Moneyball: Data-Driven Asset Management Enhances SAWS SSO Reduction Program

In the true story and movie Moneyball, a major league baseball executive applies quantitative analysis to guide player selection, which was heretofore highly subjective. Just as baseball executives replaced “seat of the pants” decisions with quantitative approaches to improve performance, wastewater utilities can apply data-driven approaches to answer essential questions including:How much annual asset renewal is optimal for my utility?What are my utility’s highest risk assets requiring the most attention?How frequently should each individual pipeline receive preventive maintenance?San Antonio Water System (SAWS) is applying data-driven asset management approaches to comply with an EPA Consent Decree that requires significant reduction of sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). This presentation discusses SAWS experience applying data-driven strategies to improve operations, determine asset criticality, assess asset conditions, and plan long-term asset renewal. The results have enabled SAWS to cost-effectively reduce SSOs more than 50%, while achieving service level objectives and addressing risk.