by:  Daniel B. Horne, P.E.
Engineering Field Director
Office of Drinking Water, Virginia Department of Health

Many of us in Virginia have recently dealt with another in the long line of “emergency situations” that tax water systems every so often. For most systems, that situation was Hurricane Isabel and the aftermath. For others, it was the long-lasting drought that finally started to relax its grip late last fall, after months of impact. For some systems, it was a combination of the two. Others have had a bit of respite since the regional ice storm in December of 2001, but have now been dealing with the very recent cold snap and accompanying breaks in water mains.

All of these incidents point to the need for water systems to prepare in advance for emergencies. We have all learned from past experience that it is too late to be running to the store for our personal supplies when the storm finally hits—that's true for utility operations as well. Our more recent emergency experiences have shown us that we perhaps need to take another look at what types of impacts we should expect to address.

It has been suggested that Virginia systems have been prepared for two types of emergencies: (1) a wide-spread emergency that lasts a very short time (maximum of a couple of days), or (2) a longer-lasting emergency that has a very narrow area of impact. Hurricane Isabel has shown us that we perhaps need to look at a different kind of emergency—one with a wide area of impact and lasting for a longer period of time. The type of emergency we plan for can have a major impact on the types and amounts of supplies we need to stockpile, and the plan we craft for addressing the impacts.

One specific area that we need to look at in our planning is how we will communicate during the emergency and during the recovery phase. Many of us have switched to SCADA systems that rely on telephone lines for communication. During both the ice storm and Hurricane Isabel, many experienced difficulty communicating because of downed phone lines that took two weeks or longer to repair. While some had planned to use cellular phones in the event telephone service interruptions, cellular service during Hurricane Isabel was very spotty. High winds affected many of the towers and downed power lines forced towers to rely on batteries. Some water systems found that the only means of reliable communication were the “old fashioned” radio sets that many systems no longer have. Maybe we need to look at those older systems again.

Another area we need to look at when updating our planning is power supply for water generation facilities (both groundwater and surface water), treatment facilities, and pumping or repumping facilities. Many surface water plants have at least some emergency power generating capacity, but some have traditionally relied upon “non-interruptible supply” from the power company. Hurricane Isabel showed us that sometimes those “non-interruptible feeds” can go down for extended periods. It will not be a simple task to acquire emergency power facilities for most water systems, but the possibilities should be researched. A few of the questions to ask include:

• How much generating capacity is needed?
• What units do I need to power?
• What units can I let stand idle for a time?
• What fuel should I use? How much fuel should I plan on stocking? How fast can I get re-fueled?

Systems that utilize groundwater as their source of supply may be able to use pre-arranged contracts for leasing generator sets, rather than purchasing generators for use at their wells or springs, but the contracts need to be very detailed to ensure that the generators will be installed prior to the power going out, rather than attempting to deliver the generators later. It may be possible to rotate generators between certain locations, rather than have generators at all locations, but such an arrangement will need careful investigation and planning. Another issue to look at is fuel delivery after the event. Some water systems managed to get generators set up and operating very rapidly after Hurricane Isabel, but the tornados that came through shortly afterwards prevented access for refueling, and the systems went dry when the generators ran out of fuel.

One other thing to consider is to borrow a “lesson learned” from the power companies. If you remember, the power companies used to be quite fanatical about trimming trees around power lines. Over the years, however, some power companies neglected those programs. Growth from trees planted over the past decade or more went untrimmed. Hurricane Isabel brought the importance of those programs to the attention of the power companies, and they have indicated that they will be bringing their line protection programs back with a vengeance. It has been suggested by some that water utilities might want to look at somewhat similar programs to see where their water lines might be “endangered” by trees. As proposed, protecting structures from falling limbs and tree tops would be just the first step. A further step would be identifying areas where waterlines could be damaged by uprooted trees. During Hurricane Isabel, there were many areas where waterlines were pulled up by root action when trees came down due to wind or wave action. Obviously, this kind of program would be expensive, and implementation may require enabling ordinances, but recovery planning would be aided by knowing where a particular system is at risk.

All of these activities will take time and money to implement. None of them can be done overnight, and no one can rightly expect water utilities to be in a position to say that no emergency will ever result in water shortages again. On the other hand, customers do expect water utilities to take steps to identify possible problem areas and to take prudent actions to address those areas. Proper planning is one way to look ahead and then move ahead.