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The following article was written by Stephen Shapanka, Communications Intern at the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) National Office in Washington, D.C.

Climate change is, no doubt, getting a lot of attention at all levels as a major environmental and political issue. Although it is still controversial in some quarters and some still doubt its validity, the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are using the science behind climate change as the basis for their actions and directions in this area.

According to the EPA, if climate change continues to accelerate, we are likely to see:

• warmer, shorter winters
• warmer, drier summers
• changing rainfall patterns and more intense rainfall events
• sea level rise, possibly with more severe coastal storms 

In response to the mounting environmental threat, the EPA has created a training system to help water utilities prepare for climate change.

Tabletop Exercise Tool for Water Systems: Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Climate Resiliency

The overall Tabletop Exercise Tool for Water Systems (EPA is calling it the “TTX Tool”) was the focus of a recent eBulletin. This tool uses hypothetical emergency scenarios, training methods, and other information to prepare users for various critical situations. Five of the tool’s 15 scenarios are on climate change-triggered situations. All scenarios walk users through a situation for training purposes, and each scenario is designed to be fully-customizable so that users can fine-tune the program to their needs.

As described by the EPA, “The new TTX Tool is designed to provide the water sector with the necessary resources to plan, conduct, and evaluate tabletop exercises. Tabletop exercises allow water systems to practice, test, and improve emergency response plans (ERPs) and procedures. The TTX Tool simplifies the process of planning and conducting tabletop exercises, and provides resources that aid in the development of customized scenario-driven, discussion-based tabletop exercises.”

How the tool can show you the effects of climate change

The TTX Tool is a valuable addition to your utility’s toolbox when carrying out long-term planning. Take a look at your current situation and analyze what potential climate change issues would directly affect your region. From that point, select a climate change or disaster scenario from the EPA’s TTX Tool and run through the training exercises and presentations with staff and leaders in your community in order to determine what would be the best solution to such a problem. The available climate change scenarios are floods, rising sea levels, fire, drought, and freeze thaw.

In considering the likely results of climate change in your area, determine what your course of action would be for your water supply, for example, with changes in the seasons or rainfall throughout the year. If your region is subject to droughts, now may be a good time to put in place long-term conservation measures. If your community is on the coast, consider how a storm combined with a high tide with higher sea levels could damage your wastewater and drinking water utilities or how well fields could be compromised by increasing saltwater intrusion.

WARNs

As with most crisis situations, one way of dealing with the effects of climate change is to seek help elsewhere or band together with someone else. For water utilities, one way of doing this is a WARN - a Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network. A WARN includes the following entities in order to form a strong disaster response group:

• Utility owners/operators
• Representatives from professional associations
• State water and wastewater primacy agencies (state health, environmental protection, etc.)
• State emergency management and/or homeland security agencies
• Representatives from EPA regions

There are numerous benefits to belonging to a WARN: faster response time during times of need, an emergency contact list, predetermined planning and organization, and reduced administrative conflict, to name a few.

To learn more about forming or joining a WARN, visit http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/mutualaid/index.cfm

For additional information or to obtain a copy of the Tabletop Exercise Tool for Water Systems, e-mail [email protected].