EPA Tools and Resources

Prepare for Hurricane Season

Use EPA's various tools to help you prepare and handle a variety of aspects pertaining to hurricanes whether in the preparation or action realm of hurricane season.

Flood Resilience Guide

The Flood Resilience Guide for water and wastewater utilities is your one-stop resource to know your flooding threat and identify practical mitigation options to protect your critical assets.

Storm Surge Inundation Map

Assess your utility's risk to a hurricane and mitigate flood damage by using the Storm Surge Inundation Map. On this interactive map you can view:

• Historical hurricane tracks;
• Hurricane strike frequency;
• Storm surge flooding; and
• Real time coastal storm advisories. 

Power Resilience Guide

Access the newly updated Power Resilience Guide to learn about strategies water and wastewater utilities can use to increase their resilience to power outages. This guide includes new information on energy efficiency, renewable energy, and funding.  

The Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) Template for Drinking Water and Wastewater Laboratories

Create a plan for your water laboratory.  The COOP Template provides recommendations to help plan ahead for emergencies where there may be a disruption in normal laboratory operations. This fillable PDF template is fully customizable to your laboratory and helps identify necessary resources to prepare for continued service during an emergency.

Hurricane Incident Action Checklist

Use this “rip and run” Hurricane Incident Action Checklist to respond to and recover from hurricane and tropical storm impacts. The checklist outlines key actions that can be taken immediately before, during, and after the event to mitigate impacts.

Federal Funding for Utilities in National Disasters (Fed FUNDS)

Use EPA's Fed FUNDS tool to help your utility find the right funding before a hurricane strikes. Updates to Fed FUNDS includes:

• New information on the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law;
• Newly available grants and loans;
• Updates to the Side-by-Side comparison feature;
• Updates to the Search for the Right Funding tool; and
• Tribal funding from EPA, FEMA, HUD, USDA, and HHS. 

Cybersecurity Best Practices for the Water Sector

WSD recently published the EPA Cybersecurity Best Practices for the Water Sector webpage. The new page contains cyber resilience resources available from EPA including the Water Sector Cybersecurity Brief for States, Cybersecurity Incident Action Checklist, Water Sector Cybersecurity Training and Response Exercises and Water Sector Cybersecurity Technical Assistance Program. The webpage also provides information on available DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Alerts, including for the recent SolarWinds incident. 

Fact sheet - What to Report to CISA

America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) Resources

Article - Tools for AWIA Compliance 

AWIA Factsheet – This document provides an overview of the new requirements, deadlines, frequently asked questions and information concerning resources and tools.

Baseline Information on Malevolent Acts for Community Water Systems (CWSs) - This document provides baseline information on malevolent act threat categories and corresponding threat likelihoods relevant to drinking water and wastewater systems. 

Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool Web 2.0 – This updated version of the Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool assists drinking water and wastewater systems in conducting an AWIA-compliant Risk and Resilience Assessment.

Emergency Response Plan Template and Instructions – This updated emergency response plan guidance provides a template and instructions for drinking water systems to develop or revise an AWIA-compliant Emergency Response Plan. 

Online Certification System - This online portal allows CWSs to certify completion of the Risk and Resilience Assessments and Emergency Response Plan online and receive reminders. 

Final Revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule

• Using science-based testing protocols to find more sources of lead in drinking water.

• Establishing a trigger level to jumpstart mitigation earlier and in more communities.

• Driving more and complete lead service line replacements.

• For the first time, requiring testing in schools and child care facilities.

• Requiring water systems to identify and make public the locations of lead service lines

EPA has been updating and reorganizing the Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR) webpages. The goal of this update is to make information more accessible and house all the resources developed under our technical assistance programs.

New page topics and links:

• Lead Service Lines home page 

• Getting Started

• Planning and Developing an Inventory 

• Engaging with the Community 

• Planning and Conducting Replacements 

• Identifying Funding for LSLR 

Climate Resilience and Awareness

FREE WEBINARS

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Creating Resilient Water Utilities (CRWU) initiative is providing a series of five, free webinars for drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater (water sector) utility owners and operators, as well as other water sector stakeholders in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. This webinar training series titled “Building Resilience and Adapting to Climate Change Impacts for Drinking Water and Wastewater Utilities” begins with an Introductory webinar concentrating on the impacts of climate change in the Mid-Atlantic, the identification of adaptation options, and a utility climate change risk assessment case study. The following four webinars focus on conducting a climate change risk assessment using EPA’s Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT), developing resilience and adaptation projects, and identifying financing programs to pay for infrastructure projects.

CREAT is a web-based risk assessment application for water sector utilities to assess and address current and potential future climate change impacts. This free training will help utilities incorporate climate change considerations into their decision-making, identify adaptation projects to build long-term resilience, and learn about federal and local resources for financing utility resilience projects. To learn more about CREAT success stories visit our Case Study and Information Exchange Map and to view other trainings visit the CRWU Training Center.