Results

There is a biosolids crisis occurring in New England, and one method for mitigating the effects of the crisis is to form an alliance to develop a regional biosolids solution. Such a solution is in progress amongst three utilities in New England who have committed to a study that evaluates the feasibility of a regional solution. The Study is especially timely, as the recent 2023 NACWA PFAS study on biosolids costs indicated: proactive biosolids management solutions lead to a more manageable cost when compared to a reactive approach to find a solution after regulatory drivers mandate action. These utilities seek to uphold their fiduciary responsibility to their customers and each bring distinct drivers to the New England Regional Biosolids Study (the Study). While one utility may be motivated purely by the economics, others may be driven based on Renewable Energy production goals that have been implemented by their State government. These drivers have an influence on how these analyses are framed and which data are most appealing for other stakeholders whose approval is essential for the Study to come to fruition as built infrastructure. The process for the Study includes activities such as a regulatory investigation, baseline costs, market and value chain study, siting alternatives, technology operating scenarios, cost evaluation, and non-financial evaluation. With this largely quantitative approach, the project team has grappled with the question of how to navigate through the complexities of different organizations that cross State lines to arrive at an agreeable solution that considers the quantitative and qualitative factors that drive this decision. Regulatory issues have become an increasingly difficult aspect of biosolids management in New England due the dynamic landscape. Many practitioners within this space around New England are aware of Maine's ban on biosolids application via LD1911 and proposed legislation in other states such as H.130 in Vermont which would place restrictions on biosolids end use due to microplastics pollution. This limits potential outlets and end uses for the processed biosolids product. This Study evaluated regulatory considerations not only in New England, but also neighboring territories such as Montreal who also imposed a ban on importing US-generated biosolids during the course of this project. Critical rules such as this further push utilities to find a solution, as they impose increased management costs for biosolids and residuals due to further restrictions on already strained outlets. With an understanding of the current state of regulatory issues documented, the team sought to establish baseline cases for each of the four facilities included within the Study. This task collected sludge loading for calendar years 2017 through 2021 to establish the current year, and projected expected sludge loading through year 2028 to determine future year conditions. The findings indicate the average and maximum month sludge loading are estimated to be 440,000 and 530,000 dry pounds per day, respectively. After the baseline costs were established, the project team completed a series of screening activities to evolve from the world of biosolids technology options to three proposed operating scenarios. The three operating scenarios that were proposed include the following technologies: THP, anaerobic digestion, incineration, and direct drying. Preliminary sizing was developed for the proposed operating scenarios to determine equipment sizing. From the equipment sizing, the preliminary site layouts and costs were established. The methodology and conclusions from this quantitative analysis will be shared during the presentation. The qualitative portion of the Study included non-financial evaluation of social, environmental, and technical aspects of the project. The decision criteria considered and debated amongst the project team which included the utilities, technical advisory committee, and consultants. The methodology for arriving at the final ranking included pair-wise ranking of the criteria as a group and ranking the criteria in order of importance by each utility. The pair-wise and order of importance rankings were averaged to arrive at an overall rankings that were used for developing scores for each alternative in an effort to quantify which operating scenarios allowed the utilities to satisfy more of the drivers that inspired the Study. The process utilized for this Study invited greater collaboration and allowed for consideration of all important aspects of the project, both financial and non-financial. Additionally, it covers not only the technical aspects of this Study, but also the qualitative criteria. This well-rounded approach provided learning opportunities about how consensus and collaboration were pivotal to progressing this project to the next phase. This presentation will cover the main milestones and deliberation amongst the project team to arrive at the recommendation for the main question: is regionalization the solution for biosolids in this area?

Like many agencies, DC Water is committed to further operationalizing and elevating equity in its capital investments. Some stakeholders have asked for a 'spending per neighborhood' analysis to verify that equity is being considered. While this is an important checkpoint to show the benefits of utility investments throughout the service area, it's also an opportunity to dive deeper. Complex interconnected infrastructure of varying ages and risks requires a more nuanced analysis to provide affordable rates and inter-generational equity in customer experiences, supporting the needs of customers not only in the 20-year planning horizon but over the next 100 years. To support inter-generational equity, DC Water is using an analytical approach in an 'Equity in CIP Planning' tool that goes far beyond a simplistic evaluation of spending per neighborhood to dive into the details of customer experiences, connect those experiences with needed capital investments and operational improvements, and tie the work together with asset management to reduce risks and manage costs equitably and efficiently. DC Water's Equity in CIP Planning tool also creates a two-way communication link between operations customer requests and further engagement opportunities for customers to understand and give input in utility priorities. This paper details the analysis tools and methods DC Water has developed to provide a more in-depth analytical approach for equitable outcomes as well as the outreach and engagement tools for building community trust in the approach. As part of recent Linear Sewer Facilities Plans for Water Distribution and Sewer Collection Systems, DC Water sought to develop a tool to analyze and connect how customer needs relate to investments in the interconnected sewer and water systems. Equitable investments for sewer and water are not as simple as directing resources to a particular vulnerable neighborhood. Sewers serve watersheds and sewersheds, and water infrastructure is connected in pressure zones. Large diameter sewers and water mains as well as treatment facilities, pump stations and green infrastructure serve large areas of customers. Additionally, customers are not static. They may live in one area of the District of Columbia (District) and work or attend school in another area, meaning the customer experience of sewer and water services goes beyond a single service connection. Many investments in the sewer and water systems also benefit customers throughout multiple neighborhoods and wards of the District. How to reflect this complexity in our analysis and engage stakeholders in evaluating the results in a meaningful way is a question worth considering. In support of serving this complex interconnected system, asset management principles integrated into the Equity in CIP Planning tool allow the District to prioritize equitable outcomes while simultaneously supporting efficient investments to reduce risk where the infrastructure needs are highest. A key element is to ensure that customer experiences are sought