Jefferson County's Story of Applying Asset Management Principles to Optimize its O&M Program and Achieve Significant SSO Reduction

Purpose This presentation will share how Jefferson County accomplished the following tangible results: A) shifted from being nearly 100% reactive to 70% proactive with its sewer cleaning program (see graphic 1), and B) reduced dry weather SSOs by 44% with no increase in O&M budget (see graphic 2.) How did we do it? There are three legs to our strategy stool: first, we structured the dry weather program effectively, second, we use data to allocate resources based on risk, and finally, we balance crew productivity and quality expectations. The County's O&M structure includes three key elements. The structure in and of itself does not reduce SSOs, success is driven by how the structure is implemented, but the key elements of the structure must be in place to be successful. The three elements include:

1. Reactive -- the goal is to quickly and effectively respond to service requests (e.g. customer calls) and to also collect the right data to support root-cause-analysis to minimize the chance of re-occurrence.
2. Preventive -- the goal is to identify pipes with O&M risk and clean them at the right frequency, which is not too little, and not too much (e.g. the goldilocks frequency.) If implemented correctly, this will prevent SSOs on pipes with known risk without 'cleaning clean pipe.'
3. Proactive -- the goal is to assess the rest of the system that has no known O&M risk (i.e. finding needles in the haystack.)

The County uses an acoustic inspection technology, which is a low cost, high production rate method. The second leg of the stool involves using data to allocate resources based on risk. This starts with collecting the right data from our three primary sources of O&M condition assessment: sewer cleaning, CCTV, and SL-Rat. All three sources use 'code-based' (instead of narrative) data collected on each pipe asset. Data that is collected in this structure allows it to be both collected and used efficiently and effectively. We then mined all the historical data sources in order to determine which pipes need to be set on a recurring, standard cleaning frequency. Jefferson County then implemented a decision support system (DSS) to apply consistent, objective business rules via an algorithm in order to make recommendations to optimize sewer cleaning as new data points are collected. The DSS generates recommendations that a planner/scheduler then reviews. If the planner/schedule accepts the recommendation, the DSS automatically updates the Cityworks database. The types of recommendations include: increase/decrease the frequency, add/remove a pipe to the schedule, and accelerate/push out the next scheduled cleaning date. The third leg of the stool focuses on achieving the right level of production from crews, while not sacrificing quality. The quality part of the equation started with developing best practice SOPs and providing extensive training. The next phase of the quality program will focus on quantitative measurement and feedback. The productivity part of the equation is helped by the strategy itself: as the preventive and proactive portions of the program produce SSO reductions, it allows shifting from reactive to planned work. Planned work is much more efficient than reactive work, therefore crews can do more preventive and proactive work -- which, further reduces reactive work. It's a perpetual improvement cycle. Other mechanisms to increase crew production include effectively using GIS to make spatially efficient work packages and setting and tracking appropriate production goals.

Benefits of Presentation
Many utilities across the nation have goals to significantly decrease the number of Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) in their collection systems. Often, 50-90% of SSOs are caused by maintenance-related issues such as grease, roots, non-'flushable' wipes, and debris. Optimizing the maintenance program can be the most cost-effective method to drive rapid SSO reduction. These reductions are pennies on the dollar as compared to CIP intensive work like rehabilitation and capacity upgrades. This presentation includes a unique application of a Decision Support System (DSS) that only Jefferson County and one other County have implemented. The other County has achieved over a 50% reduction in dry weather SSOs with no increase in budget. The presentation also includes best practices around a relatively new acoustic monitoring technology. This presentation will touch on a highly structured pilot of the acoustic technology resulting in a statistically significant result for the best trigger score and its highest value usage in the program. Finally, this presentation will put a different spin on old concept -- sewer cleaning programs are as old as sewer systems themselves, but this approach takes advantage of modern techniques and technology that are structured and coordinated to maximize tangible benefit.

Status of Completion
Nearly all the work described above has been completed, which has led to the 44% reduction in dry-weather SSOs. Completed items include:
1. Best practice SOPs have been developed and training has been conducted
2. Configuration updates to Cityworks have been made and high-quality data is being collected
3. The DSS has been implemented to optimize cleaning
4. A planner/scheduler function was implemented

Like other high performing utilities, Jefferson County seeks to continually evolve, and has several 'next steps' its moving forward on. These include:
1. Revamped SSO review meeting to perform root cause analysis and corrective measures to prevent re-occurrence of SSOs.
2. FOG program assessment to apply similar asset management principles to the commercial program (food service establishments) and public outreach.
3. Sewer cleaning QAQC - quantitative measuring and feedback loop

Conclusions
The primary conclusion is that Jefferson County's approach works, and its very cost effective. The great thing is that anyone can do it if they bring the right best practices, the right tools, and implement them correctly. An asset management-centric O&M program needs to be planned and designed comprehensively -- there are a LOT of moving parts. Applying asset management principles to O&M happens in our industry, but it's not nearly as common as applications on the structural and capacity portions of programs. But its 'pennies on the dollar' to achieve tangible benefits on the O&M side vs the more capital centric portions of a program.