Assessing Risk for Operations Reliability and Asset Protection at Six MWRDGC Pumping Stations

Risk reduction is a common strategy for municipalities managing infrastructure in order to protect both public health and existing assets. Due to limited funding, most municipalities do not have enough money to completely replace major infrastructure at the end of its useful life. Catastrophic failures in infrastructure can come with a heavy financial burden due to flooding, property damage, and the premiums paid for emergency repairs. Performing a risk assessment allows system components to be evaluated and prioritized for repair or replacement in order to minimize the likelihood of failure events.The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (District) is evaluating and addressing risks resulting from the loss of key components to improve the operations’ reliability and asset protection for six critical pumping stations. The size and complexity of these pumping stations required a multi-disciplinary team of engineers and operators to evaluate the systems and determine the risk associated with the failure of individual components. District staff selected high priority vulnerabilities for evaluation to determine the level of modifications required for a reduced risk level.Key results from these studies showed that the age of the infrastructure is not always a key indicator of the most critical failure components. High priority vulnerabilities revolved around components that could affect a large number of wastewater pumps regardless of equipment age. It was also important to take into consideration the expected useful life of equipment rather than just infrastructure age.