out and included in Operations data in a way that can be analyzed and systematically included in CIP planning along with data on system condition and risk. This requires quality checking and geo-locating past customer concerns previously recorded in text fields and updating Operations approaches to data gathering for the future to use data more analytically. DC Water identified and is now working to implement a 'sweet spot' of infrastructure rehabilitation level to best support inter-generational equity. This will result in a six-fold increase in capital investments in the linear sewer facilities in the next 10 years, ramping up from approximately $160 Million invested in the last 10 years to over $1 Billion invested in the next 10 years. This increased investment is a catalytical opportunity to engage with stakeholders in relationship and trust-building that DC Water is spending ratepayer dollars in an equitable way to improve their quality of life. In order to further embed equitable infrastructure decision-making into its capital programs and operations, DC Water is focusing on analyzing and identifying potential inequities in customer experiences and evaluating those within the context of social and environmental vulnerabilities. The focus of this work is to protect the needs of the most vulnerable communities from impacts such as flooding and sewage overflows, transportation and daily life disruptions from emergency repairs, and water pressure and water quality that doesn't meet established levels of service. This work supports DC Water's BluePrint 2.0 Strategic Plan imperatives of Equity, Resiliency, and Reliability. DC Water also developed a pilot to provide a scoring 'boost' for local sewer and water rehabilitation and other projects addressing vulnerable customer needs using the Centers for Disease Control and US EPA Environmental Justice Index. As part of a commitment to ongoing learning and adaptive management, DC Water then performed an analysis of the need and benefit of the pilot boost approach for project prioritization on improving customer outcomes and experiences in higher vulnerability communities. By plotting and analyzing key performance metrics such as sewer line breaks and water line breaks per mile in each neighborhood ward and each vulnerability index area, DC Water mathematically evaluated if there are inequities in customer experiences that require using a boost to the prioritization score in certain areas. During the ongoing implementation of the Linear Sewer Facilities Plans for Water Distribution and Sewer Collection Systems, DC Water is using an expanded customer engagement process that utilizes the Equity in CIP tool to tell visual stories that connect between customer experiences and utility investments. The tool brings together Key Performance Indicators and planned capital projects as well as information for customers about how to have problems addressed. The goal is to build trust and two-way communication between customers and the utility so that the intergenerational equity investments meet customer needs and provide community uplift.

Abstract Summary It is well understood that conventional treatment approaches do not effectively remove PFAS from liquids or solids streams at wastewater treatment plants. Future regulatory enforcement of PFAS has varied state-to-state providing uncertainty for utilities as they plan for future process upgrades. To assist utilities and biosolids producers, several biosolids products were tested including dried biosolids, pyrolyzed dried biosolids and composts, all produced with non-industrially impacted biosolids to assess the concentration of PFAS compounds in the finished products and the ability of these processes to reduce and or remove PFAS compounds. The full paper will summarize findings from this study. Introduction Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a large family of organic compounds, including more than 4,500 synthetic fluorinated organic chemicals used in commercial, consumer and industrial products since the 1940s. Conventional treatment methods do not efficiently remove PFAS which are resilient to degradation and tend to sequester to the treated solids produced and the resultant biosolids. In its most recent (2021) review of pollutants in biosolids, the US EPA identified eight PFAS in biosolids, and is undergoing a problem formulation process which will serve as the basis for determining whether regulation of PFOA and PFOS in biosolids is appropriate. If EPA determines that a regulation is appropriate (currently expected in 2024), biosolids producers will be required to meet certain standards. This potential outcome of EPA's review underscores the importance of understanding technical solutions available to treat PFAS in biosolids if required based on EPA's review process. Technical Content To assist utilities and biosolids producers to understand options available to them to mitigate potential PFAS contamination in biosolids, several biosolids products were tested including dried biosolids, pyrolyzed dried biosolids and composts, all produced with non-industrially impacted biosolids to assess the concentration of PFAS compounds in the finished products and the ability of these processes to reduce and or remove PFAS compounds. Samples of input and output solids, bulking agents and finished products were analyzed for 24 PFAS compounds utilizing Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). The facilities tested include: three dried biosolids facilities, two pyrolyzed dried products including output solids, gas and oil, and six compost products. Figure 1 provides an overview of PFAS (PFOA, PFOS, and total PFAS) concentrations by sludge type and the impact of composting operations. This figure demonstrates the progression (and conversion) of the PFAS concentration from the various raw sludge types. In some cases, the type of bulking agent used (fresh yard waste, wood chips, or the amount of recycled bulking agent used) can impact the concentrations of various PFAS compounds in the final compost products. Depending on the sludge type, the composting process has shown to increase or decrease measured PFAS. The variability in the results suggest the presence of precursors in the raw sludge. Additional detail regarding these impacts will be provided in the full paper. Figure 2 summarizes reduction of PFAS compounds through thermal drying using a rotary kiln dryer, where a range of 25-75% reduction was observed (45% average reduction) through drying. Figures 3 and 4 summarize the impact of pyrolysis on PFAS degradation in undigested digested and digested sludges, respectively. In both cases, a significant reduction in PFAS compounds was observed through pyrolysis, with near non-detect PFAS concentrations in the biochar and between 85% and over 99% reduction of measurable PFAS was achieved on a mass basis of all outputs including biochar, biooil and pyrogas. This will be one of the first published results on the entire outputs from the pyrolysis of wastewater sludges. Paper and Presentation This paper and presentation will provide information regarding the measured concentrations of PFAS in wastewater solids, dried biosolids, pyrolyzed biosolids (including the resultant pygas) and biosolids based compost products. PFAS precursor analyte presence and concentrations in the input solids as well as the wastewater treatment process used to generate these products will also be presented. This information will be useful for those considering methods to reduce or eliminate PFAS in their own wastewater solids or other input wastewater solids at existing or planned biosolids management operations to ensure the lowest feasible PFAS concentrations in end products can be achieved. This presentation will help utility planners, operators, engineers, and administrators understand the nature of the PFAS issue in biosolids, how these compounds are introduced into biosolids, the rapidly changing regulatory landscape, and what technologies are being used to reduce or eliminate these compounds from wastewater biosolids products.

