New Strategies for Prioritizing Old Projects – Using Risk and Triple Bottom Line Criteria

Toho Water Authority (TWA) has been implementing an asset management program for the last four years to improve the management of their over $700 million dollars worth of water, wastewater and reuse assets. A significant amount of asset condition, consequence of failure and risk data has been collected during this time and is now available to assist with asset renewal and replacement planning and prioritization. In the past capital improvement program (CIP) projects were only identified on a finance budget form and contained little back up information as to the problem being addressed, the impact of not performing the work, or the relative priority compared to other projects. This caused issues when budgets became tighter and a way to choose which projects would go forward needed to be developed. In addition, the TWA Board was looking for more supportive information to base their approvals on due to citizen pressure to keep rates low. To address this, a capital project prioritization process and scoring system was created based on asset management principles and incorporated a triple bottom line approach which identifies how the project impacts financial, environmental and social issues. Using this process has made it easier to determine which projects are the most important and provides the amount of back-up information needed to receive Board approval and support for the CIP budget. This process also supports the Financial Viability Attribute of Effective Utility Management by performing the right projects at the right time.