Mayors Water Council
Newsletter of the Mayors Water Council of The United States Conference of Mayors
Winter 2008
What Every Mayor Should Know
Asset Management: Avoiding a Predictable Surprise
Steve Masters, P.E. & Matt Singleton
Every Mayor should take interest in the asset management
of water and wastewater piped systems serving their jurisdic-
tions because they are critical to assuring the present and future
public works and utilities needs for a community, not to men-
tion the importance of water and sewer to sustain and grow the
local economy. Six questions are offered that any Mayor can
consider that can help them better understand how to manage
water and sewer infrastructure and how they can aid in setting
and achieving service goals for the community. The questions
are simple, but the responses to them are often complex and
evolve over time. If you ask your Public Works Department or
Water and Sewer Department the six questions below you can
take advantage of the vast knowledge your staff has, and you
Steve Masters, P.E.
Matt
Matt Singleton
can use their information and/or identify information gaps that
should be filled. The critical six questions are:
1. Does our community utilize condition and historical/perfor-
conditions (i.e. drought and frost penetration). Increasingly
mance methods to identify, prioritize, rebuild and repair pipe
erratic and severe weather events, along with chronic and
systems?
destructive drought, suggest that climate changes are stressing
2. Are work orders for recommended maintenance of the exist-
our piped systems.
ing system components tied to a graphical information system
· A critical and often overlooked factor impacting water and
(GIS)?
wastewater asset management is the replacement of our
3. Are customers in certain geographic areas underserved?
retiring human resource. Keeping knowledgeable and expe-
4. Do we have a well publicized long range plan for financing
rienced professionals on staff is a major challenge in meeting
the operation and construction of the water, and wastewater
the growing needs of our water and wastewater industry.
systems?
In building your community's responses to the six questions
5. Do current Master Plans for water and wastewater accurately
call on community leaders from both the private and public sec-
reflect planned growth?
tors. Needed are individuals having expertise in the areas of
6. Do we have federal/state regulatory issues to address?
neighborhoods, financing, public relations, human resources,
and engineering. How you deal with the six questions will direct-
Pipeline Replacement - A Predictable
ly touch the social and economic future of the community.
Surprise?
Background Points - Managing piped
A "predictable surprise" occurs when a set of events find
assets:
an organization unprepared, despite having the information
necessary to deal with those facts. Don't be surprised to learn
Many Midwest municipalities were building water distri-
the following:
bution and sanitary sewer systems by the end of the 1800's.
· Expect expenses for meeting the replacement and repair needs
Surges in construction activity occurred during the 1920's and
of your community's piped networks to increase. One of the
post World War II. Construction methods, pipe materials and
many challenges that an administration faces is to build a
service requirements have changed significantly over the last
progressive approach in avoiding the surprise. The EPA noted
one hundred years. Many systems have experienced pipe life
in 1999 that the cost of rehabilitating water distribution systems
exceeding 100 years. Yet, corrosion caused failure has some-
was $77.2 billion. That estimate grew to $278 billion in 2005.
times occurred for pipelines having less than 20 years of ser-
· Pipeline failure is a function of a variety of factors including
vice. Failure of aging pipelines can cause loss of critical fire
pipe age, type of pipe material, and physical environmental
see ASSET MANAGEMENT on page 5
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