EPA Releases Preparing for Extreme Weather Events: Workshop Planner for the Water Sector

Calendar year 2012 was the second most expensive year on record for extreme events, and it’s expected that events like these will occur more frequently and with greater intensity. These events, such as Hurricane Sandy and the continuing prolonged period of drought that, at its peak, found about 65% of the country in drought conditions, can have devastating impacts to drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities. It’s important that utilities identify what actions they can be taking today to better prepare for these events.

EPA’s Climate Ready Water Utilities (CRWU) initiative has just released its Preparing for Extreme Weather Events: Workshop Planner for the Water Sector (Workshop Planner) to help utilities plan for extreme events. The Workshop Planner provides all of the materials needed to plan, conduct, and facilitate an adaptation planning workshop on five extreme event scenarios: Floods, Drought, Wildfire, Sea Level Rise, and Reduced Snowpack.

The Workshop Planner takes the guesswork out of the design process, allowing a user to successfully conduct and facilitate a workshop without outside assistance. These workshops create a forum to openly discuss extreme event adaptation while bringing utility and community partners together. By the end of the workshop, all participants will have developed actions that can be taken immediately to become better prepared for and more resilient to extreme events.

Download the Workshop Planner today at http://epa.gov/climatereadyutilities (see the Tools and Resources tab). For questions or feedback, please contact CRWUhelp@epa.gov.