Public Health Surveillance Can Help Detect Contamination

How can drinking water utilities use public health surveillance as part of their ongoing resiliency initiatives?  EPA’ Water Security Division (WSD) has published a new document that can help with overall water quality surveillance and response (SRS) activities.
Public Health Surveillance Design Guidance for SRSs (PDF) provides guidance for leveraging ongoing public health surveillance in detecting possible drinking water contamination incidents.  It also explains how public health data – such as emergency room visits or poison control center calls – can be used to detect possible drinking water contamination incidents.  The Guide contains an interview form to help drinking water utilities engage their public health partners and learn about ongoing surveillance activities.