Water Sector Resource Typing Guidance to Assist with Mutual Aid Requests and Responses and ERP Provisions of AWIA

The American Water Works Association (AWWA) has just made available for download its Water Sector Resource Typing Guidance. This new guidance helps facilitate the development of resource types for water utility personnel, teams and equipment, allowing for the development of mission-ready packages and expediting mutual aid requests and responses. It addresses one of the key recommendations in an after action report (AAR) AWWA prepared following Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017, which stated that utilities should integrate resource typing into their emergency preparedness planning. The AAR also observed that AWWA should update the resource typing manual released in 2008 based on lessons learned from multiple utility deployments that spanned hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, ice storms, and wildfires. Additionally, the guidance is intended to support the Emergency Response Plan provisions in the America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) of 2018 (link to WaterISAC’s AWIA portal page, with information and resources), which requires a utility to consider “plans and procedures that can be implemented and identification of equipment that can be utilized, in the event of a malevolent act or natural hazard that threatens the ability of the community water system to deliver safe drinking water.” Access the guidance at AWWA.