This paper is intended for a broad audience interested in sub-watershed level master planning. According to the Community Rating System (CRS) data released in April 2021 by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), 89.5% (1544 out of 1725) of all eligible CRS communities in the United States have a current CRS class of 5 or higher. Many of these communities have not improved their rating beyond Class 5 mainly due to the perceived limitation associated with the watershed master plan (WMP) credit. To address this barrier, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), and Florida Atlantic University's Center for Water Resiliency and Risk Reduction (FAU CWR3) embarked on a project to create a framework and guidance for a standardized template for watershed master planning along with a web-based clearinghouse to assist in master planning at the sub-watershed level. The project developed two prototype WMPs (one coastal and one inland) which were reviewed by a CRS review team and determined to be creditable under the CRS 2021 addendum. These plans included detailed approaches to watershed characterization, policy frameworks, model ordinances, and collection of comprehensive curated data sets needed for modeling of Hydrologic Unit Code-12 (HUC-12) sub-watersheds (i.e. topographic data, groundwater/surface water/tides/sea level rise, soils data, land use/land cover, precipitation record, open space/impervious areas/waterbodies/wetlands, locations of stormwater infrastructure, natural resources, and demographics). In addition, FAU CWR3 developed a screening framework for open-source hydrologic modeling to estimate probability of inundation taking into account king tides, future land use changes, sea level rise, and various design storms. The inundation probabilities were then incorporated into an artificial intelligence tiered prioritization tool for implementation of mitigation strategies. This tool utilizes US Department of Revenue codes at the parcel level, potential economic loss, and repetitive loss properties. This paper will introduce readers to the resources and tools developed to make the watershed master planning process more streamlined and accessible to more communities. Furthermore, FDEM is planning to offer an incentive grant program in 2022 to stimulate more adoption of these plans in Florida to improve flood insurance discounts, and the authors will present more details about this program.

1. Context The recent focus for improving Anaerobic Digestion (AD) has been on the acceleration or preparation of sludges to improve gas yields through the process. In this context, Severn Trent developed its interest in Orege's application, SLG-F advanced sludge thickening / sludge conditioning technology for boosting AD performance. Severn Trent and Orege agreed to a 4-month, 2-stage trial over the spring and summer of 2023 at Worcester (Severn Trent Water) STW to better understand the application of the technology at a commercial scale in the UK. This paper presents the experience of STW including installation & commissioning, process performance data across the whole wastewater treatment plant and the increase in biogas production and CHP output recorded during the trial period. The innovative sludge thickening / conditioning package plant incorporates the SLGTM (Solid-Liquid-Gas) process developed by Orege and has already been installed as plug-and play containerised systems in the UK either to replace existing sludge thickening assets or where no mechanical sludge thickening was carried out. 2. Introduction Anaerobic digestion is a process commonly used on sewage treatment works throughout water and sewage companies (WASCs) in the UK. Many of these digesters were built in the 1960's. Since then, population increase means that many of these AD plants are now at maximum design capacity. There is a reluctance to build additional digesters to deal with future growth as technology progresses, therefore new solutions must be trialled. Worcester STW is a prime example of this; the site was expected to reach its built capacity by 2028, with new permits introduced by the Environment Agency additional dosing needed to be included producing additional sludge, this meant the digesters would be at full loading by 2025. Worcester is a sewage treatment facility just outside the city of Worcester; it serves a population circa 100k. It is also a reception centre for sludge imports from satellite sites in the local area. All imports are accepted into three reception tanks and manually transferred to a pre-digestion tank. All primary sludges are thickened in the primary sediment tanks (PSTs). Surplus activated sludge (SAS) is thickened using two gravity belt thickeners. All sludges are pumped into the mixed, pre-digestion tank, before being fed to the digesters. The digestion for the site consists of two conventional digesters, each 2900m3 in volume. They are operated following the site HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) plan in order to ensure compliant cake for land application. The two CCPs for this HACCP plan are a minimum temperature of 34oC and a maximum feed volume of 161m3 per digester per day. As per Severn Trent standard, the digesters are mixed using biogas. 3. Methodology All onsite thickening during both phases of the trial was carried out by Orege SLG-Flosep technology (see figure6). SLGTM (Solid Liquid Gas) is a technology that has been developed and patented by Orege and is a sludge pre-treatment system which, using only air and polyelectrolyte, dramatically increases solid and water separation. The patented process is cost-effective and simple to operate. The Flosep is an optimised liquid/solids separation device that takes advantage of the unique characteristics of SLG conditioned sludge. Four thickening units were used onsite. Two of these units thickening a mixture of primary sludge and imported sludge. The other two units replaced the two belt thickeners that were being used for SAS thickening. All thickened sludge was pumped from these units into the pre-digestion tank before being fed to the digesters. Phase 1 consisted of analysing the impact of solely running SLG-F thickening units. Phase 2 consisted of phase 1, with the additional use of SLG-AD on the thickened SAS. SLG-AD consisted of an additional tank that recirculated the thickened SAS whilst injecting compressed air through two SLG units. The SLG conditioned sludge was then pumped into the pre-digestion tank. 4. Results & Discussion The impact of increased dry solids (%DS) on the digesters was analysed daily over the duration of phase 1. The analysis of the digesters can be separated into different blocks: digester control, biogas production and yield, and digester health. All results discussed are from phase 1 only. 4.1. Digester Control 4.1.1 TDS/day and OLR The %DS of the digester feed increased from 4.9% to 5.6% during phase 1. In the HACCP plan for Worcester, it states that the maximum feed volume is 161m3/day, the decision was made to continue to feed this volume despite the change in dry solids. This meant that the tonnes of dry solids (TDS) being fed increased. This took the TDS from 7.1TDS/d to 7.8TDS. (see figure 1) In parallel of the TDS, the Organic Loading rate was calculated and studied. The OLR baseline was 2.46kgVS/m3/d, this average increased to 2.78kgVS/m3/d. This increase is also due to the maintained volume feeding the digester at a higher DS%. Moreover, on some days the OLR was consistently above 3. With conventional digestion, the standard maximum OLR is 3kgVS/m3/d, as it was shown that a higher OLR can cause stress to the methanogens and therefore volatile solids destruction struggles to be done effectively. 4.1.2. Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) As mentioned, the maximum feed per digester at Worcester is 161m3, which is an HRT of 16 days. As the volume remained the same the HRT was kept consistent at 16 days. 4.1.4 Temperature and other parameters A temperature increase in both digesters was observed over phase 1. Temperature went from 36.1oC to 38.3oC; or 6% increase (see figure 3). This is partially due to the increase in %DS. Less heat energy is required to heat sludge compared to water. This increase in temperature was also sustained, and the site was able to turn off the diesel-powered boiler and solely rely on heat from the CHP. Other parameters such as pH, alkalinity and Volatile Fatty Acids were monitored and showed a healthy digester. 