ALL-HAZARD PLANNING

The recent drive for water systems to enhance preparedness measures was ignited by the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, which strongly emphasized protecting against and being prepared for intentional attacks. Nonetheless, the water sector soon acknowledged that preparedness means being ready for a diverse set of hazards (especially natural disasters), not just intentional attacks. As such, many of the guidance documents produced in the last few years use the term "All-Hazard" as a flag to let the reader know that the document addresses natural disasters. Just be aware that sometimes the term "All-Hazard" means what it implies, any unexpected emergency, and sometimes it refers to strictly natural disasters.

The guidance document "All-Hazard Consequence Management Planning for the Water Sector" uses "All-Hazard" to refer to any type of unexpected emergency. This document is a great resource for systems, and will supplement the generation, maintenance, and revision of a comprehensive Emergency Response Plan. Specifically, this document:

• Lists hazards and consequences drinking water utilities should consider;
• Provides a general checklist of actions utilities can undertake to improve their preparedness, response, & recovery; and
• Provides a set of consequence-specific checklists to help prepare for specific incidents (i.e. loss of power, economic disruption incidents, loss of SCADA system, contamination incidents).