Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 "Management of Domestic Incidents" requires that states, territories, local jurisdictions and tribal entities adopt
the National Incident Management System (NIMS). NIMS enables responders from a variety of jurisdictions and disciplines to work together effectively when responding to an emergency. The private sector, including water and wastewater treatment systems, also plays a vital role in NIMS. The implementation of the NIMS creates a baseline capability that, once established, will be the foundation for the nation’s prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery strategies.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is charged with maintaining and supporting the National Incident Management System. As part of their efforts, FEMA releases compliance objectives and metrics for each fiscal year and updates information on what FEMA is requiring for NIMS compliance.
One of the reasons for becoming NIMS compliant is that federal preparedness funding requires the recipient to be NIMS compliant. Additional benefits of NIMS compliance include:
- Strengthened response capabilities by following a nationally adopted,standard practice for emergency response
- Improved mobilization, deployment, utilization, tracking, and demobilization of needed resources
- Established protocols for improved communication with other levels of
response
- Reduced time delay to access mutual aid/assistance
In order to help determine whether an entity is NIMS compliant, FEMA has developed a tool called NIMSCAST. NIMSCAST is an online tool that guides the user through a series of questions related to the NIMS compliance metrics. Based on the answers to the questions the user receives a report describing the elements of NIMS compliance that are fulfilled and which ones require additional action.
NIMS Compliance Tool
