Why WARN?
Water/Wastewater Agency Response Networks (WARN) are sometimes seen as programs that benefit only major utilities. But in fact, having a WARN in place, no matter what the size of your system, is beneficial in a variety of ways. This article explains some of the benefits, lists the components of an effective WARN program, and gives helpful links for you to use in the development of your own WARN.
WARN: A Good Deal for Anyone!
What makes a good neighbor? Strong fences? Someone who minds their own business? Someone who is willing to lend a helping hand when needed? Everyone has their own definition of good neighbors, and most people try to live up to their concept of the ideal.
My family is fortunate enough to live on a street where everyone knows everyone else (at least by sight, and usually by name). Over the past thirteen years or so, we’ve developed relationships with the other “old timers” in the neighborhood, and initiated relationships with the new folks that move in. My kids play with all the other kids from our street, no matter what the age difference. My husband and I do yard work for the elderly and disabled who live on our street, and they repay us by watching our house, watering our gardens, and feeding our pets when we’re out of town. We know we can count on our neighbors’ assistance when we’re in a jam, and they know they can count on us. We all look out for each other, and are a stronger community for doing so.
In his novel Firestarter, Stephen King wrote: “Life is short and pain is long, and we were all put on this earth to help each other.”(1) Most people who have careers in water or wastewater live by this motto every day (even if they don’t read horror fiction!). Your work makes a positive difference in the lives of every person who lives in your community, and you take pride in that contribution, especially when disaster hits.
This is also the spirit in which the WARN network was developed—neighbor helping neighbor in times of trouble. WARN stands for Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network. A WARN will help you to prepare for emergencies that affect your system, will help you organize your system’s response to these emergencies using established requirements, and will help you share personnel and equipment statewide by written agreement. While this sounds much more formal than simply lending a helping hand, a WARN is designed to allocate resources efficiently and to protect your bottom line in terms of paying you for assistance you give to another system.
Why WARN?
Most water and wastewater systems are paying close attention to expenses these days, as the economy tanks and unemployment is high. While the general situation seems to be slowly on the mend, participation in voluntary programs may seem like a waste of resources or time to you and/or your customers. WARN participation is totally voluntary.
But planning ahead for emergency situations actually saves money in a variety of ways. The obvious savings are in time-related expenses: If you already have a WARN in place, you don’t have to waste time in searching for workers, equipment, or treatment chemicals. Help can be on its way immediately, rather than waiting for negotiations for wages and equipment rental prices to be finalized. And planning for alternative vendors for parts or chemicals can shorten the time that your system is offline.
Planning ahead saves money in not-so-obvious ways, too. Developing relationships with other water or wastewater systems in your state gives you a local pool of knowledge and experience you can draw from all the time, not just during emergencies. Developing relationships with law enforcement and firefighters enables all parties to better understand the concerns of each other. For instance, law enforcement personnel may have valuable insight into effective security practices, or providing local crime trend information that may help you protect your system. Volunteer firefighters may not understand the reason behind opening and closing hydrant valves slowly, but they would definitely understand the importance of having an operable hydrant during a fire. Participation in WARN gives you a great chance both to educate and to learn.
What price can be put on customer good will? Your customers expect clean water when they open a faucet, and that the health of their friends downstream is protected by wastewater treatment. But how can you put a cost on the peace of mind that comes to a customer, stressed out by injuries or loss of property during an emergency, when he hears you say, “We have planned for this contingency, and your health is not threatened by this event. Here’s what is happening with your water.”
Basic WARN Components
So WARN sounds intriguing, but how to start? The US EPA has identified components of effective programs that can help you develop an effective program for your system.(2) The EPA uses the term “protective program” to encompass preparation for and responses to natural disasters (like hurricanes or earthquakes), malicious acts, accidents, and other incidents that would adversely affect the operation of your system. There are ten separate features of programs that are recognized as “active and effective,” regardless of the size of the system.
1. Daily business operations should foster a protective culture throughout the organization to ensure continuity of your services. If your system has employees, make sure that they’re encouraged to bring concerns or ideas for improvement to you or other senior leadership.
2. Protective program priorities and resources should be identified and reviewed at least annually, supported with utility-specific measures, and self-assessed using these measures to understand and document program progress.
3. Protocols for detection of contamination should be used, while recognizing limitations in current contaminant detection, monitoring, and public health surveillance methods.
4. Risks and vulnerability assessments should be reviewed annually to reflect changes in potential threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences.
5. Access should be restricted only to authorized individuals, and you should be able to detect unauthorized physical and cyber intrusions. Access controls can be physical (like fencing, lighting, locks or alarms) or procedural (requiring employees to wear identification badges).
