Virginia Office of Drinking Water Lists Timely Tools
Now that those in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states are beginning to gear up once again for hurricane season, ASDWA is pleased to share two tools developed by the Virginia Department of Health’s (DOH) Office of Drinking Water that may be helpful in your planning work with water systems. Actually, these two documents are helpful regardless of the type of emergency – floods, fires, earthquakes, power loss – that may be prevalent in your state.
The first is 15 Easy Ways to Make Your Utility Better Prepared for Emergencies. This front and back of a page document is the product of the state’s regional tabletop exercise series that brought together water and wastewater utilities with local first responders. During the exercises, participants mentioned several fast, easy, and free (or inexpensive) steps that any water system could take to increase their emergency preparedness. Virginia DOH captured those thoughts and this checklist is the result.
The second tool is a brochure titled What You Need to Know About Generators. Is Your Waterworks Prepared? Accepting the premise that in an emergency, not all waterworks are prepared to restore their systems to operational status in a timely manner, this brochure includes tips on identifying backup power needs; what to consider when deciding to purchase, rent, borrow, or share; and helpful operating and maintaining generator recommendations. The brochure also includes a pull-out and easy-to-copy form to determine and document emergency generator information.
Both of these tools can be downloaded from the Virginia Office of Drinking Water website at:
