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Crisis Management Plan - Water Shortage

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AW1488

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Posted 09 May 2018 - 07:10 PM

Hello,

 

I am working on our crisis management plan in the event their would be a water shortage.  We are a beverage company so water is a key ingredient in our products.  In my scenario I stated that our municipality had issued a water advisory for our area and recommended not using or boiling the water.  We have an RO/UV light system in place.  Would we still be able to produce product if the municipal water is under advisory/contaminated?  Would the RO system & UV light disinfect it so that would act like boiling?  I figured this was a good scenario for us since a water advisory was issued in a neighboring county before.  Any thoughts would be appreciated!



Scampi

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Posted 09 May 2018 - 07:37 PM

not necessarily. You would have to verify that the system you have is capable of ensuring potability at your normal velocity and volumes

 

You would be far better off to purchase potable water and keep your system as an "extra"

 

In your scenario, you would become a water treatment plant and the rules will change as a result


Please stop referring to me as Sir/sirs


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FurFarmandFork

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Posted 10 May 2018 - 09:28 PM

not necessarily. You would have to verify that the system you have is capable of ensuring potability at your normal velocity and volumes

 

You would be far better off to purchase potable water and keep your system as an "extra"

 

In your scenario, you would become a water treatment plant and the rules will change as a result

Chiming in to say Scampi is exactly right. unless you want to become a municipal water provider in your state, the water you purchase needs to be potable already.

 

An option for your crisis management plan could be to have a tank of potable water delivered (bulk tanker) that you could plumb into your system if the need arose. However most boil advisories don't go past a week, you would probably just cease production for a few days.


Austin Bouck
Owner/Consultant at Fur, Farm, and Fork.
Consulting for companies needing effective, lean food safety systems and solutions.

Subscribe to the blog at furfarmandfork.com for food safety research, insights, and analysis.

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redfox

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Posted 11 May 2018 - 02:01 AM

Hello,

 

In our case, we are processing pasteurized crab meat, we also require a lot of water to feed our pasteurizer tank and boiler and to our processing plant. In time of crisis, we contacted ice plant that could possibly deliver us bulk water. Ice plant are required to have potable water to be used for ice production and they have always an updated certificate of water analysis on hand.

 

Crisis sometimes make the team in our plant becomes creative.

 

regards,

redfox



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Jim E.

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Posted 31 May 2018 - 03:03 PM

Would it not also depend on the amount of water that you use?  We use 1 million cubes a day if there was an issue with the water supply we have to shut down, no way we can source the water required to run.  We have a storage tank on site but 80% is required for fire suppression. So when we are notified of such an issue we have to shut down, there is enough water to do a line rinse down and then we wait.



Gerard H.

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Posted 01 June 2018 - 10:17 AM

Dear AW,

 

Another option for crisis management could be signing a mutual agreement, about Supply chain continuation, with a company which produces similar products. That makes you ready when a real crisis arrives. Of course, it can be in addition to what has been suggested above.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gerard Heerkens





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