Water Resource Management Considerations for Public Water Supply Managers

Susquehanna River Basin Commission

September 20, 2017

Workshop Overview

The Commission is continuing its Public Water Supply Assistance Program (PWSAP) by offering a new workshop in the Water Resource Management Considerations for Public Water Supply Managers series The workshop will be held Wednesday September 20, 2017, at the Holiday Inn Williamsport, 100 Pine Street, Williamsport, PA 17701.

The workshop includes topics applicable to most public water suppliers (workshop agenda). Highlights include:

Defining the Operational Age of a Well: Predicting Mechanical Issues in Advance of Failure; and Redefining Life Expectations of New Wells through an Analysis of Past Failures;   National Groundwater Association McEllhiney lecturer, Michael Schneiders, P.G.
  • Learn to define and extend the functional lifecycle of a well and to utilize well rehabilitation to reduce operational costs.
  • Through improved methods of investigation, closer monitoring of energy costs, understanding corrosion, and looking at the well as a system, learn to better define all the inputs to allow for advancements in design, construction, development, operation, and maintenance.
Panel Discussion - Funding Considerations for Public Water Suppliers

Panel members: Pennvest, United States Department of Agriculture, Department of Community and Economic Development, COSTARS, SEDA-Council of Governments

  • PennVest (Brion Johnson) – PennVest provides funding for public or privately-owned drinking water, wastewater, storm water and non-point source pollution prevention projects primarily via low interest loans (with some grant funding available) to pay for design, engineering, and construction costs.
  • United States Department of Agriculture (Sue Gantz) – USDA Rural Development’s Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program provides grant funding and low-interest, long-term loans for clean, reliable drinking water, sanitary sewer, and storm water systems to eligible public entities in rural areas.
  • Department of Community and Economic Development (Brian Eckert) - Through the Commonwealth Financing Authority, DCED can provide grants under the PA Small Water and Sewer program to projects that have total costs between $30,000 and $500,000 and involve the construction, improvement, expansion, repair, or rehabilitation of a water supply or sanitary sewer system that is owned and maintained by an eligible applicant.
  • COSTARS (Bruce Beardsley) – COSTARS is the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s cooperative purchasing program and serves as a conduit through which eligible participants, including municipalities and public authorities, are able to leverage established state agency and COSTARS contracts to cost effectively and efficiently identify suppliers with whom to do business without the need to conduct formal bidding procedures.
  • SEDA-Council of Governments (Bill Siegel) – SEDA COG is a public development organization serving 11 Central Pennsylvania counties. The Community Development Program at SEDA-COG works with local governments and their citizens to improve communities and the lives of community residents through infrastructure and community facility projects.
Fundamentals of Asset Management

Mark Billus, PADEP Water Program Specialist, Division of Training, Technical and Financial Services; Jere Troutman, Retired Manager, Millersburg Area Authority, Current PADEP Outreach Assistance Provider

Asset Management is a way to plan for repair and replacement of a system's major components by evaluating them and determining when work is needed and how much it will cost. Asset management can ultimately save a system money by planning for repairs or replacements. Knowing when your system will need to pay for major repairs or replacements can alleviate the cost of paying for "emergency" or unplanned projects. An Asset Management Program can help you prioritize repairs and replacements based on their criticality. It can also help you to determine the “true cost” of providing drinking water service to your customers so that you can structure rates that will sustain your system for future generations.
PADEP Professional Engineering Services (PES) Programs

Woodrow Cole, PADEP Safe Drinking Water Program Specialist, Division of Training, Technical and Financial Services

Through the PES program, PADEP offers free professional engineering assistance to small and medium-sized public community and non-profit non-community water systems. The PES program can assist eligible systems with tasks in support of capital improvement projects or consolidation with another system.
Additional Topics
  • PADEP North Central Regional Office (NCRO) staff will provide an overview of, and answer questions pertaining to, the Safe Drinking Water Program (Chad Miller, P.E., Anthony Mattucci, P.G.).
  • SRBC personnel will provide an overview of, and answer questions pertaining to, surface water considerations for public water suppliers (Mike College, P.E.).

Registration

  • For additional information or to register for the workshop, please visit the Registration Page.
  • Remote online workshop participation is available; however, PADEP contact hours for Pennsylvania-certified water operators are only available to classroom attendees. If interested, please click “participate online” on the Registration page.

The workshop is being offered free of charge and has been pre-approved by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) for two contact hours for Pennsylvania-certified water operators (drinking water contact hours).

For more information on the workshop, please contact Brent Bauman, P.G., at 717-238-0423 (x1235) or: PWSAP@srbc.net