Water is clearly the most important of the five lifeline utilities. While the electricity, gas, sewer, and communications utilities are an important part of our lifestyle, we can get by for a period of time without them. Water, however, is far more critical to our everyday life. Without a reliable supply of potable water, our daily life and even our social fabric are quickly put in great jeopardy. This paper describes a group effort by the California State Department of Water Resource (DWR) and the California Utilities Emergency Association (CUEA), and several Bay Area water agencies met to discuss a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan, especially in the area of emergency operations plans, mutual aid agreements, and developing information on emergency contacts between water agencies. From this and several subsequent meetings emerged the Water Agency Response Network, OES Region II or, II-WARN. II-WARN covers the 16 counties in the northern coastal section of California from Del Norte to Monterey. The staff drafted a mutual aid agreement that everyone could use. In the first year of its existence, 46 water agencies representing over 74 percent of the water services in the 16-county region signed the agreement. In addition, II-WARN has created a computer database of key emergency equipment/material owned by the signator agencies. II-WARN has also held three annual one-day workshops at the EBMUD administration office in Oakland. These meetings are structured to provide information on emergency preparedness issues and to develop contacts between the II-WARN members. This type of emergency preparedness plan has been quite effective for the region.