Doubled Overnight: Consolidating Seven Utilities into One

In December 2020, Greenville County SC, concerned with economic regionalization, voted to consolidate seven wastewater collection Special Purpose Districts (SPD). Each SPD agreed to transfer services to MetroConnects. With strategic planning and communication, MetroConnects was determined to maintain high level of service. In July 2021, four of the SPDs were fully consolidated and MetroConnects had grown by 35%. By July 2022, two more SPDs were added, and by December 2022 the seventh and final SPD was consolidated. In two short years, MetroConnects overcame tight deadlines, added 45K customers, and 735 miles of sewer to grow by 100+%. To maintain level of service, three key data-driven tasks had to be accomplished leading up to each transfer of service: Customer Billing and Account Identification, Operations and Maintenance Consolidation, and GIS and records integration. The first and most important task was to transfer customer billing so new bills could be sent to customers ahead of each transfer. Billing continuity and customer identification was the priority, but this is where the first challenge presented itself. MetroConnects billed customers on a consumption-based system whereas the incoming utilities used a tax-based method. To transition in time to meet deadlines, MetroConnects worked with the local water service providers to provide records and used precise GIS techniques to locate and geocode 45K customer points. Next, MetroConnects needed to comprehend each of the SPD's information management systems to include data from the following key areas: GIS, engineering, O&M, and real estate. Thousands of documents such as as-builts, permits, ROW, inspections, and work order history needed to be collected, scanned/copied, and organized. MetroConnects first developed a questionnaire that was sent to each SPD and used to collect information on what data and how much existed. Then, one-on-one interviews were conducted with each SPD to better understand record keeping and existing work history. This data served to direct field operations to areas needing inspections and more importantly, repairs that were already scheduled or pending. However, the greatest transfer of knowledge came from the 50+ new employees added from each of the SPDs. Once MetroConnects was able to comprehend each SPD's GIS database and respective information, the focus shifted to data interoperability techniques to consume and translate each SPD dataset into MetroConnects' information management system. Parallel to this effort, MetroConnects used custom quality control checks to assess each SPD's GIS spatial data then adjusted so most of the networks were traceable and each subbasin boundary was distinct. Finally, MetroConnects employed custom automation to apply asset identification so each could be consumed by their work order management system on day one. This presentation will discuss how MetroConnects not only consolidated seven local wastewater systems but also committed to and upheld their level of service to the 45,000 new customers through sound data management practices.