REAPING THE BENEFITS OF CMOM

This paper continues the case study of the Stege Sanitary District to report on the results of implementation of very likely the first CMOM program in the U.S. A System Rehabilitation Plan was initiated in 1995 and defined a directed system rehabilitation program that used only facility specific information gained through damage investigations of the facilities comprising the District's collection system. Age of the system was not to be used as criteria for needed or necessary rehabilitation.The original case study work highlighted some of the operations efficiencies and cost savings gained via maintenance mode improvements, innovation and informed planning and implementation of the program by management, engineering and maintenance staff. Results of the first five years of work on the system was presented in a paper at the WEF 2001 Specialty Conference on Collection Systems held in Bellevue, WA, titled CMOM++ - Improving Collection System Reliability To Achieve A Goal Of “No Overflows”. Introductory information presented in that paper are repeated here to provide continuity and present the continuing effort of the entire staff to improve system performance to reduce overflows and improve asset value to always provide a safe and functional level of sanitary sewer service to the customers of the District. The performance success and cost benefits returned to any sewer agency via implementation of a CMOM program are usually met with caution or outright disbelief. Let's look at some of the facts.