The Hidden Costs of Deferred Treatment Plant Maintenance

Episode Transcript

Mollie (Host)
Welcome back to {Brief}ly Speaking, the SEH podcast where we discuss big AEC topics in quick conversations. I'm Mollie, your host. When it comes to water and wastewater systems, what you don't see can hurt you and your budget. Pumps, pipes, and treatment equipment don't last forever, and while it can be tempting for small towns to delay fixes or upgrades, that decision often comes back in the form of higher repair costs, emergency failures, or even fines. Deferred maintenance may feel like saving money today, but in reality, it's more like swiping a credit card with a growing interest rate. Today, I'm joined by Mykin and Severson, a licensed engineer who works across six states, including right here in Iowa, where we're both at. Mykin brings both design and operations experience to the table, from working directly with small town water and wastewater systems to helping communities plan smart, long-term infrastructure solutions. She's also a certified water treatment and distribution operator, which means she knows these systems not just from the design side, but from a hands-on, day-to-day operations as well. So Mykin, welcome to {Brief}ly Speaking.

Mykin (Guest)
Thanks Mollie, I'm happy to be here.

Mollie (Host)
When we say deferred maintenance, what are we really talking about in the world of water and wastewater systems?

Mykin (Guest)
When I hear the term deferred maintenance, it's often when an operator looks at a problem and says, I don't have the time or the resources to handle this right now. I need to go talk to somebody and ask for extra help. Sometimes that's when they go to the council and they ask for permission to solve a problem in the way they know how to. Other times it's going to the engineer and asking for assistance. The main thing is when they're looking at a problem and they say, I can't solve this problem right now. I have to do it later.

Mollie (Host)
Is that just because there could be like bigger problems to solve at the moment or is it like we just simply don't have the funds?

Mykin (Guest)
It's not even always tied to funding. Sometimes it's tied to the work involved in solving the problem. Sometimes you can slap a bandaid on an issue and say, this is good enough for now. We will take care of it down the road when we have more money to adequately solve the problem in a long-term sense. A lot of times in the event of deferred maintenance, they just don't have the capacity to physically do it themselves as the owner or the operator. A lot of times you'll have to bring in a specialist. Specific contractors who are licensed to do some construction work to solve the problem at hand. Sometimes this could be equipment that needs to even be removed from the site and sent away to be serviced. It's kind of like when you bring your car into the shop, you can't solve that problem yourself unless you're the mechanic. Well, a lot of times those mechanics don't work at that facility. They have to send their equipment away. Other times, the operator doesn't even have the excavator to get into the ground to solve a water leak or a broken sewer pipe. So they have to go ask somebody else for help. And a lot of times it's not very realistic to expect somebody to be out there that same day.

Mollie (Host)
No, that makes perfect sense. So they know there's a problem, they want to solve it, but it just takes time to go through the processes.

Mykin (Guest)
It does. And sometimes you have to go through your council too to get the approval to use the funds required to pay your contractor. Sometimes councils will allow that to happen kind of on a rolling basis as part of operation and maintenance. Other times, problems that need to be solved might include a construction permit. And that's kind of where the engineer comes in. And that's a whole other discussion at hand as far as how to solve deferred maintenance and kind of how you go about it. But sometimes you do have to go to your council and say, this is a bigger problem. We need more help. We need all hands on deck for this.

Mollie (Host)
So speaking of the council, town leaders who don't have a city engineer sitting with them, what are some common warning signs that a system needs attention before it becomes red flag emergency?

Mykin (Guest)
There are a lot of warning signs that we as engineers can see. And like you said, it could be glaringly obvious to us as experts in the industry, but to some residents or council members who are residents of that town, they just see them as annoyances or just some grievances they might have. You could see frequent water leaks. You can see frequent equipment repairs, sewer backups. Those are oftentimes things that you and I might even see if there are issues in our utility system. Other things that residents and councils might not see but would hear about would be bypassing from controlled discharge lagoons. Sometimes the operator has to discharge wastewater outside of the authorized window. That's a problem that needs to be solved. Other times it would be more regular maintenance that just costs money, happening a lot more often. And maybe you start realizing your budget's running out. We're addressing a lot of seemingly small issues. We're running out of our yearly budgets. Maybe we should increase our budget or maybe we should look at, is there a larger issue that needs to be solved?

