|
What's Going On?
Water Resilience Updates from the U.S. EPA's Water Infrastructure and Cyber Resilience Division (WICRD)
|
|
New and Updated WICRD Initiatives
Get Ready for Round 2 of AWIA Section 2013 RRA and ERP Requirements
America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) Section 2013 requires community (drinking) water systems (CWSs) serving more than 3,300 people to develop or update risk and resilience assessments (RRAs) and emergency response plans (ERPs) every five years.
During the first 5-year certification period, approximately 98% of CWSs serving more than 3,300 people certified to EPA that they completed an RRA and ERP, as required by AWIA Section 2013. Thank you to the CWSs, technical assistance providers, and water sector organizations that helped CWSs comply with the law and improve their preparedness for malevolent acts and natural hazards!
The certification deadlines for Round 2 of AWIA Section 2013 are quickly approaching! See the upcoming certification deadlines in the table below:
|
Population Served
|
RRA Certification Deadline
|
ERP Certification Deadline
|
|
Over 100,000
|
March 31, 2025
|
September 30, 2025
|
|
50,000 – 99,999
|
December 31, 2025
|
June 30, 2026
|
|
3,301 – 49,999
|
June 30, 2026
|
December 31, 2026
|
As CWSs prepare for Round 2 of AWIA Section 2013, please know that EPA is here to help! EPA has free resources, templates, and recorded trainings on its AWIA Section 2013 website to help make the process of creating and updating RRAs and ERPs as easy as possible. If you have any questions about the upcoming AWIA cycle, feel free to reach out to EPA at dwresilience@epa.gov
|
|
|
|
CRWU Technical Assistance: EPA's Creating Resilient Water Utilities (CRWU) initiative has continued its FY24 technical assistance to help utilities complete a climate risk assessment and adaptation planning process using the Climate Resilience Evaluation and Assessment Tool (CREAT) with consideration of environmental justice issues in parallel. CRWU’s cohort of utilities in Quarter 2 includes the City of Lewes (DE), City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services (OR), Buffalo Sewer Authority (NY), Monroe County (NY), Halstad Municipal Utilities (MN), East Cocalico Water & Sewer Township Authority (PA), and South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (CA). If you would like to learn more about CRWU’s technical assistance or connect with any of these utilities about their assessment, please contact Aliza Furneaux (furneaux.aliza@epa.gov).
Environmental Justice StoryMap Web Publication: EPA’s CRWU initiative released its new Environmental Justice (EJ) StoryMap for use by water utilities and the public. This StoryMap is a resource to help water utilities incorporate environmental justice priorities into their climate adaptation planning process. Please contact Nash Keyes (keyes.nash@epa.gov) with any questions.
|
|
|
|
