Governor Hochul Deploys State Incident Management Team to Village of Whitehall Amid Ongoing Water Shortage

Governor Hochul Deploys State Incident Management Team to Village of Whitehall Amid Ongoing Water Shortage

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the deployment of an eight-member State Incident Management Team to support the response to the ongoing water shortage in the Village of Whitehall in Washington County. This team is a multi-agency/multi-jurisdictional team that can be deployed or activated when needed to manage an incident or event safely, effectively and efficiently, regardless of the cause, size or complexity. Since the situation began this weekend, New York State has deployed numerous staff from the State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, the Department of Health and Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as additional resources including water tankers and bottled water.

"As the Village of Whitehall faces an ongoing water shortage, I am deploying the State Incident Management Team to support our affected communities as we work to restore normal water levels," Governor Hochul said. "I am committed to providing residents and businesses with all of the necessary resources to weather this crisis, and I am working closely with our State, local and non-profit partners to ensure we are doing everything we can to help."

The New York State Incident Management Team (IMT) are deployed as a team of trained personnel, representing multiple disciplines who manage major complex incidents requiring a significant number of local, state or tribal resources. The requesting jurisdiction retains all local control, authority and responsibility throughout the duration of the incident while the IMT provides incident management assistance on their behalf.

Since the water shortage began over the weekend, New York has remained in coordination with the Village of Whitehall and Washington County in support of the response. Already, the State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services has deployed ten pallets of water, three 500-gallon water buffaloes and two 6,700-gallon water tankers to ensure the community has access to water. The Division's Office of Fire Prevention and Control has also deployed an XL Diameter Firefighting Supply Hose System which includes a hose truck, a 4500' 8" supply hose and a water supply support trailer.

Additionally, the Division has supported the dissemination of Wireless Emergency Alerts to the surrounding area and its Office of Interoperable and Emergency Communications has deployed additional communications resources to the area to improve radio and cellular coverage for responding agencies.

The State Health Department continues to monitor the situation. Staff are on-site working with the community and vendors to determine pump repair solutions and provide technical assistance as needed. The Department also has two mobile filtration units that could be dispatched to provide additional water filtration.