Chicagoland Water and Wastewater Preparedness and Business Resiliency Pilot

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) Water Security Division (WSD) and Region 5 are conducting a new pilot initiative that focuses on promoting a better understanding of interdependencies between the water sector and other sectors, especially manufacturing and healthcare. WSD and Region 5 are working with local planning partners on a variety of activities focused on education and outreach, exercises, and encouraging redundancy in the private sector for both drinking water and wastewater systems.Building upon the critical infrastructure protection work begun by the Chicago Manufacturing Center's Great Lake Partnership Program, the efforts are designed to encourage the private sector to consider the role of drinking and wastewater in their continuity of business operations and resiliency planning efforts. These follow-up activities grew out of the Chicagoland Water and Wastewater Preparedness and Business Resiliency Summit held in November 2007. Following the Summit, Region 5 convened a design group of local partners to set direction and discuss next steps. The design team is now developing a workshop for the medical community that will be held in September 2008, and consulting with local emergency planning committees on integrating the water sector into local planning efforts and exercises.