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  2. Compliance

Protecting Your Utility from Disasters: Resilience Part 1 of 2

Related Information
  • CWA-NPDES Permit Compliance Technical Assistance Webinar Series
On this page:
  • Training Video
  • Presenters
  • Supplemental Materials

Training Video

Wastewater utilities are vulnerable to a variety of natural disasters (e.g., flooding) and power outages. Mitigation measures can protect your utility by reducing damages and service disruptions. In this webinar, EPA presents tools and guides to protect your utility from disasters, to improve your response capability, and to find federal funding for mitigation. Wastewater utilities share their experiences in building a disaster-resilient utility and how that may help with selected compliance issues.

Date of Recording: June 24, 2021 (11-12:30 pm Eastern)

Presenters

  • David Goldbloom-Helzner, EPA HQ, Office of Water, has 33 years of experience in helping critical infrastructures prepare for and respond to disasters. David works on the Emergency Response Team in EPA’s Office of Water. He focuses on mitigation for floods, earthquakes, and wildfires for water and wastewater utilities and oversees training on the Incident Command System. In recent years, David has developed tools to help water and wastewater utilities become more resilient to flooding and other natural disasters as well as apply for federal disaster funding.

  • Jennifer Cowsert, City Administrator/Clerk, City of Elkader, IA, has been the City Administrator in Elkader, Iowa (population 1,273) since 2004. The Turkey River, a tributary to the Mississippi River, runs through the middle of town and frequently has periods of high water/flooding. Elkader is highly vulnerable to flooding from the Turkey River. Past flooding has damaged components of the Elkader Sewage Treatment Plant, including the main sanitary lift station and the sewage aeration lagoon system. Failure of the lift station or overtopping of the berm at the aeration lagoons would result in loss of wastewater service for the City, raw sewage backups into homes and businesses, and untreated sewage discharges to the river.

    Working with the state, the City applied for and received funding from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) to increase the height of an existing berm around the aeration lagoons and to build a floodwall and install flood resilient doors to protect the main sanitary lift station. The project was completed in October 2000 at a total cost of $134,917 (50% from the City and 50% from HMGP funds). The City has since experienced major flooding in May 2004 and June 2008. Because of the mitigation measures, the wastewater treatment plant and lift station were not impacted and continued to operate during these floods. According to a FEMA Loss Avoidance Study (May 2010), the total losses avoided for the project was over 5 times the total project investment. For the City of Elkader, the investment was considered a “no-brainer.”

  • Isabella Schroeder, Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority, works in the Engineering Department for the regional wastewater authority serving the constituent municipalities of New Haven, Hamden, East Haven, and Woodbridge, CT. She is the project manager for several flood resiliency projects being implemented in the service area including planning, funding, contract management and project closeout.

  • Christopher B. Wester is a Vice President and Regional Manager of Weston & Sampson’s Rocky Hill, Connecticut regional office. Chris has 35 years of experience in the engineering industry and has focused primarily on the water and wastewater pumping and treatment marketplaces. Chris is a licensed professional engineer in Connecticut and Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New Hampshire.

Supplemental Materials

  • Protecting Your Utility from Disasters: Resilience Part 1 of 2 Slide Presentation (pdf) (15.13 MB)

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Last updated on February 13, 2025
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