How We Can Prioritize and Fix our Drainage Infrastructure Problems, and How We Can Pay for It

PURPOSE: This presentation will review guiding practices that stormwater program managers can use while working to provide their communities with an increased level of stormwater service. It will consider key questions that program managers face when addressing competing demands of aging stormwater infrastructure, climate challenges, expanding regulatory requirements, and limited local government funds. Lastly, it will also discuss funding options to keep stormwater programs of differing complexities sustainable. DESCRIPTION: Stormwater programs in communities around the U.S. face challenges associated with aging and failing infrastructure, TMDLs and MS4 permit requirements, flooding due to increased intensity rain events, and sewage basement backups. Communities without dedicated stormwater utilities have to meet these increasing demands while competing for limited local government resources. Communities are facing the reality their sanitary and storm sewer assets are deteriorating, and many have reached the end of their useful lives. Consequently, many program managers are struggling to get their head around how to efficiently and cost-effectively manage and renew their assets versus staff 'fighting fires' from the next emergency. Often, we hear, 'We don't have time to plan because we are always putting out fires.' This presentation will present case studies on how SD1 of Northern Kentucky, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, and other utilities are implementing utility best practices to efficiently and cost-effectively manage their stormwater assets. Key questions they have asked and answered to address these challenges are: 1.How do we prioritize and what criteria should we use to determine which stormwater problems to address first? 2.What should our community's stormwater level of service be for sufficient resiliency for protecting against surface flooding? Can we really protect against a 100-year 24-hour storm, or should we be more concerned about storms that drop 1.5 inches in 15 minutes? How is our level of service changing due to climate change? Can we increase the resiliency of our existing stormwater infrastructure with green infrastructure? 3.How can we use a Stormwater Asset Management (AM) program to comply with our TMDL and other Clean Water Act requirements and address multiple problems with one investment? 4.How do we develop an AM program and maximize its benefits to address the first three questions? 5.Can the stormwater AM program work seamlessly with my current sanitary sewer AM program and complement my regulatory compliance requirements? Consistent with utility best practices and ISO 55001 standards, here are seven guiding practices that SD1 and PWSA applied to their programs to answer the above key questions: 1.Develop the system's staffing structure and asset management team. Everyone in a utility has an important role to play in asset management. It is not just an Operations or Engineering solution. Defining roles and responsibilities for each utility function and having an asset management steering committee comprised of members from the utility functions (i.e., Procurement, HR, IT, Finance, Operations, Engineering etc.) is critical to success. 2.Develop the Utility's Level of Service and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure, track and report to internal and external stakeholders. 3.Develop an Asset Inventory and O&M tracking in a CMMS and GIS to support reporting and data management. 4.Prioritize O&M and Capital investments with defendable and measurable criteria founded in risk management 5.Develop an O&M strategy and logic to support a preventative/predictive program. Automate the logic to gain efficiencies and reduce life-cycle costs. 6.Develop performance metrics, measure to confirm, and implement lessons learned to increase efficiency and reduce costs. 7.Establish a dedicated funding source to ensure all necessary projects are funded BENEFITS OF PRESENTATION: This presentation will provide the audience with a fresh look at how other utilities are implementing stormwater asset management best practices, and discuss tailoring funding approaches to specific program needs. After this session, participants will be able to: -Determine how to ask and answer five key questions to address the challenges of stormwater asset management. -Apply seven guiding principles to their utility to prioritize, budget and fix stormwater system issues. -Review lessons from other utilities on prioritizing and fixing their stormwater problems. -Learn about different strategies for funding a well-planned program fairly and sufficiently. CONCLUSION Reactive operations and maintenance of stormwater and sanitary assets can leave little time for planning and proactive stormwater and sanitary asset management. However, a utility can go from reactive to proactive asset maintenance and management fairly quickly by following the above seven guiding principles in logical achievable steps tailored to its specific needs. These principles can make your utility more efficient, reduce costs, and allow staff time to plan and execute, in addition to performing their daily activities.