How We Can Prioritize and Fix our Drainage Infrastructure Problems, and How We Can Pay for It

How We Can Prioritize and Fix our Drainage Infrastructure Problems, and How We Can Pay for ItAbstractPURPOSE: This presentation will review guiding practices that stormwater program managers can use while working to provide their communities with an increased level of stormwater service. It will consider key questions that program managers face when addressing competing demands of aging stormwater infrastructure, climate challenges, expanding regulatory requirements, and limited local government funds. Lastly, it will also discuss funding options to keep stormwater programs of differing complexities sustainable. DESCRIPTION: Stormwater programs in communities around the U.S. face challenges associated with aging and failing infrastructure, TMDLs and MS4 permit requirements, flooding due to increased intensity rain events, and sewage basement backups. Communities without dedicated stormwater utilities have to meet these increasing demands while competing for limited local government resources. Communities are facing the reality their sanitary and storm sewer assets are deteriorating, and many have reached the end of their useful lives. Consequently, many program managers are struggling to get their head around how to efficiently and cost-effectively manage and renew their assets versus staff 'fighting fires' from the next emergency. Often, we hear, 'We don't have time to plan because we are always putting out fires.' This presentation will present case studies on how SD1 of Northern Kentucky, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, and other utilities are implementing utility best practices to efficiently and cost-effectively manage their stormwater assets. Key questions they have asked and answered to address these challenges are: 1.How do we prioritize and what criteria should we use to determine which stormwater problems to address first? 2.What should our community's stormwater level of service be for sufficient resiliency for protecting against surface flooding? Can we really protect against a 100-year 24-hour storm, or should we be more concerned about storms that drop 1.5 inches in 15 minutes? How is our level of service changing due to climate change? Can we increase the resiliency of our existing stormwater infrastructure with green infrastructure? 3.How can we use a Stormwater Asset Management (AM) program to comply with our TMDL and other Clean Water Act requirements and address multiple problems with one investment? 4.How do we develop an AM program and maximize its benefits to address the first three questions? 5.Can the stormwater AM program work seamlessly with my current sanitary sewer AM program and complement my regulatory compliance requirements? Consistent with utility best practices and ISO 55001 standards, here are seven guiding practices that SD1 and PWSA applied to their programs to answer the above key questions: 1.Develop the system's staffing structure and asset management team. Everyone in a utility has an important role to play in asset management. It is not just an Operations or Engineering solution. Defining roles and responsibilities for each utility function and having an asset management steering committee comprised of members from the utility functions (i.e., Procurement, HR, IT, Finance, Operations, Engineering etc.) is critical to success. 2.Develop the Utility's Level of Service and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure, track and report to internal and external stakeholders. 3.Develop an Asset Inventory and O Raftelis 1SourceProceedings of the Water Environment FederationDocument typeConference PaperPublisherWater Environment FederationPrint publication date Apr 2024DOI10.2175/193864718825159366Volume / Issue Content sourceCollection Systems and Stormwater ConferenceCopyright2024Word count18