When utilities discover exceedances over the EPA’s Action Level for lead and/or copper under the Lead and Copper Rule, they find themselves faced with public communication challenges that if mishandled, could permanently harm their reputations. Why? Because the water industry is still feeling the negative impacts from what happened in Flint, Michigan. What happened in Flint was not the typical lead exceedance under the Lead and Copper Rule; it was a violation of the public trust on multiple levels. However, for the average customer, Flint has become shorthand for any water quality situation a utility may face, especially if a lead and/or copper exceedance is involved. Throughout the last two years, WaterPIO has been handling the public communications involving lead exceedances for multiple water utilities. Some of the utilities provide multiple cities with their water supply, so the communications effort requires significant, coordinated cooperation between several jurisdictions to ensure the public was properly informed. For several of the utilities, their initial EPA Action Level exceedances required public notification and the immediate institution of corrosion control programs. Presenters will discuss how they designed the communications efforts to focus on the positives surrounding the situations, i.e. the fact the Lead and Copper Rule worked as designed. Lead and/or copper exceedances are not one-time communications matters; several they are dealing with are still ongoing. However, thanks to successful communications plans that detail the positive steps being taken by the utilities to resolve the exceedances, coverage by the news media has been informational and correct, and there has been little anger from customers. The presentation walks through the public information strategies used to provide perspective during lead exceedances and detail the messaging that resulted in thoughtful, reasoned reactions from the press and the public.
Contributor/Source
Mike McGill
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