CFPUA conducts 1st full-scale emergency exercise

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority conduced its first controlled, full-scale exercise simulating a real-world water emergency today.

CFPUA spokesman Mike McGill said the simulation level is the most involved exercise in the U.S. Homeland Security’s Exercise and Evaluation Program. He said it is designed to mirror recent events involving a loss of water supply, such as the Elk River, West Virginia chemical spill and the coal ash spills that have occurred in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

McGill said over the last few years, CFPUA has conducted workshops, tabletop exercises, drills, and functional exercises as part of a larger effort to prepare for an emergency. The full-scale exercise is considered the most effective training tool, next to an actual emergency, because a team develops a real-life scenario prior to the event that must be reacted to in real time.

“When you provide drinking water to 200,000 people every day it’s important that you are on top of the latest tools, tactics, whatever you can use to address an emergency,” McGill said.

McGill said this type of exercise should be done every few years.