Develop or Update a Drinking Water Utility Emergency Response Plan - EPA

Emergency Response Plan Template and Instructions

This template and instructions will assist water utilities with developing an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) in accordance with America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (AWIA) Section 2013(b). The Act requires community water systems serving populations greater than 3,300 to develop or update an ERP that incorporates findings of their risk and resilience assessment.

An ERP describes strategies, resources, plans, and procedures utilities can use to prepare for and respond to an incident, natural or man-made, that threatens life, property, or the environment. Incidents can range from small main breaks or localized flooding to large scale hurricanes, earthquakes or system contamination, among other examples.

The ERP Template and Instructions PDF document features an embedded blank ERP template in Word format that can be easily accessed and modified by utility personnel to meet their own water system needs.

The EPA welcomes comments on the ERP Template and Instructions. Based on feedback, the EPA may revise the document in the future. Please email dwresilience@epa.gov to provide feedback. 

AWIA Section 2013 Certification Requirements

Community water systems serving populations greater than 3,300 must certify to U.S. EPA that they have completed an ERP that incorporates findings of the risk and resilience assessment conducted under AWIA Section 2013(a) and meets the criteria outlined under AWIA Section 2013(b). U.S. EPA strongly recommends you electronically submit your community water system’s ERP certification statement by clicking the link below.

• Submit Emergency Response Plan Certification Online 

Alternate certification statement submittal options are accessible by clicking the link below.

• Email, Regular Mail or Alternate Submittal Options for Emergency Response Plan Certification

AWIA requires you to submit only a certification of completion of an risk and resilience assessment and an ERP; therefore, do not submit the risk and resilience assessment and ERP documents to U.S. EPA.

NOTE: This PDF file uses Javascript.  In order to access the generator forms as Word documents, please download the file to your computer before opening.

• ERP Template and Instructions (PDF)(13 pp, 635 K, July 2019)