What to do during a flood watch
Flood Preparation
- Have plenty of sample bottles on hand.
- Check the condition of your field test kits & associated
instruments to make sure that they work and that you have the
necessary reagents on hand.
- Obtain baseline water quality and pressure information. Water
quality information should include taste, odor, chlorine residual,
turbidity, pH, conductivity, HPCs, etc.
- Secure access to backup power, generators or other redundant
systems. Generators can be critical for keeping the water system
running as well as running flood relief pumps.
- Update distribution system maps and review start-up/shut-down
procedures for facilities that may be impacted by the event.
- Evaluate the services in the potential impact area to evaluate
and respond to potential cross-connection concerns.
- Consider sending a notice to customers educating them about the
flood and advising them about actions they should consider before
and after the flood event.
- Increase the chlorine residual within the distribution system if
feasible.
During a Flood
- Establish flood boundary conditions as soon as possible.
- Identify impacted pressure zones.
- Locate emergency sample collection sites within the zones
impacted by the flood and begin collecting investigative samples if
possible.
- Sample for pressure, taste, odor, appearance, pH, conductivity,
and chlorine residual. Make quick observation of these results
versus the baseline data you collected in preparing for the flood.
Are any problems apparent?
- If you're not able to sample in a flooded pressure zone increase
sampling in adjacent pressure zones/locations. In fact, it's a good
idea to take a lot of coliform samples throughout your system
throughout the flooding event to get as clear a picture as possible
of water quality.
- If you can't collect all routine samples in a month when your
system is flooded it would result in a Minor Monitoring violation
for the month, which we are not currently following up on since we
have many higher priority issues to deal with. We may override the
violation due to the circumstances.
- A health advisory message should be considered if the water
system appears to be at risk. Other messages, such as
conservation/curtailment, fire, electrical power, and wastewater
concerns should be considered at the same time.
Flood Recovery
- Continue with existing messages until you make the determination
that safe water is available.
- Coordinate recovery efforts with police, fire and other
utilities.
- Initiate a coordinated flushing program if a problem is
perceived.
- Identify a number of sampling sites in the affected area.
- Use a combination of sensory checks (appearance & odor), field
tests, and coliform sampling to determine water quality. Collect
investigative samples in any zones that have been flooded as soon as
possible and prior to collecting compliance samples.
- If the system has been compromised consider the use of field
FID, PID, & TIP equipment to make a quick decision regarding whether
the water can be used in flood recovery efforts.
- If floodwater has entered your distribution system, you
should consider collecting investigative chemistry samples for VOCs
(EPA Method 524.2) and general pesticides (EPA Method 525.2).
- Determine how much technical assistance you can afford and
develop guidance documents for your customers as they re-enter the
impacted area. Consider the following: Disinfection, flushing,
sampling, and testing of backflow devices.
For more information, see Flood Advice for Water Systems
(DOH #331-300) |
