Karen M.E. Emde, Daniel W. Smith, James A. Talbot, Les Gammie, Susan Ancel, Nelson Fok, and Janet Mainiero

OBJECTIVES:

The objectives of this project were to (1) hold a multi-stakeholder, expert workshop to collectively describe and define issues of potential public health risks as a result of infrastructure failures; (2) develop common, collaborative strategies for intervention and mitigation, and (3) develop mechanisms for timely, direct, inter-agency communication, coordination, and collaboration.

BACKGROUND:

Health risks from infrastructure failures are not well understood, despite the potential widespread introduction of chemical, microbial, and physical contaminants, as well as service disruptions. Public health effects due to distribution infrastructure failures are the concern and responsibility of the local water utility, the health department, community medical care providers, and in special circumstances, emergency first response agencies. While the water utility is responsible for safe water, including the operation and maintenance of distribution infrastructure, other agencies including public health regulators, medical practitioners, and first responders (e.g., police, fire, others) also play a pivotal and active role when dealing with the impacts of infrastructure failures on the community.

HIGHLIGHTS:

All agencies involved with some aspect of public health protection from infrastructure failures acknowledged that the true extent of health effects, while not yet well known or characterized, required a collaborative, interagency approach The study identified methods to develop future collaborative efforts, which included improved understanding of the relationships and outcomes between infrastructure failure events and measured health outcomes, as well as the need to develop improved tools for the detection and monitoring of these events and community effects. This includes the need to develop/refine collaboration for interagency surveillance, response, and mitigation efforts for infrastructure failures. The study identified ways to improve interagency communication as well as potential opportunities for cross-training to improve understanding between stakeholders and to develop better collaborative relationships and programs.

APPROACH:

This project began by holding an international workshop with invited experts from the various disciplines and agencies involved with some aspect of community health protection, safe drinking water, and water infrastructure failures. The issues, perspectives, and difficulties associated with infrastructure failures were identified. Approaches towards reaching common solutions, defined by the different stakeholder agencies and utilities, were determined.

RESULTS/FINDINGS:

Water infrastructure failures impact not only the water utility, but also the community, often in ways that were not originally anticipated. Examples of community impacts from water infrastructure failures may include canceling public events, closing public places, or providing alternative sources of water, in addition to any water quality issues that may arise. Successful resolution of these issues requires timely interagency collaboration and communication. The relationships required are neither intuitive nor commonplace; ongoing efforts are needed well before the infrastructure failure emergency event occurs.

IMPACT:

The project identified opportunities for stakeholder agency action and interaction for a wide spectrum of infrastructure failure event possibilities. This research identified venues to develop interagency-water utility relationships to better deal with community impacts from water infrastructure failures. The discussions and evaluation of workshop findings identified areas needing further investigation, including emergency response and remediation, improved interagency communication, opportunities for joint training and/or cross-training, as well as identifying that multiple regulatory jurisdictions nee*d to be addressed when there are community, economic, or regulatory consequences as a result of the infrastructure failure.

All stakeholder agencies share responsibility for safe water for the community. It is not the sole jurisdiction of the water utility. That includes response to, and remediation of, the effects of water infrastructure failure.

PARTICIPANTS:

Participants included water utilities, public health and environmental regulators (local, provincial/state, federal levels of government), consulting engineers, water quality scientists, physicians, and police from Canada, the United States, Great Britain, and Australia.