4.2. Biogas Production and Yield 4.2.1. Biogas Production An increase in biogas produced was observed from 4760m3/day to 6586m3/day, corresponding to +38%. In addition, when stable and consistent feed volumes of 161m3 per day were achieved the biogas production increased to 7048m3/day over a two-week period - an increase of over 48% compared to the baseline (See figure 4). This increase was due to two reasons. The first, is the increase in OLR. The second, can be believed to be due to the use of SLG-F for thickening. The biogas yield increased from 338.8m3biogas/TDS to 404.3m3biogas/TDS. If the increase in biogas produced was solely down to the increase in OLR, the amount of biogas produced per TDS would have stayed approximately the same. This suggests that there has been a change in the sludge characteristics. Sludge could have changed due to the sludge ratio. However, even with an increase in sludge volumes, the mass ratio still stayed around 60:40, Primary:SAS. 4.2.2. Methane Content There was no difference in the percentage of methane content in the biogas. It can be difficult to obtain an increase in methane production as it depends on the colonies of methanogens. 4.2.3. CHP Output During Phase 1 the CHP output increased by over 34% from a baseline of 9.9MWh to 13.3MWh. The MWh/TDS produced increased from 0.73MWh/TDS to 0.92MWh/TDS during phase one. The data used for phase 1 however, does not include any flare data so this figure is likely to increase. 5.0 Conclusions Phase one of the trial was very successful. The use of SLG-F for all thickening onsite increased the overall digester feed %DS by 0.6%. This increase in the dry solids allowed greater utilisation of the digester capacity, but also a greater overall plant capacity and the daily import for the site was almost doubled. The OLR increase and the thickened sludge characteristic change correlated with an increase in biogas production of 38%. Another benefit was the reduction in the need to run the diesel boiler; this had a significant cost saving. 6.0 Phase 2 The aim of phase two was to determine if the addition of SLG-AD, which consisted of recirculating the thickened SAS to two SLG units, would increase the biogas yield further. Unfortunately, in the early stages of this phase, both digesters experienced blocking and spills due to RAG. These blockages meant that the digester feeds continuously stop-started. The data collected from this phase of the trial was inconclusive. However, the biogas yield showed a positive difference compared to baseline (see table 1). 6.1. Phase 2 at Monkmoor STW Phase two of the trial is due to be replicated at Monkmoor STW, Shrewsbury later this year. Key words:, Thickening, Biosolids, Innovative, Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas, Methane, Sludge, CHP, Package Plant, Severn Trent, Orege, SLG, SLG-F.

Water infrastructure Asset Management (AM) is recognized as a long-game focused on realizing value over the entire life cycle of facilities. This presentation will showcase recent advancements for one utility in leveraging asset management activities to address long-range strategic goals, implement their 'work plan', manage workload and resources, and use simple dashboards to 'move the needle' toward achieving agency goals. King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) provides regional wastewater conveyance and treatment services to 1.9 million people over a 424-square-mile service area in Washington state. WTD's wastewater system includes over $4 billion of conveyance and treatment infrastructure assets. As with most utilities, WTD is challenged by aging assets, including: Treatment and pumping facilities largely built in the 1960s, consisting of over 55,000 pieces of equipment, instruments, and control devices as well as land and buildings. A system of nearly 400 miles of conveyance pipelines, some of which are over 100 years old. Aging infrastructure is a major driver for capital spending and Operations & Maintenance priorities, and WTD has had a formal strategic asset management plan (SAMP) in place for almost 20 years. Updated every five years, the SAMP includes strategies, objectives, and a Work Plan for achieving related goals. WTD updated its SAMP and its Work Plan in early 2019 and implemented an 'Asset Management Work Plan Dashboard' to help guide programmatic activities related to asset management. As with other utilities, WTD faces challenges moving asset management programs toward success, such as: People: Overcoming lack of resources Gaining trust and support from all levels of the organization Breaking down barriers and cultural resistance to change Making everyone feel invested and valued as an integral part of the AM program. Processes: Defining and standardizing business processes Identifying and implementing industry best practices Assessing strengths and weaknesses and leveraging failures as learning opportunities Developing a plan to execute based on findings. Data: Establishing line-of-sight from tactical action plans all the way through to strategic goals and level of service objectives. Creating progress and performance metrics for the asset management program and holding AM and other staff accountable for reaching targets. Transitioning from traditional work planning to data driven prioritizations. 2023 WTD Initiatives Asset management is best accomplished as an enterprise-wide effort that engages resources and business processes from multiple workgroups in an organization. It also produces the best results as a continuous improvement process in making thoughtful and purposeful stepwise competency and performance advancements, as illustrated in Figure 1. As part of the WTD approach, several new initiatives were prioritized in 2023 following the dashboard-based approach. The initiatives are reflective of similar high-priority asset management needs at other utilities, and include: Condition Assessment Key Performance Indicators and Level of Service Reporting Risk Assessment and Replacement Costs Technology Planning and Implementation Spare Parts Management. The presentation will detail how several of these initiatives are being implemented, challenges that are being addressed, and progress to date. Figure 1 King County's continuous improvement process, leveraging the asset management work plan dashboard. Dashboard Management Approach WTD has used a dashboard management approach to guide and manage asset management activities following the release of their 2018 SAMP Update to advance the WTD Asset Management Program. The 2018 SAMP identified over 200 discrete initiatives including near-, medium-, and long-term activities. The dashboard approach has allowed WTD to identify priorities, assign resources, manage task interdependencies, and forecast work products. The presentation will outline how WTD uses and updates the dashboard for the Asset Management Program. Figure 2 The Asset Management Work Plan Dashboard gives asset managers, supervisors, and leadership insight into the performance of the asset management program, and resource needs and availability. Condition Assessment Consistent with work plan priorities, advancing condition assessment programs was identified as a key element for WTD's Asset Management Program. A current focus is to develop a Condition Assessment Manual to coordinate condition assessment programs used by WTD and the workflow and decision-making processes. Specific condition assessment programs WTD relies on include: Critical Asset Condition Assessment oCondition / Performance Monitoring for Target Assets Life Cycle Programs oAge-Based System Replacement for Identified Assets and Systems Engineering Project-Based Condition Assessment oProcess/Facility-Based Comprehensive Team Evaluations Resulting in Project Definitions oCoating / Corrosion Assessment oRoofing