Safeguarding a Multi-City Water Supply in Northern California

How the Sonoma County Water Agency Modernized Emergency Operations with Juvare’s WebEOC

Two Counties, Nine Cities, 600,000+ Residents

The Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) — based in Santa Rosa, CA — is responsible for delivering clean

water from the Russian River to nine city water agencies serving 600,000 residents across both Sonoma and Marin Counties. Beyond water distribution, SCWA oversees flood control infrastructure, wastewater treatment facilities, and community education programs.

Given the region’s vulnerabilities — fault lines prone to seismic activity, rivers that frequently flood, and aging infrastructure — disaster preparedness and the essential maintenance of a vital water supply is not a hypothetical exercise. SCWA must prepare for and respond to threats ranging from earthquakes to severe flooding, particularly in areas near the Russian River where wastewater plants can be overwhelmed by stormwater surges, leading to hazardous overflows into the surrounding environment

Wanted: A Single System for a Common Operating Picture

Michelle Maxwell, Emergency Management Coordinator at SCWA, stepped into her role during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — a period that revealed opportunities for the agency to modernize their incident management processes and platform. “We didn’t have clear incident response procedures in place,” she recalled. “Everything was being handled through Word documents and ad hoc tools. It was clear we needed a centralized system.” Prior to adopting WebEOC, SCWA’s workflows were fragmented and manual. Incident Action Plans (IAPs), resource requests, and contact lists for incident support were created and maintained in disparate systems with no real-time collaboration or centralized data repository. This decentralized approach made it difficult to track staffing resources, schedule emergency response meetings, or catalog key decisions during events. Information sharing among teams was inefficient and unreliable. The need for a robust, centralized incident management system became apparent — and, with the support of the General Manager of SWCA, Michelle and team looked to Juvare’s WebEOC to resolve their fragmented, manual operations.

A Strategic Shift with Juvare’s WebEOC

SCWA chose Juvare’s WebEOC to consolidate their emergency management functions in one comprehensive, adaptable platform. The implementation, led by Juvare experts with experience in both emergency and business continuity operations, was hands-on and responsive to SCWA’s evolving needs: according to Michelle, “The platform allowed us to learn quickly through both training and live incidents, which really helped solidify how we use it.” Workflows were also tailored to fit SCWA’s unique needs, including call intake logs and request tracking. Over time, SCWA integrated WebEOC with ArcGIS to map and monitor impacts to water facilities — another major advancement from their earlier, disconnected systems.

Making a Difference

SCWA’s emergency response and daily operations have undergone a significant transformation since adopting WebEOC. They now maintain centralized access to incident documentation, status reports, and training materials. Files related to safety, emergency management, and security are cataloged more effectively, with role-based permissions ensuring the right people have access to the right data at the right time.

One of the most valuable outcomes has been the ability to associate all incident-related data in a structured, easily retrievable format. “From a platform perspective, being able to control anything related to an incident in one place is critical,” said Michelle. “Whether someone is internal or external to the department — or a future teammate getting up-to-speed — they can quickly find the information they need.” The agency has also become more proactive in its planning efforts thanks to Juvare’s ongoing support, continued access to trainings, and guidance from their account team. “I feel extremely well supported across all fronts—even with things like billing and account management,” Michelle added.

Ever-Increasing Efficiency and Resilience

Juvare’s WebEOC has empowered the Sonoma County Water Agency — with a forward- looking, improvement-minded coordinator like Michelle — to transform its emergency management from a set of disjointed processes into a sophisticated, centralized operation. In a region where environmental threats are constant and complex, this shift has not only improved day-to-day resilience, but positioned SCWA for quicker, more coordinated responses to future crises.

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