During an Incident—Issuing an Advisory

Pages in this Report
  1. Table of Contents
  2. About
  3. Acknowledgements
  4. Overview
  5. Before an Incident—Preparing for an Advisory
  6. Organizing for Drinking Water Advisories
  7. Collaborating with Partners
  8. Developing a Message
  9. Conducting Exercises
  10. Tools & Templates
  11. During an Incident—Issuing an Advisory
  12. Initiating an Advisory
  13. Preparing an Advisory
  14. Distributing an Advisory
  15. Ending an Advisory
  16. During an Incident: Tools & Templates
  17. After an Incident—Evaluating an Advisory
  18. Reporting Requirements
  19. Debriefing an Incident
  20. Conducting an Evaluation
  21. Modifying Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
  22. Continued Public Outreach
  23. Tools and Templates
  24. Appendix A: Glossary of Terms
  25. Tools and Templates
  26. Appendix C: Online Resources
  27. Bibliography
  28. List of Tables
  29. List of Figures
Related Pages

A drinking water advisory can occur at any time. Water systems must act quickly when an incident is suspected or identified. The first action must be to assess the situation and follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) for issuing a drinking water advisory.

Tip

Water systems as well as state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies can pull out the Tools and Templates that correspond to the “Before an Incident” and “During an Incident” sections to use as a “Go Kit” in situations where pre-planning activities may have been incomplete. They can be found individually or in a zip file on the Tools and Templates page.

This section contains the essential strategies and activities necessary to create public awareness of a drinking water advisory incident or to issue a Boil Water, Do Not Drink, Do Not Use, or a precautionary advisory for the general public, including susceptible populations who may have communication barriers or medical needs.

Checklist: During an Incident

Initiating an Advisory

  • Identify the situation and collect facts.
  • Notify your drinking water primacy agency.
  • Decide to issue an advisory.
  • Identify the geographic boundaries.
  • Notify your internal staff and external partners.

 

Preparing an Advisory

  • Identify experts to answers key questions needed for specific messaging.
  • Develop, format, and translate the message.
  • Approve the advisory.
  • Identify the spokespersons.
  • Assign communication responsibilities.

 

Distributing an Advisory

  • Brief elected officials, public officials, and key partners.
  • Implement your communication platforms.
  • Use your communication network to expand distribution of the advisory.
  • Work with the media.

 

Ending an Advisory

  • Issue End of Advisory notice.
  • Issue guidance for post-advisory activities (e.g., flushing guidance).
Figure 4 issuing a Drinking Water Advisory Flow Chart
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Page last reviewed: June 30, 2022
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases (DFWED)