LOC News

Question

Additional Information

1. Does your community depend heavily on a single water source?

If your primary well, surface-water intake, spring, etc. became unavailable, could you still supply water?

2. How secure are your existing water rights and supplies?

Do your water rights provide enough reliable supply during drought or low-flow periods? Are there permit limitations, priority-date issues, undeveloped water rights, or other constraints that could affect availability?

3. Do you know how much water you are losing?

Is the system regularly evaluating leakage and water loss? Could recovering some of that water postpone the need for additional supply?

4. Could your system handle an extended drought?

Does the water supplier know when it would need to begin voluntary conservation, mandatory restrictions, or more serious curtailment? Are those triggers based on measurable conditions?

5. How long could the community operate if its primary source suddenly failed?

How much usable storage is available? Is there an alternate source, emergency intertie, backup well, or other way to maintain service?

6. Can your water system operate during a prolonged power outage?

Are critical wells, pumps, treatment facilities, controls, and communications backed up? Is there sufficient generator capacity and fuel?

7. Does the city have partners it can call during an emergency?

Are there interties, mutual-aid agreements, neighboring providers, equipment-sharing arrangements, or participation in mutual-aid organizations such as Oregon Water/Wastewater Response Network (ORWARN)?

8. Is your emergency plan something staff could actually use tomorrow?

Are contacts current? Do staff know their roles? Has the plan been exercised? Does it address contamination, wildfire, earthquake, cyber incidents, and infrastructure failures rather than simply existing on a shelf? Is it reviewed annually?

9. How much could demand be reduced if necessary?

Does the city know which conservation measures could produce meaningful savings quickly? Are customers already familiar with the city's conservation and curtailment programs?

10. Are you planning for the water demands you will have 10-20 years from now?

Consider growth, changing demand, aging infrastructure, cost, drought, climate conditions, water-right limitations, source-water risks, and the lead time required to develop additional supply.

Community

System Configuration

Resilience Implication

Community A

One well, no intertie, and about one day of usable storage.

A mechanical failure can quickly become a water-supply emergency.

Community B

Two wells in the same aquifer plus storage.

The city has mechanical redundancy, but both wells may share the same drought, groundwater, contamination, or aquifer vulnerability.

Community C

Groundwater, surface water, an emergency intertie, and storage.

The community has several independent options if one source or system component becomes unavailable.