Asset Management for your Water System
America has spent trillions of dollars building some of the best infrastructure in the world. Unfortunately, this infrastructure is deteriorating due to age, overuse, and underfunding of maintenance. Many water and wastewater systems have fallen into disrepair and need replacement. In an effort to help systems focus their attention on maintaining their assets and creating long term financial plans for the eventual replacement of system components, the West Virginia Drinking Water Treatment Revolving Fund (WV DWTRF) requires water and wastewater systems receiving their funds to create and utilize Asset Management plans.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) defines Asset Management as "a process for maintaining a desired level of customer service at the best appropriate cost." The American Water Works Association defines it as "a systematic process to obtain the maximum value from physical assets." Asset Management looks at the water system as a whole and enables the water system to save money, secure funding, protect assets and provide quality service to customers. Additional information provided by the US EPA concerning Asset Management.
Asset management plans are living documents and creating one is a one to five year project. Asset Management is a change in the management of a system's assets. A water system's critical assets are continuously added or depleted, information concerning their function, location, life expectancy, associated maintenance activities, and replacement costs need to be recorded. Asset Management plans aide systems in prioritizing their work. The plans can determine where focus is needed based on customer expectations, upcoming regulations, condition of the individual system components and the component's life expectancy. The US EPA created the Check Up Program for Small Systems (CUPSS) program in order to assist small to medium sized utilities implement and maintain their Asset Management plan. Additional information on the CUPSS program.
Asset management Plan
The WV Bureau for Public Health (WV BPH) has created a guidance document to aid water systems to complete an Asset Management plan. This process is a mixture of guidance, utility self-assessments, tables, worksheets, and templates. The guidance document is broken into three separate parts: Basic, CUPSS, and Advanced.
An Introduction to Asset Management and the first steps to be taken.
BASIC
The following presentations and spreadsheets provide information to illustrate step-by-step instruction for creating the Basic parts of an Asset Management Plan. Below are two categories for the Basic parts that include the Guidance Documents and then the Submission Documents.
Guidance Documents
Level of Service Goals Guidance
Exhibit A Template Workbook Example
Submission Documents
Title Page and Table of Contents
CUPSS
The following presentations and spreadsheets provide information to illustrate step-by-step instruction for the CUPSS program. (These steps should be completed in the order they are listed)
CUPSS Asset Management Guidance workbook
Conditions Assessment Protocol
Asset Registry Plan and Conditions Assessment Protocol Example
Conditions Ranking Charts Example
Life Cycle Costs and Operation and Maintenance workbook
CUPSS Annual Financial workbook
Developing an Asset Management Plan
CUPSS Systems Guide to Maintaining Your Asset Management Plan
ADVANCED
The following presentations and spreadsheets provide information to illustrate step-by-step instruction for the Advanced Asset Management Plan. (These steps should be completed in the order they are listed)
Advanced Asset Management Guidance
Advanced Asset Management Guidance workbook
Level of Service SMART Goal Worksheet
Advanced Conditions Assessment Protocol Guidance
Conditions Ranking Charts Example
Advanced Conditions Assessment Protocol Example
Pressure Zone Asset Registry Plan Example
Advanced Operation and Maintenance Task List Tool Example
Advanced Life Cycle Costs Tool
Advanced Annual Financial workbook
Complete Advanced Asset Management Plan Example
Advanced Systems Guide to Maintaining Your Asset Management Plan