Emergency Response Planner

The purpose of this Emergency Planning Workbook is to assist you in planning and assessing your likelihood of experiencing an emergency situation.  Your Emergency Planning Workbook should:  Assign responsibility to specific people to do specific actions other than their normal assigned duty Describe how resources will be protected in an emergency Identify resources available within your municipality and create agreements with neighboring entities Identify steps for mitigation during response and recovery Planning for water emergencies requires knowledge of the potential impacts on water services. This requires identification of the characteristics of each hazard and the vulnerable components of the systems. Emergency Response planning should be a coordinated and planned process.  Proper planning can lessen the impact of an emergency.  All staff should be trained as to their responsibility within the plan and how it will be implemented.  This template was designed to address various emergency hazards that may occur in rural and small systems.  It incorporates emergencies that may be the result of terrorism.  Regardless of the type of emergency whether natural or man-made each system has the responsibility to be prepared to protect the public health and to restore services that may be impacted.  This plan should incorporate information from the Security Vulnerability Self-Assessment.  Assistance is available from your State Rural Water Association. While the process of planning may vary depending on the size of your system it is suggested that the following steps be utilized in the planning process:                                          Step I – Prepare a Governing Body/Staff Briefing - A briefing should be prepared to acquaint the Governing Body/Staff with risks and vulnerabilities to their Utility.  Also a part of this step is to make some estimate of what personnel resources will be required to assist in the planning effort and for what lengths of time.  Step 2 – Obtain Management Commitment - Obtain from the Governing Body a commitment to allocate the appropriate resources and personnel to the planning effort.  A mission statement should be obtained to provide direction for the effort.  Step 3 – Form a Coordinating Committee - This committee will be a working group and will develop a detailed work program and schedule.  A list of assumptions should be prepared by this committee with the goal to establish a set of minimum standards for the plan.  Step 4 – Assign the Planning Responsibilities - This task will help to identify individuals that will have a specific responsibility during the planning effort.  One person should be designated as Emergency Director for the Utility and should assume the lead in plan preparation and execution.  Step 5 – Document Procedures - Document the administrative procedures to account for and manage the planning process, including plan development and plan implementation. The Emergency Response Plan (ERP) is a software available through the Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis DNA Cloning and Sequencing Operational Troubleshooting Specialized Training Mapping and Modeling Sampling and Monitoring Applications Development Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">CWRS that can assist in the creation of an emergency response plan. Below is a screenshot of the main screen.  The ERP allows data to be inserted and edited, contact list creation, flow chart creation, export as a txt document, and printing information.  It, also, includes a library of the EPA Modules concerning this matter. After selecting to enter data you must select what type of data. After selecting to add a contact list, you must select the type of contact. The Emergency Response Planner is available at http://waterky.org/index.php?q=node/410.