AWWA ACE65367

Water main construction, renewal and repair are routine water utility activities. Main breaks arecommon, especially for utilities in climates with alternating freeze-thaw cycles occurring from fallto spring. Main breaks have been known to cause a range of water quality and quantity issues,including intrusion of external chemical and biological contaminants during the failure event, aswell as during construction, repair and re-commissioning processes. The water utility typicallyreceives all customer complaints associated with the failure event, which can include loss ofpressure, excess turbidity, color, taste and odor, or total interruption of water service. The localhealth authority may, or may not, receive water utility notification of the failure event orconsequences. Potential public health consequences from the exposure event often remainunresolved. One dilemma for water utilities and public health professionals is the level and type ofnotification and actions needed to best maintain municipal water infrastructure, while ensuringprotection of the public's health from all consequences of the failure event.An infrastructure failure event can result in an elevated exposure potential for the affected localneighborhood to transient contaminants introduced by the failure, as well as through loss of systempressure. This exposure may result in clinical, or sub-clinical, manifestations of waterborne illnessin some, or all, of a locally exposed population if timely and adequate precautions are not taken.Without public health notification, localized outbreaks may remain undetected but still inflict aburden on the public health care system for treatment of waterborne disease even when theetiologic agent and possible route(s) of exposure remain a mystery. There may also be publichealth regulatory issues regarding consequences of water quality issues, or water supplydisruptions/shortages for affected users, as users may include private and institutional utilitycustomers normally supplied by the failed mains.Capital Health Regional Health Authority, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, together with theRegional Water Customer Group of utilities, comprised of 45 independent small to medium sizedwater utilities, and EPCOR are actively working towards developing and implementing jointagency criteria and protocols for notification of significant water infrastructure failures orincidents, especially in known sensitive areas of the community such as hospitals, schools, longtermcare facilities, and others. This includes development of a collaborative framework for jointpolicy and decision making to determine the most appropriate level of assessment and response tothe failure event, including joint agency response if required. Includes 21 references.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

06/01/2007

Number of Pages:

10

File Size:

1 file , 320 KB