6. Incorporate protective program considerations into procurement, repair, maintenance, and replacement of physical infrastructure decisions. Have a plan that includes alternate vendors, an adequate supply of replacement parts and treatment chemicals, and emergency power backup.
7. Prepare emergency response, recovery, and business continuity plans; test and review plans, and regularly update plan(s) annually or more frequently to ensure National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliance and to reflect changes in potential threats, vulnerabilities, consequences, physical infrastructure, utility operations, critical interdependencies, and response protocols in partner organizations.
8. Forge reliable and collaborative partnerships with first responders, managers of critical interdependent infrastructure, other utilities, and response organizations to maintain a resilient infrastructure.
9. Develop and implement strategies for regular, ongoing communication with employees, customers, and the general public to increase overall awareness and preparedness for response to an incident. This step may entail pre-written press releases, updates to your website, or other methods.
10. Monitor incidents and available threat-level information, and use protective procedures in response to relevant threats and incidents.
The short version of these 10 features is know your system, be prepared for emergencies ahead of time, and know where to get help if you need it.
Risk Analysis, or Reading the Crystal Ball
You can perform a vulnerability assessment on your system without a PhD in mathematics. Start by thinking of the annual weather in your area. Do you get weeks of below-zero temperatures in the winter? Are your summers filled with tornado or hurricane warnings? Are there areas of your system that are subject to flooding? How many days do weather-related issues affect the quality of water your system delivers, or the ability of your wastewater treatment system to perform effectively? Past experience with problems like these is the first step in a vulnerability assessment.
If you are new to your area, help in determining the frequency of occurrence for weather-related hazards is available online. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website provides climate information across the US at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/climate/ [1]. A portion of NOAA’s website is dedicated to prediction specifically for emergency planners, and gives advance notice of weather-related hazards. For more information, see http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/threats/ [2].
The weather-related risk for your system on an annual basis might look something like this:
- Heavy snows: 14 days/365 days = 0.04
- Freezing temperatures: 48 days/365 days = 0.13
- Flooding (system-wide): 1 day/365 days = 0.003
- Flooding (localized): 12 days/365 days = 0.03
- Tornadoes: 5 days/365 days = 0.01
- Excessively hot temperatures (over 100oF): 17 days/365 days = 0.05
Next, imagine which components of your system may be affected by each of the above conditions. Heavy snow may cause an old roofing system on a pump house to collapse, damaging your pumps. An F5 tornado may destroy your water tank. Flooding may cause contamination in your well field, or destroy your customer records. Assign a numerical value to each component, with 0 meaning “no damage to this component from this particular event,” and 10 meaning “total loss of this piece of equipment, structure, or operation.”
The third step is determining how critical each component of the system is, using criteria particular to your system, and giving each a numerical value. If the loss of the equipment would cause a total failure in the delivery of water to your customers, you may want to give this a value of 10. If the loss would cause health problems so severe that some folks may die, that may also be a “10.” If the loss would cause a problem with fulfilling regulatory requirements, that might be an “8.5.” If the loss isn’t critical in terms of operation, but would adversely affect public trust in your system, it might be a “7.”
Finally, multiply these three numbers to come up with the vulnerability ranking for a particular component of the system. Let’s take the F5 tornado destroying the water tank as an example:
Annual risk of tornadoes (0.01) x complete loss of tank (10) x criticality of no storage (9.5) = 0.95.
It’s fairly simple to set up a spreadsheet for these calculations for the equipment and structures you have. Once you reach a number associated with component vulnerability, you can prioritize how to protect your system from disaster, and negotiate a WARN with clear objectives of what assistance will best serve your system’s needs.
More information on vulnerability assessments may be found on the US EPA’s website, at http://cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/home.cfm?program_id=11 [3].
Is Your State a WARN State?
Nearly every state in the US has an active WARN. The American Water Works Association (AWWA) has an online map of the status of North American WARN activities at http://www.awwa.org/government/content.cfm?ItemNumber=30229&navItemNumber=47413 [4]. This map is freely available to anyone. You will notice that on this map, even some Canadian provinces are members of WARN. There is also a list of state WARN contacts at http://www.awwa.org/Government/content.cfm?ItemNumber=47412&navItemNumber=47411 [5]. But WARN is applicable only within a single state (or province).
If your closest neighbors in times of need are located across state lines, an Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) is your best bet. All 50 states participate in EMAC. More information on EMAC can be found at http://www.emacweb.org/ [6]. Even if your system is not a public utility, your state may have mechanisms in place that will allow your participation in an EMAC.
REFERENCES
(1) King, Stephen. Firestarter, Viking Press, New York City, New York, 1980, p. 46.
(2) US EPA. Features of an Active and Effective Protective Program for Water and Wastewater Utilities. http://www.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/pubs/brochure_watersecurity_featuresofanactiveandeffective.pdf [7]