Ferrara, Sara

Sara Ferrara was a speaker at the WEFTEC 2025 conference held in Chicago, IL from September 27-October 1.

Titles from this speaker

Evansville Water and Sewer Utilities Road to Asset Management Excellence

Abstract

In 2018, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in partnership with the Indiana Finance Authority developed state requirements that required both water and wastewater utilities to implement an asset management program. IFA produced an asset management (guidance manual for utilities to follow to demonstrate technical, managerial, and financial capabilities. This presentation will walk through Evansville Water and Sewer Utility (EWSU) condensed roadmap and lessons learned to implement a best-in-class AMP that aligns with IDEM and IFA developed requirements.

In 2018-2021, with limited resources and funds, EWSU began to implement an asset management program to meet EWSU needs and the state requirements. In 2020 EWSU conducted a SAM-GAP assessment as well as a gap assessment based on the IFA guidance manual. These results were used to develop a roadmap of tasks they would like to have completed over the next couple years. In 2022, EWSU recognized it was a critical time to meet new AM requirements and plan appropriately for a renegotiation of an affordable Integrated Overflow Control Plan (IOCP). EWSU saw the 2023 IOCP deadline approaching quickly and had to act fast. Suddenly a 5-year roadmap turned into a 2-year condensed plan.

There are three focus areas in the first phase of EWSU's integrated asset management and master planning roadmap:
Cityworks and GIS Support
Modifications and enhancements to Cityworks and GIS were necessary to support the AM data needs and decision making.

Asset Management Program Implementation
Closing technical gaps was a major outcome of the gap assessment performed in 2020. During this phase of the project EWSU successfully established the following:
- Facilities and collection system inventory and risk assessment to drive a risk-based capital improvement planning process
- Leveraged dashboarding to visual risk which allowed EWSU to balance cost, risk, and level of service to meet the customer's needs. One of the risk assessment dashboards can be seen in the below Figure 1.
- Established preliminary budgets for wastewater assets (vertical and linear) based on risk.
- Developed a project prioritization process that can be applied to water and wastewater assets
- Developed a prioritized wastewater (vertical and linear) capital improvement plan.
- Performed a multi-year financial analysis to determine the ideal capital improvement plan's impact on rates.
- Calibrated the model to balance rate increases and allowable budgets.
- The creation of formalized documentation to meet IDEM's AMP requirements.

Master Planning
This phase of the roadmap consisted of the evaluation and documentation of the existing and future demands to determine any system deficiencies through the master planning process. During this phase of the project EWSU successfully established the following:
- WWTP Model Review and Alternatives Evaluation
- Wastewater Collection System Analysis and Model Calibration a Power BI is they analysis can be seen below in Figure 2.
- Wastewater (vertical and linear) master planning capital improvement plan

The major outcome of this project is developing a defensible and data driven 20-year CIP includes asset management, master plan, and consent decree needs to provide regulators with a thorough understanding of financial requirements and vulnerabilities during the renegotiation of EWSU's IOCP. While achieving EWSU's end goal they have built a best-in-class asset management program. A Power BI dashboard of EWSU's completely integrated CIP can be seen in the below Figure 3.

This paper was presented at WEFTEC 2025, held September 27-October 1, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois.

Presentation time

16:30:00

17:00:00

Session time

15:30:00

17:00:00

SessionEfficient Flow: Innovative Strategies for Asset Management

Session locationMcCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois, USA

TopicAsset Management, Program Development & Reliability Strategies

Author(s)

Wright, Shawn, Ferrara, Sara

Author(s)S. Wright1, S. Ferrara2

Author affiliation(s)Evansville Water and Sewer Authority1, Arcadis, U.S., Inc.2

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date Sep 2025

DOI10.2175/193864718825160075

Volume / Issue

Content sourceWEFTEC

Word count11

EWSU's Roadmap to Asset Management Excellence

Abstract

In 2018, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) in partnership with the Indiana Finance Authority (IFA) developed state requirements that required both water and wastewater utilities to implement an asset management program (AMP). IFA produced an asset management (AM) guidance manual for utilities to follow to demonstrate technical, managerial, and financial capabilities. This presentation will walk through Evansville Water and Sewer Utility (EWSU) condensed roadmap and lessons learned to implement a best-in-class AMP that aligns with IDEM and IFA developed requirements. In 2018-2021, with limited resources and funds, EWSU began to implement an AMP to meet their needs and the state requirements. In 2020 EWSU conducted a SAM-GAP assessment as well as a gap assessment based on the IFA guidance manual. These results were used to develop a roadmap of tasks they would like to have completed over the next couple years. In 2022, EWSU recognized it was a critical time to meet new AM requirements and plan appropriately for a renegotiation of an affordable Integrated Overflow Control Plan (IOCP). EWSU saw the 2023 IOCP deadline approaching quickly and had to act fast. Suddenly a 5-year roadmap turned into a 2-year condensed plan. There are three focus areas in the first phase of EWSU's roadmap: Cityworks and GIS Support Modifications and enhancements to Cityworks and GIS were necessary to support the AM data needs and decision making. AM Gap Closing Closing technical gaps was a major outcome of the gap assessment performed in 2020. During this phase of the project EWSU successfully established the following: Preliminary budgets for water and wastewater (vertical and linear) based on risk. Leveraged dashboarding to visual risk which allowed EWSU to balance cost, risk, and level of service to meet the customer's needs. Developed a prioritized water and wastewater (vertical and linear) Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Performed a multi-year financial analysis to determine the CIP's impact on rates. The creation of documentation to meet IDEM's AMP requirements. Master Planning (MP) This phase of the roadmap consisted of the evaluation and documentation of the existing and future demands to determine any system deficiencies through the MP process. During this phase of the project EWSU successfully established the following: Water Distribution Model Calibration American Water Infrastructure Act and Safe Drinking Water Act Compliance Review WWTP Model Review and Alternatives Evaluation Wastewater Collection System Analysis Water and wastewater (vertical and linear) MP CIP EWSU's has developed a defensible and data driven 20-year CIP includes AM, MP, and consent decree needs to provide regulators with a thorough understanding of financial requirements and vulnerabilities during the renegotiation of their IOCP. While achieving their end goal they have built a best-in-class AMP.

This paper was presented at the WEF/AWWA Utility Management Conference, February 13-16, 2024.

SpeakerFerrara, Sara

Presentation time

14:30:00

15:00:00

Session time

13:30:00

15:00:00

SessionAsset Management and Capital Program Frameworks

Session number06

Session locationOregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon

TopicAsset Management and Capital Program Frameworks