Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene Preparedness Resource Library

Chemicals contaminants are elements or compounds, either natural or human-made. Examples include metals, toxins produced by bacteria, drugs, and pesticides. Chemical contaminants featured here include:

• Lead
• Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
• Nitrates / Nitrites

Effective information sharing with members of the public as well as the media is critical before, during, and after a water emergency. These resources can help increase public awareness and preparedness.

• Press Release Examples
• Websites
• FAQ
• Fact Sheet

WASH situations requiring public notification fall into three categories: tier 1, 2, and 3. The EPA sets requirements on the form, manner, content, and frequency of public notices. Here are brief descriptions of each public notification tier:

• Tier 1 (immediate notice): Any time a situation occurs where there is the potential for human health to be immediately impacted, water suppliers have 24 hours to notify people who may drink the water about the situation.
• Tier 2 (notice as soon as possible): Any time a water system provides water with levels of a contaminant that exceed EPA or state standards or that hasn't been treated properly, but that doesn't pose an immediate risk to human health, the water system must notify its customers as soon as possible, but within 30 days of the violation.
• Tier 3 (annual notice): When water systems violate a drinking water standard that does not have a direct impact on human health (for example, failing to take a required sample on time) the water supplier has up to a year to provide a notice of this situation to its customers.

Health departments must be able to respond quickly and competently when a WASH emergency arises. Training, exercises, and learning materials can help health departments to become water-ready.

• Vulnerability Assessment Factsheet (Source: EPA): This document walks through the basic elements of vulnerability assessments, and breaks down points to consider for each element.
• Emergency Response Planning Guidance (Source: Kansas Department of Health & Environment): The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for developing or revising public water supply system Emergency Response Plans (ERPs).
• Simplified Vulnerability Assessment Tool for Drinking Water (Source: Kansas Department of Health & Environment): This document provides an overview of threats, risk minimizations, and easy-to-use tables to conduct a simple vulnerability assessment.
• Conduct a Drinking Water or Wastewater Utility Risk Assessment: Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool (Source: EPA): This web-enabled, user-friendly tool can help water and wastewater utilities of all sizes to conduct a risk and resilience assessment.
• What Makes a Water-Prepared Local Health Department? Checklist (Source: NACCHO): Local health departments can use this two-page checklist to make sure they are ready for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) emergencies.
• A Guide to Commercially-Bottled Water and Other Beverages (Source: CDC): Guidance on reading labels of commercially-bottled water and beverages to determine whether drink was processed against cryptosporidium.
• Choosing Home Water Filters & Other Water Treatment Systems (Source: CDC): Information to serve as a guide for household water treatments based on water source, lifestyle, budget, and concerns.
• Chlorine Dioxide, Chlorite and Chlorate in Drinking Water (Source: WHO): Background document on chlorine dioxide, chlorite and chlorate for the development of WHO's Guidelines for Drinking- water Quality.
• Coliform Public Health Advisory Packet (Source: Washington State Department of Health): Washington State DoH developed the Coliform Public Health Advisory Packet to provide the tools used to manage fecal contamination in water supply.
  
• Drinking Water Requirements for States and Public Water Systems (Source: EPA): Drinking water rule pages grouped by contaminant type, includes information on unregulated contaminants.
• Effective Risk and Crisis Communication During Water Security Emergencies (Source: EPA): Summary of water security risk communication message mapping workshops with information about effective message development and delivery for use during the development of risk communication plans.
  
• Emergency Toilet Project (Source: Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization): Information and guidance on the basics of personal hygiene and the safe handling of human waste after a disaster.
  
• Emergency Water Supply Planning Guide for Hospitals and Health Care Facilities (Source: CDC): A guide for health care facilities to prepare for, respond, and recover from a total or partial water supply interruption by providing the guidance to assess water usage, response capabilities, and water supply alternatives.
• Giardia and Drinking Water from Private Wells (Source: CDC): CDC webpage discussing giardiasis, how Giardia enters drinking water, and how consumers can remove it from drinking water.
• Giardia: Drinking Water Health Advisory (Source: EPA): Extensive EPA resource explaining Giardia's epidemiology, environmental presence in different environmental sources, human health effects, animal health effects, risk calculations, analytical methods, treatment technologies, disinfection, and research needs.
• Ground Water and Drinking Water (Source: EPA): A repository of information on drinking water for the public, public health and environmental health officials
• Iowa Main Break and Depressurization Guidance (Source: Iowa Department of Natural Resources): Provides guidance to public water supply owners and operators in evaluating and responding to pressure loss situations from distribution system issues such as main breaks, valve repairs, or extreme fire flows, and operational disruptions such as a pump failure, power outage, telemetry failure, source failure, or storage depletion.
• Learning from the Flint Water Crisis: Report, Handbook, and Law Primer (Source: The de Beaumont Foundation): A 2018 report details how failures in the legal structure of public health, safe drinking water, and emergency manager laws failed to mitigate the Flint water crisis.
• Regulatory Information by Topic: Water (Source: EPA): Information on pollution prevention efforts, as well as the support for and enforcement of clean water and safe drinking water broken down by topics.
• Main Break Types and Responses (Source: Iowa Department of Natural Resources): Matrix of the different types of main breaks and their appropriate responses/procedures.
• The Public Notification Rule: A Quick Reference Guide (Source: EPA): A guide including and overview of the Public Notification Rule, the tiers of violations, the required elements of a public notice, and information on distribution and presentation.
• Total Coliform Rule Compliance Help for Water Systems (Source: EPA): Materials compiled for owners and operators of public water systems to assist with compliance of the Total Coliform Rule and Revised Total Coliform Rule.
• Turbidity – Why is it Important? (Source: Oregon Health Authority): Information on turbidity and detailed overview of particle types and sizes found in surface water.
• Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) (Source: EPA): EPA’s Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) an annual drinking water quality report from the consumer’s water supplier. The CCR tells consumers where your water comes from and what's in it.
• Water Safety Plans: Managing Drinking-Water Quality from Catchment to Consumer (Source: WHO): The World Health Organization’s water safety plans and corrective actions for drinking water hazards.
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Emergency Preparedness Stories from the Field (Source: NACCHO): The following examples of recent WASH emergencies have demonstrated the importance of preparedness, and can be used as learning opportunities to prepare water utility companies, public health departments, and emergency managers for future water emergencies.