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In 2018, Congress passed, and President Donald Trump signed, America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA). It included new requirements for drinking water suppliers serving more than 3,300 customers to plan for, and respond to, emergencies.

The first provision within AWIA requires utilities to perform a risk and resilience assessment, which evaluates the vulnerabilities, threats, and consequences from potential hazards. Among other components, the assessment must include an analysis of a system’s risk from natural hazards and malevolent acts, plus an overview of a system’s infrastructure resilience, its billing systems, chemical use protocols, and operations and maintenance.

The second provision of the act requires utilities to develop or update their emergency response plans. This plan must include several components, including strategies and resources to improve the resilience of the system, procedures for delivering safe drinking water in the event of a threat, and strategies to detect such threats.

Deadlines for the risk and resilience assessment depend upon the size of the utility, and are as follows (note that the first deadline for the largest utilities has already passed):

• March 31, 2020 for utilities serving more than 100,000 people
• December 31, 2020 for utilities serving 50,000 to 99,999 people
• June 30, 2021 for utilities serving 3,301 to 49,999 people

Utilities’ emergency response plans are due six months after the risk and resilience assessment is complete.

The federal EPA does not require water systems to use any designated standards, methods or tools to conduct the risk and resilience assessments or to prepare the emergency response plans, as long as they meet the requirements of the AWIA. Two online tools can be helpful in preparing these plans: the “Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool” for the risk and resilience assessment, and this online template to prepare the emergency response plan.

For complete information on the AWIA requirements, visit the AWIA webpage on the EPA website.