Mollie (Host)
So before a town or an operator really starts to look into these things, they're seeing consistent issues. They're having to do a lot of maintenance. taking extra steps to make sure everything's running okay. On paper, it could look like that's saving money, just pushing projects down the road a little bit. Why is it usually the opposite in the long run?

Mykin (Guest)
So when it comes to our industry in water, wastewater, some people don't like to think of these projects as being part of crucial infrastructure. Now, it's a fact that these are pieces of crucial infrastructure. However, they're not pretty, they're not elegant. It's a very out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. So sometimes it gets forgotten if we're not the squeaky wheel getting the grease. So when the small problems that could arise are ignored, we think, hey, we can't handle this now, or maybe we don't need to because it's not a big enough problem, will handle it later... that can exacerbate the issues that you have. You could end up with one small leak that turns into a way larger leak affecting a larger area. You could end up with one pump that's not working properly. And if it's not fixed in time, you might lose another one. And then do you have another one on hand? Can you replace them? Do you have the capacity to have two pumps gone? Do you have the financial ability to take on maintenance plus fines from the Iowa DNR if you get fined for not properly operating your system? Sometimes that happens. Things like that can compound on top of each other. So you might think, hey, I saved a buck today. But down the road, you might have a more difficult conversation when it comes to an expensive project and even raising rates for your customers to pay for that project.

Mollie (Host)
Have you seen that often? Like do you have examples of where putting off a relatively small repair has then turned into a major expensive repair?

Mykin (Guest)
I wouldn't say I see it often. A lot of the projects we deal with are replacing, rehabilitating, or otherwise repairing systems that have simply reached the end of their design life. Systems that are very old with equipment that's really old. Maybe it's even obsolete at this point. So sometimes the project that arises just comes from sheer basic need of bringing it into modern day technology. But there are instances where owners have neglected their systems for long enough periods of time where multiple components of their system lose viability or operational flexibility or even capacity to meet the system's needs. So I have seen that before where even systems can be deemed non-viable by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and they are required to do a project to address the issues at hand. This could be anything related to drinking water or wastewater, but I have seen it where an entire drinking water system has been deemed non-viable and they had to address water supply needs. a new water treatment facility, a storage facility, and distribution system mains. So if things get out of hand over several decades, which sounds like a long time until you're sitting on the council facing these issues, can really add up to a very large and expensive problem. And then it becomes a burden for the owner and it can even fall back on the residents and rate payers who have to help fund these projects.

Related Services: SEH Water Engineering | SEH Wastewater Engineering 

Mollie (Host)
Which is never something that a municipality wants.

Mykin (Guest)
No. And as a customer, myself in my own community, it's never fun to be told, hey, your rates are going up.

Mollie (Host)
So it sounds like being proactive, catching issues early on and having those conversations is really the start of it. And that all starts with a lot of the operators. How can treatment operators help leaders in their town understand the urgency of certain projects? Like you said, they're not shiny. Water and wastewater projects are not shiny. You don't really recognize the importance of them until they're gone, until your toilet doesn't flush, until your faucet doesn't turn on. So how can they help these leaders and decision makers understand that this is something we need to take care of early on when it's not a huge, huge problem?

Mykin (Guest)
My rule of thumb is consistent communication and documentation, keeping your records, understanding the system yourself, and don't be afraid to ask questions to the organizations who are dedicated to helping you be successful. This includes the Department of Natural Resources and other organizations like Iowa Rural Water Association and the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities. You can reach out to various organizations such as these. and agencies that have dedicated staff to answering any questions you might have if you don't understand what you're looking at. For an operator, it's really important to gain support from the council and yourself understand the consequences of immediate action or delayed action and conveying those consequences to the council. Sometimes bringing in an engineer can even help you. If you as an operator think that you need more technical assistance, you can reach out to an engineer that maybe you've worked with in the past or you can even approach your counsel and say, hey, maybe it's time we engage with a technical expert who specializes in this work to help us decide what really is our problem. Can they explain it to us? Can they help us solve it? And can they help us understand how we can finance it?

