Water Sector Natural Disaster Threat Briefing: Understanding the Risk from Earthquakes and How your Utility can Prepare

On August 12 at 2 pm ET, WaterISAC will convene the next event in its quarterly Water Sector Natural Disaster Threat Briefings series. The focus of this extended briefing will be to understand the threat earthquakes pose to water and wastewater utilities and how your utility can enhance its operational resilience against this natural hazard.

Earthquakes can happen nearly anywhere with little to no warning and can significantly disrupt water and wastewater operations by damaging pipelines, treatment facilities, pumping stations, storage tanks, and other critical assets. These impacts can lead to service disruptions, increase the risk of water contamination, wastewater overflows that threaten public health, and ultimately weaken a community’s resilience to other emergencies.  

To help us learn more about this seismic threat and how to mitigate against it, WaterISAC is pleased to welcome Chad Buechler, Emergency Management Program Manager at Seattle Public Utilities, Michael Godfried, Emergency Management Planning Coordinator at Seattle Public Utilities, and Stephen Anderson, Transmission & Distribution Planning Seismic Program Manager at Seattle Public Utilities. These presenters will examine the risk earthquakes pose to utility operations and discuss how their utility is working to mitigate vulnerabilities and enhance their operational resilience to this seismic threat through emergency preparedness, response, and infrastructure capital upgrades. Following that, Brian Blake Executive Director at the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), will explain why earthquakes occur, provide an overview of the earthquake threat to different regions of the continental U.S., and highlight how your utility can leverage CUSEC resources.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how your peers are working to enhance their operational resilience in the face of earthquakes.

WaterISAC members only.