Assessment Linear Asset Condition Assessment oVisual Inspection and Criticality Informed The primary feature of the Condition Assessment Manual is a workflow that identifies the data sources, condition rating approaches, and organizational responsibilities related to the various condition assessment programs. Aggregating and prioritizing the results of the coordinated condition assessment programs allows WTD to accurately characterize risk and facility rehabilitation and replacement activities to reduce risk to the utility. The manual also allows WTD to measure and track risk to manage programmatic asset management progress and communicate priorities and progress to the WTD workgroups. The condition assessment initiative also leverages the significant utility effort to implement a new Maximo Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) across the utility. The transition has included substantial technical and logistical challenges, but also provides the opportunity for data management changes. WTD is using this opportunity to look broadly at the data life cycle (Figure 3) and to take full advantage of the benefits of Maximo's new technology capabilities, including tracking condition data in work orders to support decision-making. Figure 3 Leveraging information across the data life cycle The presentation will review the technical and resource requirements for the aggregate condition assessment program and outline data collection, decision-making, and coordination between the various contributing condition assessment efforts. This presentation will allow asset management professionals to gain insights from WTD's successful Strategic Asset Management Plan. The intended audience includes: Utility leadership interested in improving level of service delivery and determining the best way to 'move the needle' through smart allocation of limited resources and competing priorities. Asset Managers looking for innovative ways to advance asset management initiatives and to communicate effectively with leadership and staff. Financial Managers seeking alternative methods for developing financial strategies and plans. Supervisors, operators, and engineers in charge of day-to-day activities that support asset management, looking for ideas on how to overcome common obstacles to implementing key asset management initiatives such as condition assessment. Participants will come away better equipped to develop tactical, actionable initiatives and tasks that will help advance a successful asset management program through a continuous improvement process.

Everyone has to do it. Few talk about it. It's one of those things you do the same way you did it last year, the year before, and the year before. Open last year's CCR, update the figures, send to your subject matter experts for a quality check and it's off to the printer and mail house. Your job is done, and you've complied with EPA Regulations. A couple weeks later, a customer opens their mailbox to find an oftentimes visually bland and unappealing letter from their water provider. If U.S. Postal Service statistics are correct, it's competing with nearly 500 other marketing pieces and catalogs that customer will get that year. If they even open it — and that's a big if — they'll notice from the first sentence that the language is overly technical, uses confusing industry jargon, and reads like a legal document. If you're lucky, they might scan the dense tables of figures, still without absorbing a single concept, and then give up. The next stop is the recycling bin. Utilities can do better. Many years ago, Charlotte Water's Public Affairs Division recognized that their CCR provided a rare opportunity to communicate with customers, enhance their brand, build relationships, and make human connections. Their annual Water Quality Report (WQR) was born. In 2021, Charlotte Water partnered with Raftelis to create a WQR that stands out among its competitors in the mailbox. Their piece focuses on two key factors that influence whether the report gets read or quickly recycled: design and accessibility. It's these same two factors that Raftelis focused on to create the winning entry to the Environmental Policy Innovation Center's Water Data Prize Competition last year. Both Charlotte Water and the Raftelis team saw the CCR not for what it is, but for the opportunity it delivers — a rare and critical moment to connect customers to the one thing they can't go without. This session will provide participants with ideas, insights, and guidance that can be scaled for use by the smallest utility with minimal resources to the largest utilities with maximum resources. Attendees will come away with a fresh eye on the old CCR, and the inspiration to turn this mandated report into a masterpiece.

As Buffalo Sewer prepares for its second decade of implementation of the approved Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan (LTCP), results of a recalibrated hydraulic model, updated Financial Capability Assessment, a cost-benefit analysis of early projects, a deeper understanding of the existing system's design, and increasing recognition of issues of environmental justice and implications of systemic racism and climate change have all driven a re-evaluation of how to achieve the goals of the LTCP while also building a more equitable, inclusive, and resilient city. Buffalo Sewer's approved 2014 LTCP made use of innovative strategies with a focus on Green Infrastructure and Real Time Controlled Smart Sewers. As we move forward into the next phase of the LTCP, we are learning how to implement Green Infrastructure in a more sustainable and maintainable way that also addresses long-standing disinvestment in the existing increasingly aged collection system. We are also finding new and innovative ways to implement Real Time Controlled Smart Sewer technology to take advantage of opportunities created by the historical design of our collection system and the disinvestment in redlined neighborhoods while also creating visible community benefits and simplifying maintenance. This presentation will review the development of the approved LTCP and its components. It will also review the projects completed under that plan and implementation issues experienced to date. It will also discuss how the recalibrated model has impacted the viability of the 2014 LTCP and its components. Additionally, the historical, economic, and climatic conditions of Buffalo and the resultant opportunities, risks, and restrictions that they create will be discussed. Finally, the updated LTCP will be presented. Currently, the updated Financial Capability Analysis is under review with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation with final approval expected in late 2021. The Model Recalibration is also under ongoing review by the regulators with approval expected in mid-Fall 2021. Six traditional Smart Sewer Projects have been completed, three additional traditional projects are in bidding or construction phases, and a final project which implements Smart Sewer technology at an existing pumping station is poised to go into operation by October 2021. Three additional traditional Smart Sewer projects have been identified for design during the 2022 Calendar Year, in addition, two next generation Smart Sewer projects have been identified for design during this same period, and several of the projects currently in design and implementation represent a global implementation strategy rather than a more traditional CSO or even waterbody specific strategy. Similarly, on the Green Infrastructure front, RainCheck 1.0 has been completed and it has become increasingly clear that while the demolition of vacant and abandoned homes has created vast swaths of new green space throughout large tracts of Buffalo at limited cost to Buffalo Sewer, the opportunity for further demolitions is limited and at the same time, bioretention cells within the public right of way are costly to construct and maintain and other green infrastructure techniques are more sustainable and create opportunities for other co-benefits without negatively impacting long-term residents in disinvested neighborhoods.

Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA) implemented a watershed-wide Disadvantaged Community Involvement (DCI) Program between 2007 and 2021 to determine the strengths and needs of disadvantaged, economically distressed areas, and underrepresented communities in the watershed (https://sawpa.org/owow/dci-program/). This program, conducted under SAWPA's One Water One Watershed Program (https://sawpa.org/owow/), included a wide array of engagement and education activities intended to uncover and share the needs and capacities within the water agencies and communities. It was built upon the strong foundation of knowledge and outreach developed throughout earlier integrated regional water management planning efforts and encompassed three key program elements. Program Element 1 of the DCI program entailed surveying the strengths and needs of disadvantaged, economically distressed areas, and underserved communities in the watershed. This included a series of workshops conducted by SAWPA to engage with representatives from these communities to expand the reach of OWOW. Through these workshops representatives of these communities were provided the opportunity to contribute, through conversation and deliberation, to the planning, and research. A key component of this DCI program element entailed the development of a novel ethnographic approach to investigate and document the strengths and needs of disadvantaged, economically distressed areas, and underserved communities in the Santa Ana River Watershed. This ethnographic approach, unlike a traditional strength and needs assessment approach, was based upon consultation with the greater community throughout the process and recognized community members as local environmental experts. Through this approach SAWPA's program partners used network sampling methods to engage five social groups: elected officials, water agencies, mutual water companies, Native American communities, and other diverse local communities. These efforts combined in a total of 53 listening sessions, totaling 82 hours of conversation with members of the community speaking about their watershed experiences. The data collected during these listening sessions were then analyzed to identify key discussion themes and documented in the 'Santa Ana River Watershed Community Water Experiences and Ethnographic Strengths and Needs Assessment Report' (https://sawpa.org/owow/dci-program/strengths-and-needs/). Program Element 2 encompassed a broad number of engagement and education activities to share the information gathered through the strengths and needs assessment with local the water agencies and communities highlighted by the following: -Homelessness and water convening events to reveal synergies and develop new partnerships between those seeking to manage homelessness in the watershed and those engaged with water management. -Tribal consultation with California Native American Tribes within the Santa Ana River Watershed, as well as those with historical and/or cultural ties to the Watershed. -Trust the Tap campaign to assist in the development and implement a multilingual community outreach campaign to share the value and safety of tap water with communities in the watershed. -Translation services for in‐person meetings and written material translation services on activities related to community engagement for water management. -Engagement best practices publication looking at engagement of DACs about water management, with case studies from around the state. - Community water education to provide community members opportunities to learn about the water management process and engage with local water managers in the watershed. - Water agency training for water agencies staff in the watershed and statewide summit to share the information. - Local elected leader training to share the findings of the DCI program, basic information on water management topics, and best practices for helping the communities to interact with water planning activities. Program Element 3 focused on project development building upon what was learned through the strengths and needs assessment to identify projects and programs that address the needs of disadvantaged, economically distressed areas, and underserved communities in the watershed. SAWPA, working in coordination with a Technical Assistance Committee composed of the DCI non-profit partners, were tasked to develop evaluation criteria for projects and programs to receive technical assistance funding, conduct a rating, ranking and scoring of the potential projects, plans and programs and allocate $2.9 M in available technical assistance funding to develop these projects and programs. The highest priority of this program element was to formulate solutions that addressed the critical needs of these communities that do not have safe, reliable, and affordable drinking water. Overall, the findings and conclusions of the SAWPA DCI program were based upon information gathered from the three program elements. Report findings were presented to individual social groups including elected officials, local communities, Native communities, water-agencies, and mutual water companies. Findings revealed the social, cultural, and water-related strengths and needs of these communities in the watershed. From these findings, the program partners were also able to identify several strong thematic connections and disconnections among and between the various social groups. These focused on four key themes: water management, water rates and cost, communication, and water quality and demonstrated how water systems are collectively understood-and misunderstood-by various social groups in the watershed and helped to explain why one participant group's strength may be another's need. Several core conclusions and recommendations reflect the key barriers and challenges to strengthening agency engagement with overburdened and underrepresented groups. Language Barriers One of the consistent needs that surfaced throughout the program implementation process was the need for water agencies to commit to bridging language barriers between their staff and the communities they serve. With such a diverse watershed population, it is necessary that water-related decision-makers work with local constituents to identify translation projects and offer translators for relevant public meetings. As part of the program, SAWPA offered on-call translation services to public agencies and nonprofits. This included providing translation consultants for live translation of public meetings and for translation of water-related documents. Communication One of the factors that limits agency, decision-maker, and community member connections is simply a lack of funding or staff time devoted to communications. This is a broad acknowledgement that resource providers can do a better job of ensuring that critical water information is accessible to various publics, especially those most vulnerable to water-related challenges. Community members say that they often do not know how to find answers to their water-related questions or that they are not sure how to interpret the information they do find. It is recommended that water decision-makers devote staff time to maintaining long-term relationships with community-based organizations that have relationships with underrepresented and overburdened communities to better understand localized communication preferences. Tap Water Quality The most critical disconnection surfaced in this report are the prevalent community concerns about tap water quality. Water agencies need to address these concerns differently than they have historically. Community concerns are not just linked to reasons previously assumed by water providers, such as immigrant-status or lack of education. The report indicated that more work is necessary to overcome the physical and social disconnections that may impair water quality between the facility and the faucet, especially in economically distressed areas. It is recommended that water agencies work directly with community-based organizations to hear and respond to the localized concerns that people have about tap water. Connecting Strengths and Needs to Technical Assistance Projects The ethnographic model of collecting strengths and needs is unfamiliar to most public planning agencies, both as an approach and as a dataset. The insights that can be gleaned from this approach are highly valuable but are also complex and difficult to interpret and implement. It is the responsibility of agencies to gather civic input (community experiences) and translate those themes into strategies to meet the needs that emerge. It is recommended that DCI program groups design strong and inclusive working group structures that can connect the strengths and needs surfaced by communities to actionable projects and programs.

