Medford, Oregon, like many other cities, grappled with the problem of treating sewage without harming fish due to the warm water released into the Rogue River by their wastewater treatment plant. The EPA has rules and regulations about water temperature, but in the past, they were difficult or …
Delaware County, Pennsylvania to Reduce Sewage Discharges into River
Recently, it came to the attention of the EPA that the Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority (DELCORA) has breached the Clean Water Act with excess sewage overflow due to its combined sewer overflow into the Delaware River and its branches. In order to solve this problem, the …
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Tips to Tracking Assets – Infrastructure Management
“Are there any templates that you are aware of that can serve to track assets, something simple that is already developed which contain headings and indicating the information ones you should track for assets? For example, asset type, location. age, etc.” Heather: Well, we have developed a …
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Public Utilities Privatization – Study Weighs Pros and Cons
In a paper featured in the American Journal of Political Science, both public and privatized utilities are compared and the results suggest that neither models are the perfect solution. Private utilities often set their rates based on the cost of their investments, which means they can charge …
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The Most Important Part of Asset Management
After Ross explained the Simple Infrastructure Asset Management Diagram 3 in the previous post, Heather commented further. She cited that the most important part of asset management is the thinking part. Heather says: Yeah, I think, it’s just another opportunity to bring us back to the idea …
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Explaining the Simple Infrastructure Asset Management Diagram 3
A participant requested to walk them through an example of how to use the Simple Infrastructure Asset Management Diagram 3. Ross explains: Thank you. Look, the walkthrough on the diagram takes about four hours in terms of looking at the detail. Simply and very quickly if we’re looking at …
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White House Water Conservation Initiative – A Future Demand Case
In Washington D.C. The White House has launched an ambitious effort to convince the private sector that water conservation is a priority investment for the coming year. USA Today reports: "Water is a huge challenge in this country, and I think we all know that, "Interior Secretary Sally Jewell …
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Organizing Infrastructure Asset Data into Risk Profile Categories
Still responding to a participant's comment on using digital photography to build up infrastructure asset information, Heather asked Ross whether in New Zealand they are doing a lot with digital photography. Do you see systems using that as part of their record-keeping, she asked? Ross …
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Capturing Information to Improve Infrastructure Asset Management Practice
Ross and Heather shared their insights on how asset management can be implemented when the true condition of utility assets in the field is not known, especially for buried assets. Heather further explained capturing field information. Heather says: I think one of the things that we’re seeing, …
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Greater Cincinnati’s Winning Infrastructure a Potential for Optimized Lifecycle Costs
The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) has given recognition to the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati's Oakley Separation Sewer Project in the Water/Wastewater category for exemplary collaboration and integration in the design-build project delivery method. The District …
Starting Your Infrastructure Asset Management Database
In the previous post "Finding a Starting Point in Infrastructure Management Despite Outdated Asset Database", Heather replied to the question on how asset management can be implemented when the true condition of utility assets in the field, especially for buried assets are not known. Heather then …
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Starting Infrastructure Asset Management Despite Outdated Asset Database
A participant posed the question below: “Dealing with several decades of deferred maintenance in a few written records can be quite complicated. How can we implement asset management when we do not even know the true extent of our utility’s assets that exist in the field or their true aging …
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