Dragonfly: An Integrated Approach to Resiliency

Dragonflies are incredibly resilient, team-oriented and will only show up if water conditions are favorable. They embody who we are and what we want to achieve at Peel Water and Wastewater Department better than dragonflies and hence the name: 'Dragonfly'. Dragonfly isn't a program or a department. It is simply a document explaining how we have nested wet weather flow management into our existing teams and departments. Dragonfly can be used as a framework or at least a starting point by other embarking on this path, hopefully resulting is less cost, wasted effort, and time. Instead of creating a separate department dedicated to wet weather flow management, flood prevention, I&I remediation, climate adaptation, or many other forms that it may appear as, we made minor modification to existing department enhancing their collaboration and integration as well as achieving the said goals. We have effectively developed multiple programs without increasing the size of the organization. This may not be a very attractive approach, if success is measured by the number of staff, amount of dollar spent, or worse some fancy statistics generated by a software. We measure success against our mandate and how well it is delivered. Our mandate is to deliver reliable and uninterrupted sanitary servicing that meets the needs of our community today and in the future. If sanitary servicing is not delivered at least one of the following three occurs: 1) flooding: sewage goes back into homes and business instead of going away, 2) Overflow/bypass: sewage is discharged into environment instead of being treated, 3) limit growth: new users can not connect to the system due to fear of flooding and overflow/bypass. Our mandate defines our responsibilities but also limits our jurisdiction. Most notably, stormwater management isn't within our jurisdiction; and therefore we can not do anything about it. Provided that we do all that can be done within the bounds of wastewater system, our job is done. It means that the followings four action groups must be done diligently: 1) Care for the system: Ensure that existing system is in a state of good repair, 2) Optimize the system: Reduce I&I when and where it is reasonably possible, 3) Enhance the system: expand, upsize, and manage the capacity of system, 4) Prevent legacy issues: Ensure mistakes made in the past are repeated. Peel is comprised of three municipalities, two of them are among the top 10 cities in Canada. At Peel, we provide services to more than 1.2 million people. Therefore, if you think of Peel as one big piece, you will always find places were the mandate is not meet and there is work to be done. That is why there is full time water and wastewater team attending to these needs 24/7 non-stop during COVID or otherwise. However, if you break the system into smaller piece and prioritize them, it will become clear that some of the small pieces (called Blocks) require more attention than the others. We have internally agreed on a 20/20 rule. 20% of our effort should be focused in 20% of Peel with higher priority (i.e. Priority Blocks). With the 20/20 rule, every four years, we should be able to address 3 priority Blocks. It means the action groups will be performed understanding that the construction of infrastructure may take longer. Dragonfly summarizes the work performed by 100s of dedicated staff over many decades gained through 100s of million of dollars spend on numerous projects. We have taken the long way and have learned the lessons the hard way. In my presentation, I will walk the audience through these steps, provide example, and show images/videos hoping that it will save others time, effort, and money. A copy of Dragonfly is attached, also, the latest copy will be provided to the audience for their record.