A collection system built today will still be buried, and still be somebody's responsibility, in a hundred years. Managing that reality — deciding what to fix, replace, or leave alone, and when — is the discipline of asset management, and it's squarely a Class 4-level responsibility.
What Asset Management Means for a Collection System
The U.S. EPA defines asset management, for wastewater utilities, as managing infrastructure capital assets to minimize the total cost of owning and operating them while still delivering the service levels customers expect. It's a shift away from what EPA calls the "run-to-failure" management model — where sewer assets that aren't regularly maintained deteriorate faster than expected, driving up replacement and emergency response costs — toward a proactive, information-based approach.
EPA identifies the key elements of an asset management program a