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Challenges of the 21 st CenturyThe Aging Water Infrastructure DilemmaBy Gregory M. BairdAmerica’s economic growth in the last few decadeswas possible because of the historical investment inthe planning and the construction of our water andwastewater systems. Today’s generation, however, isnow faced with the responsibility of managing the remaininglife of these assets and selecting the appropriate maintenance,monitoring, rehabilitation, renewal and replacementstrategies for these vital underground networks.This momentous task of addressing the aging infrastructuredilemma requires overcoming many challenges especially duringthis extended economic crisis. Affordability is at the heartof the challenge. In seeking innovative ways to manage thesechallenges, utility managers are becoming asset-centric in theirdecision-making process. The asset-centric approach directlyaddresses the affordability issues by understanding the importanceand size of the infrastructure, leveraging GIS and CMMSsoftware and applying asset management practices.Understanding the Size of the IssueMost of our nation’s water and wastewater systems areunderground and had been hidden out of the public view,in many cases for over a century. This reality has not helpedthe situation or supported the admonition from waterindustry professionals and the Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) to start managing the increasing risks of waterloss and pipe failure. The United States installed a largenumber of pipes in three main time periods based on populationgrowth in the 1800s, 1900 to 1945, and post 1945.Due to a number of reasons including age, materials,inadequate design, capacity changes, poor installation,damage, corrosive soil and flow contents, these three eras ofpipe are starting to fail now and will continue to do so overthe next couple of decades. Cities across the nation are startingto experience the effects of water service loss and seweroverflow events. The potential hot spots include areas thathave experienced high growth. As an example, countypopulations over 50,000 had a significant amount of undergroundinfrastructure in the 1960s, but now the pipes are 50years old and experiencing significant problems.Today, the number of assets in the national network is overwhelming.There are approximately 155,000 public drinkingwater systems in the nation. Only 52,000 community watersystems and another 21,400 non-community water systems arethe main providers for the majority of Americans. There is atremendous amount of costs associated with the renewal andreplacement of our water and wastewater systems. Undergroundtransmission and distribution systems (pipes) make up themajority (57 percent) of the replacement costs. Communitywater systems include over 1.8 million miles of network pipes.The nationwide system of wastewater infrastructure includes16,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants, 100,000major pumping stations, 600,000 miles of sanitary sewers, and200,000 miles of storm sewers. Although there is not an actualinventory of the total amount of sewer pipe associated withwastewater collection systems in the United States, the AmericanSociety of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has developed an estimate of21 ft of sewer pipe per capita.Communities must realize the increasing costs to replacetheir infrastructure and embrace proper maintenance andcondition monitoring that will reduce the overall costs insteadof ignoring the problem and running the assets to failure.Replacing the Crisis ManagementApproach with the Asset-CentricApproachMany utility managers are striving to increase operational andcapital planning efficiencies through investing in their core processesand systems but face governing board obstacles. Eightyfivepercent of U.S. water systems are owned or controlled bymunicipalities. These elected officials with little experience withlong-term planning have initial reactions to defer projects andneeded maintenance because of their involvement of generalfund budget woes and single-year appropriations.If a major water main breaks creating a large sink hole, themedia reports the incident and the elected officials demanda response from the utility manager. This type of crisis managementcosts the utility politically and monetarily. In fact,the replacement costs have just increased three-fold as theadditional costs of the emergency mobilization of work crewsand property damage are included. As city councils are educatedon asset-centric business practices, they begin to comprehendthat the water and wastewater utilities are the mostcapital intensive industries and in order to attain cost savings,operational efficiencies and lower future risks a return toproperly maintaining our assets and extending an asset’s usefullife in a cost-effective manner is required.One of the best and most simple strategies requires leveragingthe full power of GIS. About 90 percent of U.S. water and wastewaterutilities use a geographic information system (GIS). Everyutility is actually on an asset-centric path using GIS for mapping,then tapping into the power and functionality of the geo-database,next expanding with additional GIS applications andfinally achieving an enterprise-wide operation. When the investmentin GIS is the focus and the whole enterprise is the vision,the full power of GIS tools and functionality can be employed forlong-term cost savings.A dynamic and growing trend is when the GIS geo-databasebecomes the asset inventory or registry as the starting point foran asset management program. This GIS-centric strategy combinesthe critical computer maintenance management system(CMMS) with the GIS geo-database for a comprehensive customerrequest, asset inventory and work management system.An asset registry (geo-database) combined with a CMMS createsthe foundation for an enterprise asset management system(EAMS) as promoted by the EPA. This simple and powerfulcombination captures asset data, work history and conditionassessments necessary to produce cost-effective, conditionedbasedand predictive maintenance programs.Many public works departments expand these efficienciesfrom the water and wastewater enterprises into streets, traf-38 Water Utility Infrastructure ManagementNovember/December 2010