Tchamkina, Mary

Mary helps municipalities become more flood resilient and improve local water quality by assisting them in the creation of new stormwater utilities. She works with environmental, technology, and financial staff to put in place systems to ensure the long-term sustainability of these new utilities. She also works with clients to support equitable access to water, sewer, and stormwater services through water affordability programs. Mary holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University.

Titles from this speaker

Description: How We Can Prioritize and Fix our Drainage Infrastructure Problems, and How We Can...

How We Can Prioritize and Fix our Drainage Infrastructure Problems, and How We Can Pay for It

Abstract

PURPOSE: This presentation will review guiding practices that stormwater program managers can use while working to provide their communities with an increased level of stormwater service. It will consider key questions that program managers face when addressing competing demands of aging stormwater infrastructure, climate challenges, expanding regulatory requirements, and limited local government funds. Lastly, it will also discuss funding options to keep stormwater programs of differing complexities sustainable. DESCRIPTION: Stormwater programs in communities around the U.S. face challenges associated with aging and failing infrastructure, TMDLs and MS4 permit requirements, flooding due to increased intensity rain events, and sewage basement backups. Communities without dedicated stormwater utilities have to meet these increasing demands while competing for limited local government resources. Communities are facing the reality their sanitary and storm sewer assets are deteriorating, and many have reached the end of their useful lives. Consequently, many program managers are struggling to get their head around how to efficiently and cost-effectively manage and renew their assets versus staff 'fighting fires' from the next emergency. Often, we hear, 'We don't have time to plan because we are always putting out fires.' This presentation will present case studies on how SD1 of Northern Kentucky, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, and other utilities are implementing utility best practices to efficiently and cost-effectively manage their stormwater assets. Key questions they have asked and answered to address these challenges are: 1.How do we prioritize and what criteria should we use to determine which stormwater problems to address first? 2.What should our community's stormwater level of service be for sufficient resiliency for protecting against surface flooding? Can we really protect against a 100-year 24-hour storm, or should we be more concerned about storms that drop 1.5 inches in 15 minutes? How is our level of service changing due to climate change? Can we increase the resiliency of our existing stormwater infrastructure with green infrastructure? 3.How can we use a Stormwater Asset Management (AM) program to comply with our TMDL and other Clean Water Act requirements and address multiple problems with one investment? 4.How do we develop an AM program and maximize its benefits to address the first three questions? 5.Can the stormwater AM program work seamlessly with my current sanitary sewer AM program and complement my regulatory compliance requirements? Consistent with utility best practices and ISO 55001 standards, here are seven guiding practices that SD1 and PWSA applied to their programs to answer the above key questions: 1.Develop the system's staffing structure and asset management team. Everyone in a utility has an important role to play in asset management. It is not just an Operations or Engineering solution. Defining roles and responsibilities for each utility function and having an asset management steering committee comprised of members from the utility functions (i.e., Procurement, HR, IT, Finance, Operations, Engineering etc.) is critical to success. 2.Develop the Utility's Level of Service and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure, track and report to internal and external stakeholders. 3.Develop an Asset Inventory and O&M tracking in a CMMS and GIS to support reporting and data management. 4.Prioritize O&M and Capital investments with defendable and measurable criteria founded in risk management 5.Develop an O&M strategy and logic to support a preventative/predictive program. Automate the logic to gain efficiencies and reduce life-cycle costs. 6.Develop performance metrics, measure to confirm, and implement lessons learned to increase efficiency and reduce costs. 7.Establish a dedicated funding source to ensure all necessary projects are funded BENEFITS OF PRESENTATION: This presentation will provide the audience with a fresh look at how other utilities are implementing stormwater asset management best practices, and discuss tailoring funding approaches to specific program needs. After this session, participants will be able to: -Determine how to ask and answer five key questions to address the challenges of stormwater asset management. -Apply seven guiding principles to their utility to prioritize, budget and fix stormwater system issues. -Review lessons from other utilities on prioritizing and fixing their stormwater problems. -Learn about different strategies for funding a well-planned program fairly and sufficiently. CONCLUSION Reactive operations and maintenance of stormwater and sanitary assets can leave little time for planning and proactive stormwater and sanitary asset management. However, a utility can go from reactive to proactive asset maintenance and management fairly quickly by following the above seven guiding principles in logical achievable steps tailored to its specific needs. These principles can make your utility more efficient, reduce costs, and allow staff time to plan and execute, in addition to performing their daily activities.

This paper was presented at the WEF Collection Systems and Stormwater Conference, April 9-12, 2024.

