The Drinking Water Advisory Communication Toolbox, designed to help utilities plan for, develop, implement and evaluate drinking water advisories, was issued this month by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The toolbox takes into account the differences in scope, scale and severity of situations that trigger advisories, such as a main break, a hurricane, a drop in pressure, or intentional contamination. It includes instructions on how to prepare before an event, what to do during an event, 40 customizable templates and tools to use and recommendations for follow-up actions and assessments after an event.
CDC developed the toolbox in collaboration with EPA and drinking water organizations and used findings from more than 100 interviews with water systems, state primacy agencies and other stakeholders. Findings from the interviews are included in the publication.
The toolbox is available on the CDC website and the WaterISAC portal.