NHDES Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments of Wastewater and Water Infrastructure

Weston & Sampson was selected by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) to provide climate change vulnerability assessments (CCVAs) for NHDES-selected publicly owned wastewater and drinking water infrastructure.

Weston & Sampson is responsible for conducting CCVAs in select communities to help the NHDES better understand the current and future impacts of climate change on their infrastructure, including wastewater treatment facilities, pump stations, siphons, and collection system infrastructure, as well as drinking water treatment plants, water tanks, booster stations, and wells. Our team is working to identify climate impacts and developing the scoring framework to determine a vulnerability score with a uniform approach that can be applied to all communities. We gathered data from site visits regarding critical systems, past impacts or failures, and site characteristics. Existing system redundancy and recovery efforts contribute to the assets’ adaptive capacity score. Vulnerabilities will be incorporated into the community’s Hazard Mitigation Plan and each community’s existing asset management platform.