(1) Retail water suppliers seeking financial
assistance through Utah's State Revolving Fund must commit to develop and
implement an asset management program. An asset management program provides the
following benefits to water systems:
(a)
Prolonging asset life.
(b) Reducing
overall costs for operations, maintenance, and capital expenditures.
(c) Improving decisions about asset
maintenance, rehabilitation, repair, and replacement.
(d) Meeting consumer demands with a focus on
system sustainability.
(e) Meeting
service expectations and regulatory requirements.
(f) Improving responses to
emergencies.
(g) Improving the
security and safety of assets.
(h)
Budgeting focused on critical activities for sustained performance.
(i) Setting rates based on sound operational
and financial planning.
(2) An effective asset management program
includes detailed asset inventories, operation and maintenance tasks, and
long-range financial planning. These items should be captured in an asset
management plan, which can be tailored to fit individual water system size and
complexity.
(3) The asset
management plan shall address the following five core components.
(a) The current state of the utility's
assets.
(i) Prepare an asset
inventory.
(ii) Develop a system
map.
(iii) Develop a method to
assess and prioritize assets based on condition.
(iv) Assess remaining useful life of the
asset.
(v) Determine asset value and
replacement cost.
(b) The
utility's required sustainable level of service.
(i) Analyze current customer demand and
satisfaction.
(ii) Analyze
anticipated customer demand and satisfaction.
(iii) Understand current regulatory
requirements.
(iv) Communicate
system performance goals with the public.
(v) Identify standard levels of service and
track system performance.
(c) Assets that are critical to sustained
performance.
(i) Conduct a failure analysis
on all assets.
(ii) Determine
probability of failure.
(iii)
Analyze risk and consequences of failure.
(iv) Prioritize system assets based on
criticality to system operation.
(v) Develop specific response plans based on
potential asset failure.
(d) Minimum infrastructure life cycle cost.
(i) Implement an appropriate maintenance
schedule including costs for all assets.
(ii) Identify life cycle costs for all
assets.
(iii) Develop a capital
improvement plan and an operations and maintenance strategy.
(iv) Identify and compare the cost of
rehabilitation versus replacement.
(v) Determine the related costs of responding
to asset failure.
(e)
Long-term budgeting strategy.
(i) Regularly
review system budget.
(ii)
Establish and fund a capital facilities account.
(iii) Implement a rate structure to ensure
financial sustainability.
(iv)
Explore asset renewal and replacement financing.
(v) Identify financial assistance options for
major asset repair or replacement.
(vi) Prioritize financial resources based on
asset condition and importance.
(4) All water systems subject to this rule
shall complete the following:
(a) Prepare an
asset management plan as described in this subsection.
(b) Systems governing body shall formally
adopt the asset management plan.
(c) System shall submit proof of adoption to
the Division.
(5) In
addition to the requirements of this subsection, water systems applying for
financial assistance under Utah's State Revolving Fund Financial Assistance
Program must also submit their asset management plan to the Division of
Drinking Water or request sufficient funds to create an asset management
plan.
