EOC Put to the Test with COVID-19 Situation
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Three weeks ago, Metropolitan completely transformed many of the ways it does business.
To protect employees from the spread of the COVID-19 virus, nearly half of the district's staff began working from home, and many steps were taken to protect the health of staff that continues to work on-site.
It was a major endeavor made possible through proactive and committed leadership, and with the help of one of Metropolitan’s key tools in an emergency situation: the Emergency Operations Center.
The EOC is a central location where key decision-makers meet to quickly and efficiently address the immediate needs of an emergency – sharing information, making decisions and providing direction.
Metropolitan staff regularly hold exercises to practice EOC implementation, bringing staff together at the Eagle Rock command center to practice responding to an earthquake, major fire or terrorist attack.
But the COVID-19 emergency is unlike any other, and dictated the exact opposite – that people not be in the same room, explained EOC coordinator
Ian Whyte
.
So the EOC was activated virtually, through daily conference calls and various online systems, where critical information is shared electronically. Through this gathering, operations, logistics, planning, security, finance and administration are all addressed.
“The bottom line is, we can know very quickly what is going on in every part of the district, and know if there are any issues,”
Ian
said. “The good news is, so far things are going really well. This entire experience really shows the talent and skill level of the people at Metropolitan.”
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Sharing Space Safely at Jensen Plant
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Metropolitan treatment plant control rooms are operated 24/7 by staff who rotate shifts to ensure the production of
reliable supplies of high-quality water. Shared workstations are an everyday reality in these control rooms so the practice of keeping them safe and clean has become even more important in recent weeks.
Operations staff are no strangers to disinfecting workstations when switching shifts; a practice the Jensen Plant treatment team implements every year during cold and flu season. However, COVID-19 has increased the consequences to staff health and plant operations if surfaces in the control room become contaminated.
“Jensen Plant, like all Metropolitan treatment plants, has implemented social distancing and cleaning procedures to minimize the potential for coronavirus contamination in the control room,” says
Jim Kostelecky
Jensen Plant – Unit Manager.
Maintenance activities are normally coordinated with plant operators by walking into the control room to discuss the work to be performed. To increase social distancing, all non-operators are communicating with the control room by phone or two-way radio rather than entering the control room.
To protect each shift from germs on shared workstations, staff cleans and disinfects work areas, keyboards, mice, telephones and high touch surfaces at least twice daily following
CDC guidelines for disinfection
. “The solution is 5 tablespoons of bleach per gallon of water. With the amount of bleach we have onsite for the treatment process, we don’t have to worry about running out of supplies anytime soon,” said
JR Rhoads
Treatment O&M Team Manager at the Jensen plant. (Note: while this solution is good for disinfecting surfaces, it’s not for use on the face and hands.)
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Approaching Work and Life Holistically
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Jennifer Nevills
views the world in a holistic, interconnected way. As an ecologist, her work and her life have always taken into account the important balance of human and natural environments. That's even more important now.
A Seattle native, she earned her degree in Environmental Science and put those skills to work right away. Three years doing amphibian field surveys for the National Park Service was followed by three years of endangered species work for King County. She moved to California in 2002, the same year she completed a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, a four and a half month journey of 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada.
Her first job at Metropolitan was as an Assistant Resource Specialist in WRM. In 2015, she was tapped as Project Manager for the Integrated Resources Plan, and in 2017 moved to Sacramento and joined Bay-Delta initiatives as Principal Resource Specialist.
“That move brought my career full circle in a way,”
Jennifer
said, “because it is meshing my comprehensive view of Metropolitan with my ecology background.” In addition to working on the water, environmental and operations of the proposed Delta conveyance project, she’s using her expertise to find ways to better manage and protect the upper watersheds.
An explorer at heart, Jennifer has taken many adventure travel trips around the world, including Switzerland, Japan and most recently, Iceland (where the photo above was taken). Now working from home, she stays busy by:
--Getting outside, walking or biking a new route each day.
--Trying new healthy recipes, or making them up from items in the pantry “Chopped” style.
--Embracing technology as a way to help stay balanced e.g. web-based team meetings, happy hours and yoga classes.
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