Union City Sanitary District

"Looking Ahead to the Future"

What's the best way for an independent utility provider in Northern California to provide the best service for many decades to come?

These issues and more were considered in MWH's asset management plan for Union Sanitary District (USD).

USD is an independent special district, which provides wastewater collection, treatment and disposal services to more than 300,000 residents and businesses of the cities of Fremont, Newark and Union City, in Southern Alameda County, California.

Well known for its environmental protection efforts, USD is the frequent recipient of the "Gold Award" by the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA). This award requires 100 percent compliance with EPA and local quality control regulations.

Pragmatic Approaches

USD engaged MWH to assess the district's current and future asset management needs. What helped MWH win the assignment was our company's strong knowledge of the district's assets and service responsibilities. This allowed us to suggest an intensive, onsite work plan that provided pragmatic approaches tailored to their business situation. Working closely with district staff, MWH provided:

• Strategic planning
• Asset management gap analysis
• Risk management evaluations
• Asset management implementation strategy

A strategic planning workshop with local decision-makers helped clarify the district's vision and addressed long-term operation strategies and stakeholder concerns. MWH experts evaluated USD's ongoing practices to accepted "best practice" standards. At the same time, the district's Fixed Asset software and CMMS were evaluated. This provided documentation of the asset register.

MWH delivered a comprehensive implementation plan that highlighted lifecycle management. It also presented several opportunities for effectively integrating elements of their operations into a cohesive and well-documented asset management program. The assessment plan included:

• Evaluations of current business processes
• Levels of service goals and impacts
• Consequences of failure analysis
• Financial planning
• Data framework and fixed asset register design
• Information systems integration
• Implementation planning