| EPA’s Creating Resilient Water Utilities (CRWU) initiative provides water sector (drinking water, wastewater, and storm water) utilities and stakeholders with practical tools, training, and technical assistance needed to increase their resilience to climate change. CRWU assists by promoting a clear understanding of climate change and helps to identify potential long-term adaptation options for decision-making related to implementation and infrastructure financing.
I am reaching out to you as either a water sector utility or stakeholder who can identify water sector utilities that are interested in working with CRWU and its contractors to conduct a guided climate change risk assessment at their utility.
Climate change poses significant challenges to water sector utilities in fulfilling their public and environmental health missions. Using our Resilient Strategies Guide (RSG) and Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT), water sector utility owners and operators can begin the process of assessing risk from these events. The CRWU team has provided climate change risk assessment technical assistance to 25 water sector utilities in Fiscal Year (FY) 22 and starting in October of 2022, plans to double those technical assistance efforts in FY 23. To see what other utilities have already done related to climate change risk assessment with CRWU visit our Case Studies Map.
Recognizing partner utilities’ significant time constraints, EPA provides a targeted and efficient technical assistance process with substantial facilitation support throughout. Utilities are typically asked to designate a lead staff member that spends around 35 to 40 hours to serve as a point-of-contact, participate in webinars and host an in-person site visit. Other staff and experts (such as hydrology modelers, engineers, and treatment plant managers) may spend 5 to 15 hours collecting data and providing feedback on meeting notes and the final report. The total process takes 2 to 4 months, depending on the tools used (RSG or CREAT), frequency of meetings and availability of utility staff and local partners. To see what CRWU has done with other water sector utilities across the Nation visit CRWU’s Case Studies Map.
If you are a water sector utility or know of water sector utilities that want to participate in this process, please identify them to Curt Baranowski ([email protected]) by Friday, September 9, 2022. Please share this message with anyone else that might be interested in and benefit from this process. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. |
