Article of Interest

Asset Management
Key to a Sustainable Operation

Optimize Costs with Strategic Decisions About Aging Infrastructure
Investment in our water and wastewater infrastructure over the past 100+ years has been a key contributor to our  quality of life and prosperity. Today, however, that investment has been tailing off. The U.S. Government reports that without significant investments, the integrity of the nation’s infrastructure will be at risk. Going forward, it is each utilities’ responsibility to maintain or restore its infrastructure regardless of age or availability of funding. This is no small challenge, and having an asset management plan is essential.
 
Steps to An Asset Management Plan
First, you need the facts about your system, specifically, an inventory of what you have for assets, and an assessment of condition, useful life, value and maintenance needs. Ideally, asset management starts with a database of assets compiled into a GIS system.

Second, you need to analyze the data and understand the importance of each component relative to your maintenance plan and capital improvement goals. With inevitable funding challenges, you can not afford to invest in low priority projects as they will likely be at the expense of higher priorities. Thus, an asset management plan helps identify the most critical needs.

Third, you need to develop a financial plan to cover the full cost of service. For a variety of reasons, including past availability of grants and failure to adequately fund system replacements, many utilities have under priced essential services. If endless supply of grant money was available, replacing and maintaining services would not be a problem. However this is not the case, and sustainable operations require full cost accounting.

Finally, you need to educate your governing body and the public. In many situations, the public has acclimated to unrealistically low rates that do not cover the full cost of providing sustainable service. The public will need to be educated about the importance and value of sustainable water and wastewater utility operation. While asset management can appear to be an overwhelming task, there is a lot of guidance from the EPA and other trade groups. It is all about developing and implementing a plan in manageable steps.