Water Health and Economic Analysis Tool (WHEAT)

Overview

EPA, in collaboration with partners, developed the Water Health and Economic Analysis Tool (WHEAT) version 2.0 to assist drinking water and wastewater utility (water sector) owners and operators in quantifying human health and economic consequences for a variety of scenarios that pose a significant risk to the water sector.  WHEAT is a generalized, threat-neutral consequence analysis tool designed to be used by utility owners and operators to supplement their expert opinion in risk assessment methods by providing a more detailed consequence analysis.  WHEAT 2.0 software analyzes two kinds of scenarios for drinking water and wastewater utilities:  1) the loss of one or more assets; and 2) the release of a stored hazardous gas.

• WHEAT Fact  Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 106K, About PDF)
  EPA 817-F-12-004, December 2012

System Requirements

The system requirements to install and run WHEAT include:

• Microsoft (MS) Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
• Microsoft Excel 2007 or later to enable viewing of the WHEAT output reports. If you have Excel 2003, you can install the Microsoft compatibility pack to enable report viewing (see step 5 below)
• A screen resolution of 1024 X 768 or higher
• At least 150 MB of free hard drive space, and 1 GB of RAM
• Installation on your local drive (it cannot be installed on a network drive)
• Internet connection needed

To Install WHEAT:

1. Double-click on the file "wheat2.exe" to start the setup wizard.
2. Follow the prompts and click "Next" to move to the next screen in the wizard.
3. The second screen will prompt you to install WHEAT in the default location "C:\Program Files\WHEAT."
   You can change this to a different location (for instance, if your local drive is partitioned and is assigned a different letter), but you cannot change it to a network drive
4. Continue through the wizard, click "Install".
5. After the installation, the wizard will alert you to the need to install MS Office Compatibility Pack
   if you have a version of MS Excel prior to 2007. The compatibility pack must be installed
   prior to viewing output reports, but does not need to be installed immediately after WHEAT installation.
   The compatibility pack is available from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

Participate in EPA’s Water Health and Economic Analysis Tool (WHEAT) webinar series to learn more about the WHEAT tool available for drinking water and wastewater utilities to assess, plan for, and better respond to man-made threats and natural disasters.

The webinar series begins with an introduction to the WHEAT tool. The topics then focus on the specific drinking water and wastewater modules of WHEAT.  Specifically, you will learn how to use these modules to quantify public health consequences, utility-level financial consequences, direct and indirect regional economic consequences, and downstream impacts of an adverse event.

See the calendar below for webinar dates, topics, and descriptions. Click on the register button to enroll in each webinar.

If you need assistance, contact us at WHEAThelp@epa.gov with questions or concerns.