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Presentation - Response Plan to Surface Water Source Contamination Events
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Some members of the public previously raised concerns regarding how the Water Authority would respond in the event of a disaster that contaminated the Rio Grande supply to its surface water treatment plant. The Water Authority already has a response plan in place for disasters such as algal blooms that could develop in the river or petroleum product pipeline breakage and which resulted in contamination of the river.
The Water Authority's primary response would be to stop diverting river water, shut down the surface water treatment plant, and temporarily increase pumping from wells which can meet 100% of customer demand and which historically supplied all customer needs. The Water Authority would resume river water diversions only after first making sure that contamination from a disaster was no longer present. The Water Authority routinely participates in simulation exercises with other local emergency management agencies for situations like this so that its operations staff are ready to respond if and when needed.
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