AWWA ACE65367

Water main construction, renewal and repair are routine water utility activities. Main breaks are common, especially for utilities in climates with alternating freeze-thaw cycles occurring from fall to 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, as well as during construction, repair and re-commissioning processes. The water utility typically receives all customer complaints associated with the failure event, which can include loss of pressure, excess turbidity, color, taste and odor, or total interruption of water service. The local health authority may, or may not, receive water utility notification of the failure event or consequences. Potential public health consequences from the exposure event often remain unresolved. One dilemma for water utilities and public health professionals is the level and type of notification and actions needed to best maintain municipal water infrastructure, while ensuring protection 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 local neighborhood to transient contaminants introduced by the failure, as well as through loss of system pressure. This exposure may result in clinical, or sub-clinical, manifestations of waterborne illness in 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 a burden on the public health care system for treatment of waterborne disease even when the etiologic agent and possible route(s) of exposure remain a mystery. There may also be public health regulatory issues regarding consequences of water quality issues, or water supply disruptions/shortages for affected users, as users may include private and institutional utility customers normally supplied by the failed mains. Capital Health Regional Health Authority, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, together with the Regional Water Customer Group of utilities, comprised of 45 independent small to medium sized water utilities, and EPCOR are actively working towards developing and implementing joint agency criteria and protocols for notification of significant water infrastructure failures or incidents, especially in known sensitive areas of the community such as hospitals, schools, longterm care facilities, and others. This includes development of a collaborative framework for joint policy and decision making to determine the most appropriate level of assessment and response to the failure event, including joint agency response if required. Includes 21 references.