WASHINGTON — Two wastewater industry agencies say those utilities are facing unique challenges in evaluating and determining approaches for reducing their vulnerability to both terrorist threats and natural disasters.
To help meet those challenges, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA), in cooperation with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are working to provide publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) with the necessary tools to initiate vulnerability assessments and develop or update emergency response plans.
WEF said in a news release that its wastewater training will take a three-prong approach:
Large system training: 12 two-day sessions conducted around the country between October 2002 and July 2003 to focus on more than 300 of the nation's largest POTWs. The experts who designed the AMSA Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool (VSAT wastewater) will provide hands-on training to utilities.
Train the trainer: a one-day session in each of the EPA's 10 regions that will train a total of 150 people on the use and capabilities of the VSAT wastewater and the development and upgrade of emergency response plans. These individuals will then act as resources for utilities that need future training and assistance.
Webcast "Click, Listen, and Learn": A two-part session on 20 November 20, 2002, open to all utilities, with the second part of the given in March of 2003.
Officials said the VSAT wastewater is designed to provide a comprehensive, intuitive system for wastewater utilities seeking to analyze their vulnerabilities and implement appropriate countermeasures. Participants will then learn how to develop a vulnerability assessment and an emergency response plan for their individual utility.
All training sessions are offered free to public utilities. Each workshop location has a limited capacity of 30 POTWs with two representatives per facility.
Registration for the first three Large Utility training workshops and the first two Train the Trainer workshops are now available, officials said.
Registration for the web-cast is not yet available but will be in the very near future.
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