November is National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month

Our colleagues at EPA’s Water Security Division invite states and water utilities to take special efforts during National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month to be better prepared for emergencies.  Each week during November, EPA will share information about a different area of focus for enhanced security and resilience.

This week’s focus is Risk Assessment.  A vital step on the path to resilience is identifying a utility’s vulnerabilities.  Water and wastewater utilities can identify risks using the Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool (VSAT).  VSAT can help utilities identify the highest risks to mission-critical operations and find cost-effective risk reduction strategies.  This link https://www.epa.gov/waterriskassessment/conduct-drinking-water-or-wastewater-utility-risk-assessment will take you to a downloadable version of VSAT.

More information about water security and resilience  is available at https://www.epa.gov/waterresilience/celebrate-national-critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience-month.  Next week’s focus area will be “Get Ready – Conduct an emergency response exercise.”  Subsequent focus areas will look at community resiliency and risk reduction strategies.