SpeakerVatter, Brandon

Presentation time

10:45:00

11:15:00

Session time

10:45:00

11:45:00

SessionAsset Management Funding

Session number19

Session locationConnecticut Convention Center, Hartford, Connecticut

TopicAsset Management, Combined Sewer Overflow, Community Engagement, Funding, Operations And Maintenance, Phosphorus, Policy, Legal, Legislation, and Regulation, Tunnels

Author(s)

Vatter, Brandon

Author(s)B. Vatter1, M. Tchamkina1

Author affiliation(s)Raftelis Financial Consultants 1; Raftelis 1

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date Apr 2024

DOI10.2175/193864718825159366

Volume / Issue

Content sourceCollection Systems and Stormwater Conference

Word count18

Description: Lessons Learned from North Carolina's Falls Lake: A Regional, Collaborative Approach...

Lessons Learned from North Carolina's Falls Lake: A Regional, Collaborative Approach to Meet Nutrient Reduction Requirements

Abstract

PURPOSE New England communities will soon need to fund nutrient reduction projects to meet stricter regulatory requirements. Since 2011, jurisdictions within Falls Lake watershed in North Carolina have been regulated under a similarly stringent Nutrient Management Strategy for nitrogen/phosphorus. Jurisdictions found meeting these requirements difficult or infeasible. We discuss how a coalition of rural towns, larger cities, and counties collaborated to fund water quality improvements and coordinated with State regulators toward solutions that work for all. DESCRIPTION MS4 communities, such as those within the Charles River, Mystic River, and Great Bay Estuary watersheds, must significantly reduce phosphorous and nitrogen loads to meet Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements of the Clean Water Act. Funding these costly nutrient reduction efforts, against competing priorities of replacing aging drainage infrastructure and building climate resiliency, will benefit from a collaborative and innovative approach. Since 2011, jurisdictions within the Falls Lake watershed in North Carolina have been regulated under the Falls Lake Nutrient Management Strategy ('Falls Rules'). Through phased implementation, the Falls Rules aim to reduce nutrient inputs to the lake from wastewater discharges, agriculture, state and federal facilities, and stormwater runoff from new and existing development. For the first stage of the Existing Development Rules, each jurisdiction was required to eliminate their nutrient load from development that occurred between 2007 and 2012 - a significant challenge given that site conditions and development plans were not closely tracked during this period. Achieving 'fair' nutrient load reduction estimates became difficult or infeasible for some communities, and the Rules were delayed. As a venue to discuss solutions to Falls Rules implementation challenges (among other benefits), most regulated entities within the affected watershed participate in the Upper Neuse River Basin Association (UNRBA), a regional non-profit organization focused on promoting water quality and facilitating constructive conversation among stakeholders. To support reasonable adjustments to the Falls Rules and promote the long-term health of the lake, UNRBA has conducted its own watershed and water quality monitoring and modeled various regulatory and management pathways to water quality improvement. Among these pathways, UNRBA, together with local regulatory and academic input, conducted a series of studies to expand the approved set of nutrient removal credit practices for both municipalities and private property owners. However, it was not feasible to meet nutrient reduction targets with credits alone. So, the group also designed the Interim Alternative Implementation Approach (IAIA), which focuses on a collaborative, voluntary, investment-driven participation to meet individual compliance while achieving water quality improvement. Through UNRBA's transparent process, the design of the IAIA earned support from numerous stakeholders, including regulators, and is in the process of being administratively included as an approach to achieving compliance with Stage 1 of the Rules. As the Falls Rules were going into effect in 2011, a group of five jurisdictions in the region recognized the need for increased, sustainable funding and embarked on a joint effort to create stormwater utilities to begin collecting stormwater user fee revenues. These fees fund current and future program requirements, especially those related to Rules compliance. The collaborative approach leverages efficiencies in utility administration and representation in interactions with regulators and ensures a consistent approach to applying the Rules' requirements. All five jurisdictions are currently active members of the UNRBA, contributing toward funding UNRBA's work and participating in the technical and administrative decision-making processes. BENEFITS OF PRESENTATION This case study presents many transferrable approaches and lessons learned to benefit other municipalities and non-profit organizations facing stringent TMDL requirements in New England and beyond. CONCLUSION Policy and funding collaboration among five jurisdictions and a non-profit organization resulted in an alternative compliance mechanism with TMDL rules set out by the State of North Carolina.

This paper was presented at the WEF Collection Systems and Stormwater Conference, April 9-12, 2024.

SpeakerTchamkina, Mary

Presentation time

14:00:00

14:30:00

Session time

13:30:00

15:00:00

SessionCollaborative Initiatives

Session number05

Session locationConnecticut Convention Center, Hartford, Connecticut