The Water Reliability Series covers the challenges the industry has seen with COVID-19 and how you can overcome them, including common pitfalls, ways to optimize, and things you can do today to upgrade your program. Catch up on our 30-minute virtual workshops and open discussion sessions below, and check out our Weekly Cost Savings Series and Cost Savings Digitization Series.

COVID-19 and Your Facility: A New Chapter with New Challenges

Without clean water and wastewater treatment facilities, the U.S. will have an extremely difficult time defeating COVID. Because water and wastewater facilities play an important role in our society, the decisions made by facility leaders impact many people. Combined with the depleting number of resources and revenue caused by COVID, decision makers have been feeling growing pressure to make the right decisions for the most common industry challenged brought on by COVID.

Operating Your Facilities – from Home

As COVID-19 continues to affect our daily routines, facility leaders are having to learn how to operate their facilities from home. With over 62% of U.S. workers now working remotely, facility leaders must find the balance between prioritizing the safety of their employees and maintaining full operations. The most common areas facility leaders need to evaluate during the pandemic are health and safety, facility operations, equipment maintenance, team communication, and staffing plans.

Training and Continuing Education in the Time of COVID

Water and wastewater treatment facilities rely on many different assets to operate efficiently and reliably. The most important asset a facility has is its people. While cutting-edge technology and tools can give facilities competitive advantage, facilities would not be able to operate without people. COVID-19 has forced facilities to drastically reduce their budgets and many facilities have chosen to cut trainings for their employees. While trainings may not seem to have a direct impact on short-term projects, they have a significant impact on the long-term development of employees.

Influent Challenges Caused by Reduced Flow

Water and wastewater treatment facilities across the country have experienced a significant change to their intake flows due to the COVID pandemic. Many facilities located in suburban areas have experienced a significant increase of intake flow while other facilities located in downtown locations have experienced a decrease. While drastic change in flow volume affects many different operational processes of a wastewater treatment facility, the most important aspect it impacts is the biology of the facility.

Liquidity Lows: Re-prioritizing Budgets Due to Reduced Funding

In April 2020, an American Waterworks Associated report estimated that the water industry would experience $32.7B worth of financial impact as a result of the pandemic. In June, many public agencies, specifically city municipalities, reported a 30% loss of revenue and taxes bases. As water and wastewater treatment facilities receive less funding, facility management is having to quickly determine the areas their facility can reduce budget without negatively impacting operations.

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