Home

 

 

 

Emergency Preparedness in Illinois


The purpose of the following technical assistance materials are to provide information to small public water supplies such that they can fulfill Risk and Resiliency Assessment (RRA) and Emergency Response Plan (ERP) requirements of Section 2013 of the America's Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA). AWIA requires water systems serving more than 3,300 people to develop and routinely update RRAs and ERPs.

Additionally, this material is intended to provide sufficient detail to allow public water supplies to comply with the requirements of 35 Illinois Administrative Code Section 604.135 regarding “Repair Work and Emergency Operation.” This Illinois regulation requires all community water supplies to develop emergency operations plans (EOP) for the provision of water under emergency circumstances. In the context of this website, ERP and EOP is intended to be synonymous.  Therefore, the intent of the Illinois Rural Water Association is that the following materials will satisfy both Federal and State requirements.

Finally, water systems need to be aware that the ERP (EOP) must be updated every three years to comply with Illinois regulations.  Further, water systems over 3,300 must recertify every five years to US EPA that its RRA and ERP has been reviewed and modified, as necessary.


America's Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) – Section 2013

Water systems serving a population of 3,301-49,999 (including satellite customers) must complete a Risk and Resilience Assessment (RRA) by June 30, 2021 and an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) by December 30, 2021 or six months after they submit their RRA, whichever comes first. AWIA does not require the use of any standards, methods or tools for the RRA or ERP.  However, to comply with the federal law water systems must evaluate six required elements in their RRA:

Additionally, to further comply with the federal law, water systems must address four elements in their ERP:

To assist water systems in Illinois comply with these requirements, the IRWA has developed the following templates (in either Microsoft Word or Excel formats):

If you are using Google Chrome - you may need to open the files by right clicking on the button and opening it in Incognito tab.









To assist you in completing the above templates, the following links may be helpful:

IEPA Who to call for help link to find information for IEPA Regional Office Information

Illinois Emergency Management Agency Local Emergency Management Agency to help you find your County ESDA contact information

Illinois Department of Health link to find your local health department contact information

Illinois State Police District link to help find information for your ISP District Headquarters contact information


Additionally, in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and with the assistance of an IRWA member water supply the following annex may be used for future emergency preparedness:

Emergency Response Pandemic

Re-Open Pandemic


Upon completing the RRA and the ERP, you must submit a certification of completion to the U.S. EPA (not Illinois EPA).  Currently, the U.S. EPA has provided three certification options for both the RRA and ERP: 1) regular mail; 2) email; or 3) secure online portal.  Please be aware that the use of the online portal is the only method provided where you will receive acknowledgement that the federal government has received your certification.  Follow the links below for additional information on certification:
How to Certify Your Risk and Resilience Assessment or Emergency Response Plan | Drinking Water and Wastewater Resilience | US EPA



For more information on RRA and ERP see the U.S. EPA website at:

Risk and Resilience Assessments and Emergency Response Plans (epa.gov)

 

Additional Resources that may be helpful:

RRA & ERP Certification Forms that may need sent to USDA-RD

U.S. EPA ERP

Emergency Response Plan Template and Instructions

Emergency Procedures Booklet Quick Reference Guide

wordlogoWord filepdflogo pdf file

Emergency Procedures Reference (Storage Tanks)
wordlogo Word filepdflogopdf file

 



 


Illinois Rural Water Association
3305 Kennedy Road; PO Box 49
Taylorville, IL 62568
Phone: 217-287-2115

Fax: 217-824-8638
Email: ilrwa@ilrwa.org

Privacy Policy