Airport Community, Water Quality Events, and the Aircraft Drinking Water Rule (2018)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

37 APPENDIX B Survey Questionnaire INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERVIEW The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized the Aircraft Drinking Water Rule (ADWR) a few years ago. Under that regulation, airlines must ensure that the water they board onto their aircraft is safe to drink. If they board water that does not meet drinking water standards, they must disinfect and flush the aircraft water system and collect follow-up water samples until the sample results confirm the water is safe. They must also disinfect and flush the water system until samples show the water is safe if they detect total coliforms in their routine monitoring samples. Because of the implications of these corrective actions on flight schedules and cost, it is very important for airlines to hear about water quality events very quickly—both when they are first identified and when they are resolved. Water quality events of concern to aircraft include bacterial contamination, such as total coliform or E. coli-positive samples, problems with the water treatment system, and main breaks or pressure losses that can allow contaminants to enter the water system. The Cadmus Group has been contracted by the Airport Cooperative Research Program of the Transportation Research Board to prepare a report that synthesizes airport experiences with water quality-related events—including how the airport becomes aware of the event then implements notifications to the airport community. We are interviewing personnel from airports of various sizes and a few air carriers. We hope to obtain copies of effective information transfer protocols, if available. Our goal is to compile effective standard practices, challenges experienced, and recommendations that can help airports and air carriers address these events. We believe the interview will take less than an hour. It will not be recorded and we will take notes. We will keep your air- port anonymous by referring to it only by airport size. We would like contact information in case we have follow-up questions. INTERVIEW PARTICIPANT INFORMATION Name: _____________________________________________________________________ Title:_______________________________________________________________________ Affiliation (airport, water purveyor, airline): _______________________________________ Phone Number: ______________________________________________________________ Email Address: ______________________________________________________________ AIRPORT WATER SYSTEM INFORMATION 1. Is the airport a regulated public water system (PWS)? (meaning that they are regulated as a PWS and not just as part of the water system that serves the municipality) …… Yes [Go to questions 2a & 2b] …… No [Go to question 2b] …… Don’t know [Go to question 2b] 2. Questions related to the water system at the airport. 2a. Check all that apply to the airport public water system (significance is that only acute public health concerns that apply to transient non-community water systems affect aircraft compliance with the ADWR—for example, there are no ADWR consequences if standards for disinfection by products are exceeded): …… Community water system (part of the water system that serves the city or town)

38 …… Transient non-community water system (transient population with fewer than 25 workers 8 hrs/day) …… Non-transient non-community water system (more than 25 of the same people 8 hrs/day plus transient travelers) …… Consecutive water system (purchases water from a PWS) Which public water system(s) serves the airport? …… Does not purchase water and has its own source(s) of supply, such as its own wells. 2b. Check all that apply to storage and treatment at the airport (significance is whether there may be additional water-related steps the airport takes once the water purveyor has resolved the water quality event but before the water should be used, such as disinfecting and flushing an on-site tank): …… None—does not provide additional treatment and has no on-site storage …… Disinfection (residual maintained at ppm; circle free or total chlorine) …… Storage volume million gallons. Maintained by airport or water purveyor? (circle one) …… Other treatment or comments 3. How complex is the airport water system? (significance is identifying the magnitude of the issue if there is a water quality event) (Check all that apply and circle applicable details) …… How many flights each day? A few, hundreds, actual number estimate …… How many watering points are there? A few, 10–20, more than 20, actual number estimate …… How many airlines serve the airport? …… Is the airport served by distinct or different sections of the PWS distribution system (in the event a boil water notice only affects certain terminals)? No, Yes (please describe ) …… Other details related to airport water system complexity 4. What is the airport’s location relative to the public water system’s service area? (relates to how easy it is to identify if a water quality event within a limited area of the distribution system affects the airport) …… Urban area …… Developed suburban area …… Remote area 5. Does the airport collect any drinking water samples for analysis? …… Yes [Go to questions 5a & 5b] …… No [Go to question 6] 5a. How many sampling locations are used and for what parameters? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 5b. Is there a notification protocol if airport sampling reveals a potential issue but the local water purveyor has not identified any issue? …… Yes [Please provide information on the protocol (who is notified and how)] …… No [Please provide information on how the sampling information is used]

39 EVENT DETAILS IF INTERVIEW RESPONSES BASED ON A SPECIFIC EVENT 6. Have you had a water quality event in the last three years? …… Yes [Go to questions 6a & 6b] …… No [Go to question 7] 6a. Please complete all of the following, if possible: …… Date drinking water advisory occurred on or about [mm/dd/yy]? …… Approximate time of day notified of the event (significance is if it is received during a peak rush or typically at the end of a day): …… How long did the event last? # hours ; # days ; Other details 6b. Nature of the water quality event (total coliform-positive sample, E. coli-positive sample, water main break, pressure loss, inadequate disinfectant levels, etc.) and special challenges it presented? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ EXISTING COMMUNICATIONS PROTOCOLS 7. Is there a formal communication standard operating procedure (SOP) in place between the public water system and the air- port and/or the airport and the air carrier? …… Yes [Go to questions 7a through 7e] …… No [Go to question 8] 7a. What is the communication SOP? (Please review and discuss all talking points) • Who is contacted by the water purveyor and how is that notification received? (Indirect notice to airport and air carriers via TV or other media announcement or tweets for the general public, etc.; or direct notification via desig- nated emergency call or email list, etc.) • Who is notified by the airport/air carrier? (local airline personnel, corporate airline personnel, ground service providers, caterers, etc.) • How is that notification disseminated by the airport/air carrier? (streaming notice on flight board, phone call or voice mail, email, website, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). • Is there a specific tenant point of contact used by the airport (e.g., station manager, ramp supervisor, customer service supervisor)? • Do communications differ by type of event? (total coliform-positive sample, E. coli-positive sample, annual distri- bution system flushing programs, distribution system operations/main break issue, etc.) 7b. Are the communication SOPs documented in written form? …… Yes [Can you share a copy of these communication SOPs by emailing: derek.sullivan@cadmusgroup.com ?] …… No written protocols are available. 7c. What, if any, are recognized gaps or concerns about the existing process? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________

40 7d. Who contributed to development of the protocol or commented on the protocol, and to what extent? (significance is to identify whether air carriers were involved in the process). 7e. What about the existing process has worked well and you would recommend to others? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ If no formal communications SOP plan exists currently, how are notifications received and forwarded to the airport com- munity? (For this project, the airport community includes applicable airport managers, airlines, ground service providers contracted by the airlines or by the airport to board water onto aircraft, and ice and food caterers that are contracted by the airport to serve aircraft.) ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 8. Have you had event(s) that tested the protocols or led to protocol revisions? …… Yes [Go to question 8a] …… No [Go to question 10] 8a. If Yes, describe the event and the challenge or issue addressed by the revisions (significance is to obtain real-world lessons learned). ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ CRITICAL TAKE-HOME MESSAGES FROM COMMUNICATION SOP EXPERIENCES 9. What are key details of the event that are conveyed in the notifications or that should be included in the notifications? (date and time occurred—such as original sample collected, date and time aware of the event, cause of the event, area of the dis- tribution system affected, date and time issue resolved, additional water system flushing or monitoring required?) 10. What are the critical details or steps of the communication SOP that may be easy to inadvertently overlook? 11. What are the most vulnerable steps in the communication SOP that may need options or perseverance in case the standard procedure breaks down? UNRESOLVED CHALLENGES 12. What additional information would be helpful to have to further develop your protocol for notifications related to the quality of water reaching the airport or within the airport distribution system?