Access to a safe and reliable water supply is an essential part of ensuring public health and building community resiliency. With continued stress on traditional water sources, and rising exploration of alternative water supplies, water reuse is becoming a larger area of focus in communities. Water reuse, or water recycling, is a proven, science-based process that intentionally captures wastewater, stormwater, saltwater, or graywater and treats it for a designated beneficial freshwater purpose such as drinking, industrial processes, surface or ground water replenishment, and watershed restoration. As the water industry explores recycling water for the purpose of drinking (i.e., potable reuse), communication and public education has been identified as a critical factor in enabling project success. Concerted efforts are being made by utilities and organizations to reach the general public and consumers to communicate the safety of water reuse. Building relationships and a shared knowledge of water reuse processes, risks, and safety between the public health and medical communities and the water sector is key. This session will feature Bart Weiss, a leader in potable reuse in Florida and the nation, to discuss communication and public education around water reuse, particularly as it relates to engaging with medical and public health professionals. The Water Research Foundation Project 13-02 clearly identified the importance of communication plan that includes medical and public health professionals. It is known that community members seek advice on the health of water reuse from their medical professionals and that the public is interested in communication around the safety, quality, and treatment process for direct potable reuse. Building off this knowledge, this presentation will draw from numerous case studies and research around public education, highlighting the importance of engaging public health, health care, and water sector professionals throughout the public outreach process. More broadly, this work will summarize various activities through the WateReuse Association's Public Health and Medical Community Initiative. The University of Texas, Houston School of Public Health and El Paso Water represent one such partnership between public health and water sector professionals. This partnership enabled a greater understanding of how community members respond to various forms of public education. Such findings include the increase in support as residents learn more about potable water reuse (figure 1). Additional partnerships include the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida's collaboration on Florida's Potable Reuse plan and education efforts throughout the state. This partnership builds off the knowledge that the public wants to hear from medical professionals, and in turn enables those medical professionals with key water safety information. Dr. Donna Petersen, Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of South Florida is working with WateReuse members to incorporate presentations on water reuse systems into her curriculum to properly educate Florida residents in anticipation of potable reuse in the state. Expanding these efforts nationwide will be another key to the success of the Public Health and Medical Community Initiative. Partnerships with health professionals are not the only means for the water sector to effectively engage in public education, media outreach such as that with Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN visiting El Paso Water to discuss water reuse (figure 2) and recycled water brewing such the New Water Brew Competition can also support a robust communication strategy (figure 3). Allowing the public to hear from established, trusted media sources better enables understanding of the health risks associated with potable reuse without being lost in technical jargon. In a different way, hearing from brewers on the quality recycled water focuses the conversation on the treatment processes and water quality rather than water history. Such projects, coupled with partnerships with health professionals, enable a successful public outreach strategy. This session is aimed at broadcasting key communication techniques and partnerships to better inform participants in their own outreach. Largely, the goal is to open broader conversations of the nexus between public health and water treatment.

Question: In your opinion, what does OWASA do exceptionally well? Answer: 'Allows users to track water usage and see what they're being charged for; service is top-notch. You can always reach someone at the office if you need to. Even emergencies seem to be handled well (ie water main break a couple years back).' Answer: 'Community service. I love how easy it is to include a monthly contribution with my water bill and help out others.' Answer: 'I appreciate OWASA's communication. They communicate very clearly when bills are due (and exactly when they'll be paid if using autodraft). Recently they were testing systems in my neighborhood with smoke and gave lots of notice, including diagrams about what they were doing.' In 2021, having accomplished much of what was included in its most recent strategic plan, the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) began a comprehensive process to update its plan for the next five to six years. OWASA has a 35 square-mile service area in Carrboro and Chapel Hill in North Carolina and provides water and sewer service for 22,000 accounts. Guiding principles for the strategic plan update included actively seeking to engage the Board, staff, the community, and other stakeholders, including proactive outreach to gather feedback to include and consider diverse perspectives. This engagement included an intensive environmental and organizational scan, with activities such as stakeholder work sessions, departmental strategic priority setting, peer reviews, industry publication reviews, and four separate surveys, which collectively garnered thousands of responses. While the overarching process of updating the strategic plan is still underway, considerable data analysis of the community survey has been completed and will be the subject of this presentation. Stakeholder input is invaluable in gauging the community's perception of the utility, as well as the community's priorities and preferences. To gather community feedback, and to be sensitive to COVID restrictions, OWASA created a tailored, 16-question online survey, available in both English and Spanish. The survey was hosted on the Zoho platform and was extensively promoted using a series of outreach strategies, including a direct email to all OWASA customers (for whom OWASA had email addresses), bus advertisements, tabling at the library, neighborhood kiosk flyers, and repeated social media posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Nextdoor. Respondents were asked what words come to mind when they think of OWASA ('water,' 'sewer,' 'clean,' 'reliable,' and 'expensive' were top choices) and to rate their satisfaction with OWASA's performance in a number of different areas. The highest levels of satisfaction were in drinking water quality, service reliability, and communications, while satisfaction levels were lower in cost of service. A significant percentage of respondents (more than 35% in each category) indicated that they didn't know how satisfied they were with regard to OWASA's environmental protection efforts, commitment to sustainability, and water/wastewater infrastructure construction, which suggests that there are areas where additional communication may be helpful. One of the other survey questions that will be invaluable for the organization as it works to clarify its priorities for the next five to six years was around responsibilities. OWASA asked, in addition to remaining committed to providing safe drinking water, protecting the environment through wastewater treatment, and meeting state and federal regulatory requirements, what responsibilities customers believed were most important for the utility to focus on. The most common responses included adapting to the effects of climate change, enhancing efforts to protect regional water quality, and preparing for emergencies and cyber threats. Most notably, when asked if respondents would be willing to pay more to address those responsibilities, more than two thirds of respondents indicated that they definitely or probably would be willing to pay more. This information, along with other community, stakeholder, and employee input will provide essential context for OWASA's Board and staff as they continue to work to update the strategic plan. As of the writing of this abstract, OWASA is still in the first phase of our strategic planning effort: the organizational and environmental scan. In addition to sharing the findings of the survey, our presentation will include what staff and Board did with that information in the development of the strategic plan.

