What Factors Should I Consider Before Performing Inspection and / or Investigations of my Sewer System?

Purpose/Goal: This presentation will provide knowledge for all utilities, but more specifically medium to smaller communities who do not have the in-house experience and expertise to establish how much data should be collected and when data should be collected to maximize their funding to develop a comprehensive Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Program. Benefit: Participants will learn how to provide self-evaluations of the capabilities of their utility, what their goals are (i.e., Project specific, long- term planning or O&M) and selecting the right Investigations and/or inspections to perform, understanding when it is the right time to perform this work and what to consider before selecting their next steps in the planning process. Yes, having a lot of data can be exciting but too much data can be detrimental and costly to a Utility. Overview of Presentation: Utilities continue to ask the age-old question 'How can I afford to fix my aging sewer system?'. In the 2017 ASCE Report Card, our National Wastewater System was given a D+ grade with a projected investment of $4.59 Trillion (Yes, Trillion Dollars) to fix our aging infrastructure. Our collection systems are the 'veins' to our wastewater system. Without the needed investment communities are facing failing sewer systems which could potentially result in injury or loss of life impact on water quality and environmental impacts. It is unfortunate there are still so many people who do not understand the value of water and prioritize cell phones and cable as a necessity over water. This results in unpaid sewer bills decreasing available funding to provide even the basic of O&M on our collection systems. While the COVID-19 Pandemic raised the awareness of how testing of our wastewater provided the ability to track and identify hot spots for focused testing and reporting to hospitals in the impacted areas, many people have been left without jobs and the ability to pay their sewer bills. This has added another layer of unpaid bills on top of existing challenges further decreasing available funds to do even basic work in the collection system. While Federal and State Finance is available, funding is often limited for many medium- to small utilities to complete their projects. In addition, some communities are facing EPA mandates forcing them to focus on immediate needs leaving well needed O&M and upgrading of assets left even further behind. You are probably asking yourself 'what does this have to do with 'What Factors Should I Consider Before Performing Inspection and/ or Investigations of my Sewer System?'?'. Well, it all comes down to collecting the right data at the right time. Our industry loves having discussion on 'Big Data'. 'Big Data is defined in our industry as having a large volume of data. Having a large volume of data for engineers and analysis is intriguing and exciting but can become overwhelming for a utility. As previously mentioned, funding is limited for many utilities and project priorities may (more than likely will) change over a handful of years. While many utilities rely on consultants and manufacturer to guide them in the process of collecting data some choose to collect the data on their own to hopefully save money. Whether a utility elects to perform data collection on their own or choose to hire a consultant/manufacturer it is important for several factors be considered including: - Why are we doing this work? - What are the results we are looking for? - What do we want to do with the Data once collected? - How do we know what data to collect? - What Investigations and/or Inspection do we need to do? - What in-house experience and expertise do we have? - Do we have the time and resources to analyze the data once collected? - What technologies work best for what we needs? - What is our available funding this year, next year or in five years? These are not simple questions and require a thoughtful process by the utility. Too many times utilities share their stories of system failures that have had varying results and have been costly to the utility. In some cases, the data exist but due to lack of resources, time, or inexperience to evaluate the data the problems in the system were not identified. Many times, data is collected too far in advance of available funding to complete projects. For example, spending money during a planning phase to identify specifics on ovality, wall thicknesses etc. provides the utility with good data, but more than likely will be repeated once funding is available for the project to determine the exact type of rehabilitation. The money spent early on, could have been used to design and construct another project. The presenter will bring their experience in working with utilities for over 32 years helping to guide them through the process. Status/Conclusion: This presentation will provide utilities with steps on walking through the process of establishing a successful program, by understanding the above listed factors.