DRINKING WATER DISTRIBUTION OPERATOR ASSET MANAGEMENT DECISION MAKING – OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE DECISION MAKING
Element of Competence:
Critical Control Points
Context
A Critical Control Point (CCP) is a measure that can be operated as a process control for a water quality hazard. They are particularly important for managing microbiological hazards and being able to supply enough water. CCPs help to ensure the safety of drinking water from the source to the tap. A few of the parameters monitored by Drinking Water Distribution Operators may have been identified as CCPs within the Water Safety Plan. E.g. maintaining a residual disinfectant within the distribution system.
Outcome
CCPs are monitored regularly (ideally continuously) to ensure that barriers are effective. Appropriate actions to optimise the system, or to bring the system back into control, are undertaken when action limits are reached. Incident and emergency plans are activated when critical limits for individual parameters are reached.
To do this, Drinking Water Distribution Operators need to be able to: ▪ Undertake operational monitoring and inspections of any Critical Control Points that relate to the distribution network.
▪ Undertake corrective actions when routine monitoring and inspections indicate that a CCP is deviating from its expected performance and is reaching its action limit. This may include: -
adjustments or process control changes,
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communicating and notifying others of the issue, including the relevant drinking water treatment operator for the supply.
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additional monitoring and inspection to confirm that the corrective action has been effective.
▪ Activate incident and emergency response procedures when critical limits for a CCP is reached or because the corrective action at the trigger level has not improved the performance of the CCP. ▪ Have input into a review into the underlying cause of why the corrective action, or incident and emergency response procedures, were needed. This includes identifying: -
how effective the monitoring and inspection plan was.
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how effective the corrective action was.
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whether the Water Safety Plan needs to be updated as a result.
To do this, Drinking Water Distribution Operators need to know:: ▪ What the Critical Control Points for the distribution element of the water supply are. CCPs are documented within the Water Safety Plan for each drinking water supply. For each of the Critical Control Points this will include: -
Process control summary.
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