Mollie (Host)
So that actually segues perfectly into my next question for you, which is, okay, you've found all these problems or you're aware that there is a problem. You reach out to a technical expert and they give you a couple of things that you could fix. How do towns prioritize? What's that process look like?

Mykin (Guest)
So we do this all the time with our clients. A lot of times with aging infrastructure or other more immediate issues that have come up, a community may approach us or even send out a request for proposal for engineers to kind of bid on when we're hired by a client because they like what they see from us. We will engage with them personally and will oftentimes go to their council meetings and we will go to their cities. We will walk through the entirety of their system with them, ask questions and understand exactly what's going on. We'll also be able to help understand where the problems are. Can we pinpoint them? Are you missing anything that we've noticed and can we explain that to you? We will also write very extensive reports that explain our findings on the system evaluations. We'll present all that information to the council and we will walk through proposed solutions. When it comes to prioritizing, a lot of that can come down to what the client wants. What are their perceived priorities? Is that adequate? How can we develop the best plan of action for the owner? And how do we move forward from there from a feasibility standpoint and from a financial standpoint?

Mollie (Host)
So we basically just help come up with a game plan that fits into their budget, their time frame, and their priorities. Like I said in the intro, you kind of have two backgrounds. You have your operator's license and then obviously you are an engineer. So I feel like up until this point, you've kind of been speaking from that operator side of things of working the day-to-day in the treatment systems, finding the issues early on. But now we're going to switch it over to your other hat. How can councils right size upgrades so they're prepared for the future without overbuilding and overspending? Is it a one-size-fits-all type of option or can you work with communities to figure out what exactly they need?

Mykin (Guest)
Yeah, so problem solving in this industry is not unique. It's very custom to our clients. So there is no one-size-fits-all. A lot of communities, especially in a general area together, may see similar problems. But definitely to answer this question, it would be make sure you engage with a reliable engineer that you trust. We assist our clients in planning how to solve their problems every day. That's what we go through. And we take them through the investigative process of what are your problems evaluating your entire system, like I said earlier, but we'll also make sure we have the right amount of communication and understanding as to your own desires and pairing that with our technical expertise to offer our feasible and financially responsible plans of action. We also can offer technical expertise on the optimal equipment that you could benefit from, even if it's new, even if you've never heard of it. If we have something that we know could be very useful to an owner, we're going to present that to you, see what you think. We can even bring clients to nearby communities to see some equipment in action. If you're apprehensive about something, you're not sure how it works, let's go take a look at it. We can find applications throughout the state for a lot of the equipment that I've worked on and really walk an owner and the operator through those facilities so that they can be comfortable in the decision they're about to make.

Mollie (Host)
I've actually never heard that and that's, I feel like comforting because you are spending a lot of money. It is a big decision and you want to make sure you're getting the bang for your buck, that you're making that right decision. Talking to people who already run those systems, that feels like something that would be comforting again. A big part of feeling comfortable with your system and what you're picking is how much it costs. And funding is always top of mind with any project. What programs or outside resources can communities use to help address maintenance issues or getting new systems or equipment before it becomes a major problem like we've been talking about?

Mykin (Guest)
So some organizations that can help you understand the implications of the situation you're in include Iowa Rural Water Association and the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities. Like I previously mentioned, there are a lot of resources that those organizations can offer for planning, budgeting, and even technical expertise. There are other organizations out there and Iowa DNR even promotes the use of the resources offered by these organizations. Other funding sources that you can think about and your engineer will likely present to you as an option to engage would be the Iowa DNR State Revolving Fund. This fund offers loans and sometimes loan forgiveness if you qualify. You can also look at various grant opportunities like the WTFAP grant or CDBG. Both of these are fairly common with projects that I work on and the USDA Rural Development loans and grants. This program specifically offers grants sometimes, so like SRF loan forgiveness, the loan forgiveness and grants are not guaranteed, but as the engineer, we want to ensure that a client has the best opportunity to be awarded a grant if they are eligible. So as the engineer, we definitely evaluate a client's ability to apply for various funding opportunities and the ability to be awarded funds that can be used towards their projects. So this is definitely something that we will look at when we're engaged with the client, even if they're not in a crisis, but they could be preparing for a crisis that they want to avoid. So it's definitely something to think about is you might be in a tight space now, but we'll help you get through it and make sure that we can assist in applying for appropriate funding opportunities.

