Establishing a Collection System Baseline Condition Assessment Program One Step at a Time

This paper includes a case study for a baseline condition assessment conducted for the Erie County (N.Y.) Department of Environment & Planning (ECDEP), Division of Sewerage Management (DSM). This project was initiated when the County started looking for more efficient ways to develop their CIP for wastewater facilities, including wastewater treatment plants, pump stations, and collection systems. While the County had previously developed a GIS database for their wastewater collection systems that included information on some of their buried assets, the amount of information available for each of the 77 minisystems (defined as a sewershed or subdivision of a sewer district) varied greatly. For several minisystems there was a significant amount of useful information and for others, there was considerably less information. The baseline condition assessment approach was used to place all minisystems and trunk and interceptors on an equal-footing so that potential projects could be identified and prioritized, while still allowing more detailed information to be added in the future.