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WaterISAC Participating in New EPA-led Effort to Share Information on Critical Supply Chain Issues

WaterISAC Participating in New EPA-led Effort to Share Information on Critical Supply Chain Issues

Created: Thursday, July 21, 2022 - 15:59
Categories:
Federal & State Resources, General Security and Resilience

To help inform its members and other sector stakeholders of critical supply chain issues, WaterISAC is participating in a new program set up by EPA that provides a forum for sharing and discussing this information. Organizations that report supply chain issues to WaterISAC have the option of contributing their information to this process, with WaterISAC’s normal information sharing protocols remaining in effect.

For this program, EPA has set up an online platform – a Microsoft Teams page – where water and wastewater sector associations and other stakeholders can post information on the status of treatment chemicals (e.g., availability and price) and other critical products. EPA will monitor the platform for issues that could have a significant impact on the sector, investigating and potentially elevating them to the attention of the chemical and critical manufacturing sectors. As a participant, WaterISAC will monitor the platform and provide updates to its members, as appropriate.

Organizations that share supply chain issues with WaterISAC will be asked for their permission to post the information to the online platform. WaterISAC will not automatically share this information, only doing so with the member’s explicit permission. Organizations can also choose to withhold certain details, such as their identity and specific location. Once information has been cleared for posting and published on the platform, it will be considered public information and subject to Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests. For information provided just to WaterISAC and not cleared for posting to the platform, only WaterISAC will see this material. Additionally, as a private organization, WaterISAC is not subject to public disclosure laws, including those related to FOIA requests. These policies apply regardless of whether the organization is a member or non-member.

Read more about EPA’s efforts on water and wastewater sector supply chain resilience here. For questions or comments about any of these efforts, including the new platform for coordinating supply chain efforts, email SupplyChainSupport@epa.gov.