A Happy Marriage: Leveraging SSES and IDDE for Sewer and Drain System Management

Wastewater AND stormwater infrastructure nationwide are experiencing the effects of age, population growth, funding constraints, and severe weather. Municipal Sewer and Water reports that, 'According to an EPA survey, about 30 percent of [sanitary sewer] pipes are 40 to 80 years old, and roughly 10 percent of pipes are more than 80 years old.' These old pipes are leaking, often undersized and they are prone to clogging. Clean Water Act (CWA) obligations are increasingly requiring municipalities to develop and implement new compliance programs and are compelling changes to interdepartmental/interagency coordination and workflow. Entities involved in sewer and drainage system evaluation and management will find that leveraging seemingly disparate NPDES obligations will result in enhanced capital planning that address both wastewater and stormwater compliance obligations. Siloed NPDES regulatory programs and municipal management entities can drive disparate investigation and investment to meet compliance obligations and asset management needs. NPDES obligations for wastewater entities rely on Sewer System Evaluation Surveys (SSES) to identify problem infrastructure while stormwater entities rely on Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination (IDDE) among others. Management entities often conduct these programs separately with minimal overlap in data integration and analysis, and they may never integrate their capital investments in renewal and rehabilitation into a cost-effective capital plan that address both exfiltration (IDDE) and infiltration (SSES). There is a better path forward. This session will discuss overlapping Clean Water Act-driven compliance program needs that can improve both stormwater and sewer system master planning. By developing an integrated strategy that incorporates an inclusive understanding of both sewer and stormwater system investigation and maintenance needs, municipalities or management entities can maximize compliance and cost-savings and utilize a 'one-water' approach to help obtain the political support necessary to move improvement programs forward. The presentation will feature a discussion of comprehensive SSES and IDDE programs in detail and utilize several cases studies where integrated wastewater and stormwater program results are allowing a more comprehensive consequence of failure analysis, better prioritization of capital investments, and targeted implementation of rehabilitation dollars. The result is a more sustainable effort that meets multiple regulatory obligations and saves money.