Our presentation will summarize the development and implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) tools Citizens Energy Group has developed to provide predictive operational decision support for combined sewer overflow (CSO) facilities. Citizens developed these tools by efficiently leveraging its prior investments in collection system modeling and metering. Our AI/ML tools consist of artificial neural networks fit to long-term datasets to predict inflows to CSO facilities using the 72-hour NOAA radar rainfall forecast. Both the rainfall and CSO facility inflow are embedded in a Power BI dashboard for efficient communication to Citizens staff. We developed this dashboard without incurring any additional software cost and believe any wastewater utility operating wet weather facilities can implement a similar AI/ML tool to ours. Citizens Energy Group is the combined water, wastewater, natural gas, steam, and chilled water utility in Indianapolis. Citizens is presently implementing a 20-year CSO consent decree with required completion in 2025. Consent decree compliance is primarily achieved through the DigIndy Tunnel system, a 28-mile long, 18-foot diameter tunnel network. Citizens is also implementing a pair of storage facilities in the Upper White River and Upper Pogues Run watersheds. Citizens, like all utilities implementing a consent decree, has made significant investments in modeling and metering its collection system, and has multiple years of meter data and model results on the shelf from recent regulatory and design support activity. While Citizens has confidence in its InfoWorks ICM model of the collection system, computational limitations prevent the model from being applied in real time or for immediate prediction of future rainfall events. In order to transform the collection system model from a design tool into a predictive operational tool, Citizens developed neural networks for the DigIndy Tunnel system and the Upper Pogues Run storage tank. These neural networks effectively serve as an extension of Citizens' collection system model to simulate inflow to the tunnel or tank in a matter of seconds. Since both facilities will begin operation at the beginning of 2022, Citizens utilized several years of collection system model input and output data to develop the neural networks. Figure 1 presents the architecture diagram for the AI/ML tools. Within Power BI, embedded Python scripts using the MetPy library (Unidata, 2021) connect to the NOAA server and obtain the 72-hour National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) radar forecast for rainfall and temperature. The forecasted rainfall data is compiled for the CSO facility service area and temperature is utilized to estimate evapotranspiration (Hargreaves and Samani, 1982) for use in the neural networks. Citizens developed standard feed forward neural networks to predict inflow volume to the tunnel and storage tank similar to the collection system model. Figure 2 presents a scatterplot comparing each modeled inflow event to the tunnel system for precipitation years 2016 through 2019 to the neural network prediction. The inputs to the neural network are rainfall, peak intensity, antecedent dry days, the previous day's rainfall, and evapotranspiration. The total inflow volume from the neural network was within one percent of the InfoWorks collection system model simulation, with a R2 of 93%. Citizens evaluated input parameter sensitivity of the neural network and determined that for the storage tunnel, rainfall is the nearly an order of magnitude more important than any of the other input parameters. However, for the Upper Pogues Run storage tank that serves a much smaller watershed area, peak intensity is nearly as important as rainfall. Citizens initiated a desktop test deployment in early 2021 and progressed to an automated test deployment that has been completed at the time of the abstract. In the automated deployment, the rainfall forecast and subsequent inflow volume forecast is generated hourly, with results posted on Citizens' internal SharePoint. The rainfall forecast and forecasted inflow volume are presented though an online Power BI dashboard. We will present our method of deployment of this tool as well as other options for automated deployment that wastewater utilities may consider. Table 1 presents an example forecast from the neural network for July 15 – July 17, 2021. The forecasted inflow volume is based on the NDFD on July 14, 2021. In other words, should the tunnel system have been operational on July 16th, operational staff would have had an estimate of the magnitude of inflow more than a day before the event occurred. Over the course of the deployment, the BI dashboards were expanded to also collect NWS river stage forecasts and actual rainfall data through the application programming interface (API) provided by ADS as part of the PRISM interface to Citizens' rain gauge and flow meter network. Using the API key, Citizens developed a process to compare the forecasted rainfall from NOAA to the actual rainfall from the gauge network. From March 2021 through July 2021, the total forecasted rainfall was 23.5 inches, compared to 22.3 inches of actual gauge rainfall. An encouraging finding is that seventy-six percent (76%) of the rain events were forecasted within two-tenths of an inch of the actual gauge rainfall. We believe our presentation will benefit any wastewater utility that is operating or soon to be operating a wet-weather storage, treatment, or pumping facility to address combined sewer or sanitary sewer peak flows. We will provide a roadmap for any utility to implement a similar AI/ML solution for predictive operational decision support that can be implemented without any commercial software cost.