Organizing for Safe Water Services: Identifying Pathways to Successful Risk Management in Canadian Drinking Water Utilities
Drinking water utilities work diligently to provide safe drinking water to the communities they serve. Increasingly, they are challenged by a changing regulatory and natural environment, as well as workforce and financial limitations. It is important to understand different approaches that utilities take to adapt to these challenges while continuing to reliably provide safe water. These efforts, which can be referred to as risk management, can be influenced by various factors including resource availability, staffing, and technical factors. For example, preventative maintenance of water mains can be limited by the budget approved for the utility. Additionally, regulatory requirements, such as those in place in some Canadian provinces, can impact how utilities manage risk.
PhD candidate Emma Wells is studying pathways to effectively manage risk in drinking water systems, working with her advisors, Professors Amy Javernick-Will and Karl Linden, as well as and . They are investigating how regulations, resources, workplace culture, and operational factors work individually and together to impact risk management in drinking water utilities.Ìý
Research Questions and MethodsÌý
1) How do utility managers and regulators identify if a utility is providing safe water or successfully managing risk?
Methods: Interviews with regulators and utility staff to analyze and characterize perceptions of appropriate measures for successful risk management.
2) What factors influence individual operators’ perceptions and performance of risk management activities?
Methods: Surveys with drinking water operators and their supervisors to analyze and identify perceptions of microbial risk in their utility and the risk management actions.
3) What combinations of government regulations, organizational resources, organizational culture and norms, and organizational procedures are associated with successful risk management in drinking water utilities?
Methods: Cross-case comparison ofÌý 16 utilities in four provinces to determine which factors facilitate or act as barriers to successful risk management.
This project will contribute to theory by applying and expanding the protective action decision making model in a drinking water utility context. We will also examine the combinations of factors that influence risk management in drinking water utilities using water quality outcomes as an indicator of success.
This project will be used to develop guidance to support utilities in strengthening their risk management approaches whileÌý considering the contextual opportunities and constraints.Ìý
¹ó³Ü²Ô»å¾±²Ô²µ:ÌýGRA Emma Wells has received support from NSF GRFP, HDR One Water Institute Scholarship, and Dr. Phillip C. Singer Scholarship
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