Maintenance Gets a Lift: Hot Springs, Arkansas Employs Asset Management to Lift Station Maintenance and Saves Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

The city of Hot Springs, Arkansas has an extremely unique wastewater collection system comprised of more than 3,200 lift stations. The majority of the gravity and pressure collection system is more than 20 years old and age is taking a toll on the performance of the overall system. Due to reoccurring sanitary sewer overflows, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality issued a Consent Administrative Order in August of 2008 requiring the city to eliminate all dry-weather-related sanitary sewer overflows by January 2011 and all wetweather-related sanitary sewer overflows by January 2018. Hot Springs assembled a team of consultants and staff to address the collection system issues that contribute to this problem and determine the most cost-effective path forward to meet the requirements of the order. The city's renewed commitment to asset management has been a key item in achieving these goals. The end result is a unique and robust city implemented asset management program as well as a complete program for renewal and replacement of the infrastructure. This system has been developed and implemented as a way to save real money on the road to compliance with a consent administrative order.