Expertise: Environment

America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA)

Planning to be prepared.

In 2018 the America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) was signed into law. It requires community public drinking water systems serving more than 3,300 people to complete or update their Risk & Resilience Assessments (RRA) and Emergency Response Plans (ERP). This means that you need to update, or create, risk assessments and emergency plans for your communities’ drinking water systems by the designated due date in order to be compliant.

We assist communities in completing and updating these plans in accordance with AWIA and EPA guidelines.

We will coordinate with local emergency planning committees and federal, state, and local partners while developing, or updating, your risk assessment and ERP to meet the EPA’s certification requirements.

A Risk & Resilience Assessment will assist a utility to better understand and answer the following questions:

What threats could impact the operation of a utility?
What makes a utility vulnerable to various threats and natural hazards?
What is the most efficient way for a utility to allocate resources to limit a disruption to your utility’s operation?
What are the new risks that a utility could experience with system expansion near utility assets?

The system components to be considered for a Risk & Resilience Assessment include:

Watermains
Physical barriers
Source water and raw water collection and intakes
Pretreatment and treatment facilities
Storage and distribution facilities
Electronic, computer, SCADA, and other automated systems

The components of an Emergency Response Plan include:

Plans and procedures that outline roles, responsibilities, and resources for emergency response personnel (ex. step-by-step guidance or procedural checklists for boil alert).
Internal and external contact lists to allow you to efficiently contact designated employees or partners to perform procedures that can remove, or significantly reduce the impact of a malevolent act or natural hazards on public health, safety, and supply of drinking water.
Strategies to assist you in the detection of malevolent acts or natural hazards that have the potential to threaten the security or resilience of the system.

Our goal is to provide communities with a useful document that outlines procedures to implement in response to emergencies. These emergencies can range from watermain breaks to severe weather damage. Act now to ensure you are able to meet your deadline.

Population Served	Risk Assessment Deadline	Emergency Response Plan Deadline
≥ 100,000	March 31, 2020	September 30, 2020
50,000 – 99,999	December 31, 2020	June 30, 2021
3,301 – 49,999	June 30, 2021	December 31, 2021