Businesses: September Is Emergency Preparedness Month

8/31/2018 (Permalink)

Is your business prepared for a natural disaster? We can help you get there.

Each September, through National Preparedness Month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reminds Americans to be prepared for disasters or emergencies in their homes, businesses, commercial properties, and communities.

Businesses can use this opportunity to find ways or help employees, vendors, and other businesses to understand more about preparing for disasters and reducing risks to health and the environment.

The EPA says there are many ways to reduce risks from contamination, leaks, spills, hazardous materials, and other dangers. SERVPRO of Bloomfield/Enfield suggests you visit the EPA’s page devoted to National Preparedness Month.

While not all-encompassing, this EPA page gives businesses and others many ideas and links to more information. Among the major sections are sections on general emergency information, how to report emergencies, communities, and a section for schools, businesses, and other facilities.

The business section covers topics like emergency planning, hazard resilience, decontamination, and risk communication. Among the helpful information SERVPRO of Bloomfield/Glastonbury found there was the Wastewater Response Protocol Toolbox (WWRPTB). It’s a useful tool for planning for and responding to wastewater contamination threats and incidents. The main audience for the toolbox is government agencies, emergency responders, and utilities.

The WWRPTB is designed to be a planning tool. It's not intended to be a reference document for use during an actual emergency when decisions need to be made rapidly. Cover are: who to notify, what actions to take, how to conduct a threat evaluation, how to safely collect and ship samples, steps to recover from a contamination event and more.

The WWRPTB addresses the preparedness and response needs for threats and contamination events in wastewater systems. These events can include contamination with toxicants as well as infectious, flammable, explosive, or radioactive substances. As an “all hazards” document, the WWRPTB discusses the response to accidental and negligent contamination events in addition to its primary focus on intentional contamination. The content and format are based on an earlier EPA guide on planning for and responding to threats and incidents of intentional contamination of public drinking water supplies.

Another useful tool we found on the EPA site is the Containment and Disposal of Large Amounts of Contaminated Water: A Support Guide for Water Utilities. The guide is intended for events involving emergency response activities at water utilities. In these types of events, an Incident Command System (ICS) may be established to manage the response, including decontamination activities. The guide provides a summary of key information that may be useful in addressing containment, treatment, and disposal of water contaminated with a CBR agent within any part of a drinking water, wastewater, and/or storm water system resulting from an “all hazards” contamination event. The information and recommendations were developed primarily for drinking water, wastewater, and storm water utility personnel involved in response activities. But others can benefit including decision makers involved with emergency response planning, such as emergency management agencies, environmental agencies, public health agencies, law enforcement, as well as other federal, state, local, and tribal agencies.

What To Do This Month

For your business, National Preparedness Month is a good time to:
    -- Review and update your business's emergency response plan
    -- Train any new employees on emergency and preparedness procedures
    -- Remind employees of the importance of safety
    -- Conduct emergency preparedness drills

If you don’t have an emergency response plan or aren’t certain whether your plan is as good as it needs to be, contact SERVPRO of Bloomfield/Enfield. We can help.

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