Be Prepared: Lift Station Power Failure Emergency Response Plan

Utilities must be prepared to respond to lift station emergencies. This can be accomplished by creating a Lift Station Power Failure Emergency Response Plan (ERP). This manuscript describes the City of Tavares, Florida, development of a lift station emergency response plan.
The main idea in developing an ERP is:
1.) To have all the information organized so that it can be easily located for reference, 2.) To cover all scenarios that could occur and would affect the operation of the wastewater collection system, 3.) To supply as much information as possible to facilitate effective and timely emergency responses, 4.) How to respond to real time flows and the levels of the equipment in the lift station, 5.) Creating the ERP is a team effort, 6.) The leader of the Team needs to have an analytical mind, be familiar with operations, but able to step back to take an unbiased overview of the system, 7.) Illustrations and tables are encouraged. ‘A picture is worth a 1,000 words,’ 8.) The emergency response plan is a living document, the plan needs to be updated so the most current information is available. It is recommended to place the date of any revisions in the footer of that page so when spot reviews are performed on the books, one can tell if the most current revisions have been included and 9.) Produce sufficient copies of the ERP, books should be issued to each operations personnel, dispatchers, utility supervisors, and other key personnel.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ERPs can be tailored to the needs of the Utility of Municipality. ERPs are inexpensive to develop and can be one of the best resources for responding to an emergency. Source: WEFTEC 2009 Proceedings