Equitable Investments at DC Water: 'Equity in CIP Tool' for Equitable Outcomes and Customer Experiences

Like many agencies, DC Water is committed to further operationalizing and elevating equity in its capital investments. Some stakeholders have asked for a 'spending per neighborhood' analysis to verify that equity is being considered. While this is an important checkpoint to show the benefits of utility investments throughout the service area, it's also an opportunity to dive deeper. Complex interconnected infrastructure of varying ages and risks requires a more nuanced analysis to provide affordable rates and inter-generational equity in customer experiences, supporting the needs of customers not only in the 20-year planning horizon but over the next 100 years. To support inter-generational equity, DC Water is using an analytical approach in an 'Equity in CIP Planning' tool that goes far beyond a simplistic evaluation of spending per neighborhood to dive into the details of customer experiences, connect those experiences with needed capital investments and operational improvements, and tie the work together with asset management to reduce risks and manage costs equitably and efficiently. DC Water's Equity in CIP Planning tool also creates a two-way communication link between operations customer requests and further engagement opportunities for customers to understand and give input in utility priorities. This paper details the analysis tools and methods DC Water has developed to provide a more in-depth analytical approach for equitable outcomes as well as the outreach and engagement tools for building community trust in the approach. As part of recent Linear Sewer Facilities Plans for Water Distribution and Sewer Collection Systems, DC Water sought to develop a tool to analyze and connect how customer needs relate to investments in the interconnected sewer and water systems. Equitable investments for sewer and water are not as simple as directing resources to a particular vulnerable neighborhood. Sewers serve watersheds and sewersheds, and water infrastructure is connected in pressure zones. Large diameter sewers and water mains as well as treatment facilities, pump stations and green infrastructure serve large areas of customers. Additionally, customers are not static. They may live in one area of the District of Columbia (District) and work or attend school in another area, meaning the customer experience of sewer and water services goes beyond a single service connection. Many investments in the sewer and water systems also benefit customers throughout multiple neighborhoods and wards of the District. How to reflect this complexity in our analysis and engage stakeholders in evaluating the results in a meaningful way is a question worth considering. In support of serving this complex interconnected system, asset management principles integrated into the Equity in CIP Planning tool allow the District to prioritize equitable outcomes while simultaneously supporting efficient investments to reduce risk where the infrastructure needs are highest. A key element is to ensure that customer experiences are sought out and included in Operations data in a way that can be analyzed and systematically included in CIP planning along with data on system condition and risk. This requires quality checking and geo-locating past customer concerns previously recorded in text fields and updating Operations approaches to data gathering for the future to use data more analytically. DC Water identified and is now working to implement a 'sweet spot' of infrastructure rehabilitation level to best support inter-generational equity. This will result in a six-fold increase in capital investments in the linear sewer facilities in the next 10 years, ramping up from approximately $160 Million invested in the last 10 years to over $1 Billion invested in the next 10 years. This increased investment is a catalytical opportunity to engage with stakeholders in relationship and trust-building that DC Water is spending ratepayer dollars in an equitable way to improve their quality of life. In order to further embed equitable infrastructure decision-making into its capital programs and operations, DC Water is focusing on analyzing and identifying potential inequities in customer experiences and evaluating those within the context of social and environmental vulnerabilities. The focus of this work is to protect the needs of the most vulnerable communities from impacts such as flooding and sewage overflows, transportation and daily life disruptions from emergency repairs, and water pressure and water quality that doesn't meet established levels of service. This work supports DC Water's BluePrint 2.0 Strategic Plan imperatives of Equity, Resiliency, and Reliability. DC Water also developed a pilot to provide a scoring 'boost' for local sewer and water rehabilitation and other projects addressing vulnerable customer needs using the Centers for Disease Control and US EPA Environmental Justice Index. As part of a commitment to ongoing learning and adaptive management, DC Water then performed an analysis of the need and benefit of the pilot boost approach for project prioritization on improving customer outcomes and experiences in higher vulnerability communities. By plotting and analyzing key performance metrics such as sewer line breaks and water line breaks per mile in each neighborhood ward and each vulnerability index area, DC Water mathematically evaluated if there are inequities in customer experiences that require using a boost to the prioritization score in certain areas. During the ongoing implementation of the Linear Sewer Facilities Plans for Water Distribution and Sewer Collection Systems, DC Water is using an expanded customer engagement process that utilizes the Equity in CIP tool to tell visual stories that connect between customer experiences and utility investments. The tool brings together Key Performance Indicators and planned capital projects as well as information for customers about how to have problems addressed. The goal is to build trust and two-way communication between customers and the utility so that the intergenerational equity investments meet customer needs and provide community uplift.