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Worksheet Grade 12 Social Studies & Civics

Mutual Aid After the Adderby Flood: Costs and Authority

A grade 12 worksheet in which students bill out a fictional utility mutual aid response, then judge who may request help, who carries the risk, and who finally pays.

Objectives

  1. Students will compute reimbursement owed under a stated mutual aid cost formula.
  2. Students will identify who holds authority to request aid and what makes a request valid.
  3. Students will explain how the recall and liability terms change a member utility's willingness to respond.

Vocabulary

Key words: mutual aid, reimbursement, overhead factor, liability waiver, authorized representative

Teacher overview

When a storm knocks out a small water system, the crews that arrive usually work for neighboring utilities rather than for a state or federal agency, and they come under a signed agreement that says in advance who may ask, what gets billed, and what happens if something goes wrong. This worksheet uses the fictional town of Adderby and three fictional responding utilities to work through the reimbursement arithmetic first and the governance questions second. The misconception to name at the start is the common belief that mutual aid is free help sent by the state; the crews arrive under a signed contract that bills every hour, while a state agency pays only a share of that bill and only after a disaster declaration. Items 9 through 14 are where the civic content sits, because the cost formula is only meaningful once students see who is allowed to trigger it.

Mutual Aid After the Adderby Flood: Costs and Authority — Grade 12 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

A flood damaged the pumps and two miles of main in the fictional town of Adderby. Under a fictional statewide mutual aid agreement, three member utilities sent help: Norrington Water District, Felston Municipal Water, and Crandell Regional Authority.

The agreement sets these terms. Labor is billed at the responder's own hourly wage rate, then multiplied by an overhead factor of 1.4 to cover benefits and administration. Equipment is billed at a stated hourly rate. Only the requesting utility's general manager, or a designee named in writing, may request aid. A responding utility may recall its crew at any time without penalty. Members waive claims against each other except for gross negligence. If the state declares a disaster, the state emergency agency reimburses 75 percent of eligible costs.

Round money answers to the nearest cent.

  1. Norrington sent 4 workers who each worked 60 hours, at a wage rate of $45 per hour. What is Norrington's labor cost before the overhead factor is applied?
  2. Apply the agreement's overhead factor of 1.4 to your answer from item 1. What is Norrington's labor charge after the factor?
  3. Norrington's vacuum truck ran for 60 hours at $95 per hour. Add that equipment charge to your answer from item 2. What is Norrington's total invoice?
  4. Felston sent 3 workers who each worked 40 hours at a wage rate of $38 per hour, applied the same 1.4 overhead factor, and ran a generator for 96 hours at $30 per hour. What is Felston's total invoice?
  5. Crandell sent 2 workers who each worked 24 hours at a wage rate of $50 per hour, applied the same 1.4 overhead factor, and billed no equipment. What is Crandell's total invoice?
  6. Using your answers from items 3, 4, and 5, what is the combined amount Adderby owes the three responders?
  7. The state declared a disaster and will reimburse 75 percent of the combined amount from item 6. What does Adderby still owe after that reimbursement?
  8. Adderby bills 3,600 customer accounts. Using your answer from item 7, what is Adderby's remaining share per account?
  9. Adderby's public works director phoned Norrington directly on the night of the flood, and the general manager was unreachable for two days. Under the agreement, what does Adderby need in order for that request to be valid?
  10. The state emergency agency reviews the paperwork before it reimburses anything. Explain why the agreement's requirement of a request from a named representative matters to that review.
  11. The agreement lets a responding utility recall its crew at any time without penalty. Give one reason the utilities that wrote the agreement included that term.
  12. Give one risk that the same recall term creates for a utility that has already sent its own crews home and is depending on outside help.
  13. Members waive claims against each other except for gross negligence. Explain how that waiver changes a member utility's decision about whether to send crews to a damaged system.
  14. Membership in the network is voluntary. In three or four sentences, argue either that the state should require every public water system to join or that membership should stay voluntary, and answer the strongest objection to your position.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: $10,800.
    4 workers x 60 hours = 240 hours. 240 x $45 = $10,800.
  2. Answer: $15,120.
    $10,800 x 1.4 = $15,120.
  3. Answer: $20,820.
    Equipment is 60 x $95 = $5,700. $15,120 + $5,700 = $20,820.
  4. Answer: $9,264.
    Labor is 3 x 40 = 120 hours. 120 x $38 = $4,560, and $4,560 x 1.4 = $6,384. The generator is 96 x $30 = $2,880. $6,384 + $2,880 = $9,264.
  5. Answer: $3,360.
    Labor is 2 x 24 = 48 hours. 48 x $50 = $2,400, and $2,400 x 1.4 = $3,360.
  6. Answer: $33,444.
    $20,820 + $9,264 + $3,360 = $33,444.
  7. Answer: $8,361.
    The state pays 75 percent, so Adderby pays 25 percent. $33,444 x 0.25 = $8,361.
  8. Answer: $2.32 per account.
    $8,361 divided by 3,600 accounts = $2.3225, which rounds to $2.32.
  9. Answer: A request from the general manager or a written designee.
    The agreement names the authorized representative. Adderby needs the general manager, or someone the general manager designated in writing before the storm, to make or ratify the request in writing. Accept answers that identify the authorized representative and the need for a written record.
  10. Answer: It proves the aid was properly requested and therefore eligible.
    The reviewer needs to see that the town asked for the help it is billing for, and that the person who asked had authority to commit the town's money. A phone call from an unauthorized staff member gives the agency a reason to deny the claim, which would leave Adderby owing the full amount instead of one quarter of it.
  11. Answer: A responder may need its own crews back for its own emergency.
    The same storm can reach the responder's service area, and no utility can promise crews it may need at home. Without that clause, few utilities would sign at all. Accept any answer that names the responder's duty to its own customers or its own liability exposure.
  12. Answer: The help can disappear before the repair is finished.
    Adderby could be left partway through a main replacement with no crew and no contractor under contract, which extends the outage. Accept answers naming an unfinished repair, a longer boil order, or the cost of an emergency contractor hired at short notice.
  13. Answer: It removes the fear of being sued for ordinary mistakes.
    A responder working in an unfamiliar system at night is likely to make some errors, and without the waiver its insurer and its board would weigh a lawsuit against helping a neighbor. The waiver keeps ordinary mistakes out of court while still holding a responder answerable for gross negligence, so utilities are far more willing to send crews.
  14. Answer: Accept either position when it is supported and answers an objection.
    A student arguing for mandatory membership can point to the small systems least able to recover alone and to the state's stake in keeping water service running. A student arguing for voluntary membership can point out that a required network still cannot force a responder to send crews, given the recall clause, and that mandates strain small systems that have nothing to contribute. Strong answers name the trade-off rather than only asserting a preference.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a two-column worksheet organizer for items 1 through 5 with the labels "labor hours," "wage rate," "overhead factor," and "equipment" already printed, so students fill values into a fixed structure rather than building each setup themselves. Work the fictional Norrington invoice through with the class before releasing items 4 and 5.

Extension

Ask students to rewrite the recall clause so that a responder must give 24 hours of notice before withdrawing, then write a short paragraph predicting how that change would affect the number of utilities willing to sign the agreement.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "mutual aid," "overhead," "waive," and "reimburse" with a short labeled sequence showing a request, a crew arriving, an invoice, and a state payment. Allow items 9 through 13 to be answered first in short phrases and then expanded into full sentences with a partner.

Extensions

Have students compare the fictional agreement's cost formula with the way a school district bills another district for a shared service, then write one paragraph on why a set formula agreed in advance is easier to defend after an emergency than a price negotiated during one.