel delivery, telephone repair and electric supply personnel that come and go in our facilities?

These are only a few of the questions we have to ask ourselves. There is also another good guide out and it is called Security/Vulnerability Self-Assessment Guide for Small Drinking Water Systems put out by the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators and National Rural Water Association. This guide is very helpful; it shows us areas of deficiencies and makes us think of ways on how to eliminate them. There is another very good guide that deals with bio-terrorism and regular biological outbreaks in our systems. This one is from Patricia L Meinhardt, MD, MPH, MA and is available on computer website www.WaterHealthConnection.aomc.org. This website is great for doctors to get on, in case of biological problems, whether from terrorist attack or for information about waterborne diseases. The website was put together by an MD and can be used by Medical personnel, Health Dept. personnel, as well as, water and wastewater people. No emergency response plan can be put together by one person, any more than an emergency, of any magnitude, can be responded to and abated by one person. All community management and operational personnel, together with fire and police personnel, must work together to form an emergency response plan, in case of terrorist attack or natural disaster because all the before mentioned people will be responding to the emergency. There are quite a few more websites that deal with terrorist attacks and other possible disasters, give us a call or e-mail, and we'll get back to you. You can also try the National Rural Water Association website at www.nrwa.org. I would like to suggest that you also try your local Health Dept. website or the New York State Department of Health website for emergency response planning.

We have a couple of the Security/Vulnerability Self-Assessment Guides on hand, so call us. We'll be glad to help you get started in your assessment and plan of response. The biggest job here is to get everyone interested and make an effort before something happens and it'll be too late to start a plan. It's always better to have a plan without a disaster, than a disaster without a plan.