Mollie (Host)
And now I know you're obviously in Iowa and using a lot of those funding programs, but are those pretty common nationwide? Are there similar programs for other states?

Mykin (Guest)
There definitely are. The State Revolving Fund is something that's accessible in every state. Same with the USDA Rural Development loan and grant applications. Definitely available nationwide. Each state is different. I can't speak to a lot of other grant applications. Every state relies on different funding sources. I know I have some experience in the state of Washington. And so a difference between Iowa and Washington is the reliance or preferred use of SRF versus USDA. So in my experience in Iowa, a lot of my clients choose to go with the SRF funding opportunity versus USDA, whereas in Washington, they like to go with USDA. There are Many reasons for this, but a lot of times it comes down to just convenience and preference. And that's definitely acceptable and a great opportunity for any client that chooses to move forward with those funding opportunities.

Mollie (Host)
We've talked funding on this podcast before, and it's so fluid depending on your geography and region and what the priorities of that area are. Thankfully, we do have funding assistance here at SEH. So we have experts that that's what they do. They are our funding experts that can help with that sort of thing. But ultimately, just having that funding conversation fairly early on, it sounds like with your engineer or whoever's helping you.

Related Service: SEH Funding Services

Mykin (Guest)
Yeah, it's a very important question to ask. You know, these projects related to crucial infrastructure, they're not going to be cheap. They almost never will be cheap, but they're important. So a good question to ask your engineer is how am I going to pay for this? Well, let's sit down and talk about it. We have options. Let's decide what is best for you.

Mollie (Host)
So once they have some options and they're working on figuring out what decision they're going to make, how do local leaders bring residents on board during the conversation about spending money now to save more later?

Mykin (Guest)
It's definitely a difficult conversation to have, especially as it relates to rates increasing. It's not uncommon to see a residence rates go up because of projects like this. However, it's also important to remember as residents ourselves in our own communities that I would definitely rather see safe drinking water and adequate wastewater handling than the opposite and have a slightly lower rate. Rate increases do vary from community to community. I've seen them increase dramatically. I've also seen them increase slightly. I would say transparent communication is going to be key here, and that's something the engineer practices. I definitely practice that with my clients, making sure the community leaders understand exactly what they're proposing to the council to vote on, and then also making sure the residents understand what they're discussing so that they can also be comfortable with the decision that's being made. While understanding this infrastructure is crucial and it relates directly to your public health. So they're important in many facets of everyone's lives. Making sure the community understands what's going on is going to be paramount.

Mollie (Host)
Yeah, the public health piece of it is huge and just helping make those decisions with your community. And I love what you said about just being upfront, honest with the community about what the problem is and what you're looking at for the solution. If you could give one piece of advice to a small-town council or utility board about staying ahead of maintenance, what would it be?

Mykin (Guest)
My one piece of advice would definitely be engaging with various staff, whether that's your operator or other reliable personnel from your equipment representatives or IDNR or other organizations that are dedicated to helping you. Make sure you're engaging in regular inspections and evaluations of your system so that you're not missing the small problems that could dramatically increase over time if they're not caught. So a good example that I've been working on recently is, if you've got an old sewer system that has clay pipe in the ground, well, you should probably think about televising and inspecting those pipes because clay is not a very strong material and it degrades over time. So if you've got clay pipe in the ground that's 60-years old, it's probably time to look at it and see if it needs repairing or other forms of rehabilitation. Other things would include sludge inspections in your lagoons, especially if they're several decades old. You want to make sure you're properly inspecting any pumps in your system and staying on top of equipment maintenance. A lot of equipment manufacturers and representatives will have really good resources on staying on top of maintenance, making sure inspections are done in a timely manner so that small problems can be caught in time before they turn into very expensive and operationally difficult replacements or rehabilitation.

Mollie (Host)
Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of {Brief}ly Speaking. What we've learned is clear. Delaying maintenance may feel like an easier choice in the moment, but the costs, financial, regulatory, and community-wide almost always stack up higher down the line. A big thank you to Mykin for joining me and sharing her insights. If you'd like to catch more conversations like this one, you can find past episodes of {Brief}ly Speaking on Spotify or on our website. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next time with another quick look at the infrastructure that's shaping our communities.