Date and Time: June 20, 2024 Tour at 4:00 PM, Social at approximately 5:15 PM
Hosts: PNCWA Utility Management Committee, Lower Columbia Section, Students and Young Professionals, and Clean Water Services. Tour led by Jeff Hart. 

Join the Utility Management Committee, in partnership with the Lower Columbia Section and the Students and Young Professionals on a tour of Clean Water Services’ Fernhill Wetland in Forest Grove. There will be time afterward to socialize with old friends or make new ones at the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove.

Hosted by the PNCWA Utility Management Committee

Date & Time:  July 26, 2023 @ Noon to 1 PM

Check out this article on Asset Management submitted by the PNCWA Utility Management Committee.

Asset management is the practice of managing infrastructure capital assets to minimize the total cost of owning and operating those assets while delivering the service level customers desire. Asset management can be a valuable process to gain knowledge about the condition of system components when they need to be repaired and replaced, and costs over time. This can be useful for decision-making, budgeting, capital improvements planning, and funding for projects to sustain utilities. 

If you are responsible for the management of maintenance in your utility, please take this survey

The Utility Management Committee is seeking to understand how Computer Maintenance Managements Systems (CMMS) are utilized by Pacific Northwest utilities. Is your utility using a CMMS system or not? What are the barriers, challenges, and successes? If you are responsible for the management of maintenance in your utility, please take this survey. We want to hear from you!

The webinar is no cost for PNCWA members, PNCWA section members, and WEF-UPP organization employees, and $50 for nonmembers.

Flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes and scores of other hazards can wreak system-wide and regional havoc on lifeline utilities that serve critical health, safety, and environmental roles in our everyday life. Recognizing the role that functioning infrastructure plays in the near- and long-term recovery of communities following a devastating event, utilities across the country are taking a serious look at their resiliency. This webinar delves into the efforts many utilities are making to understand their risks by identifying vulnerabilities, modeling natural hazard scenarios, and defining the critical elements of their systems. The presentations will include project examples from the Pacific Northwest, with insights on building organizational awareness about the need for resiliency in the face of ever increasing demands on limited funds, getting efforts off the ground, and how mitigation recommendations are being implemented.

PNCWA is excited to announce our newest committee—the Utility Management Committee. While some think that utility management is similar to asset management, its range is much broader and encompasses finances, staffing, leadership, resiliency, data, customer service, communications, IT, sustainability, strategic planning, and more. The committee is dedicated to promoting and enhancing the use of best practices in utility management to efficiently protect human health and the environment. Per their official charter, they work to disseminate best practices in utility management internally to members and externally to stakeholders with an emphasis on fostering PNCWA’s vision of clean, sustainable watersheds for future generations. 

David Gordon, the chair of the UMC, is passionate about utility management. Gordon, who works at FCS Group in Seattle, spent some time talking to us about the new committee, why utility management is so important, their first workshop in October, and how PNCWA members can get involved.