Volume 1 ~ Issue 3 ~ June 2019

Your Water Bill: What Are You Paying For? Part 2 - Capital Improvements Projects

Last month we highlighted the department’s major infrastructure and “capital assets” that are critical for keeping our water flowing 24/7/365. Due to the expansiveness of this infrastructure, it is important that the department create, maintain, and follow a long-term plan to invest back into that infrastructure, which is called a Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP. A CIP is like a working blueprint for sustaining and improving infrastructure and contains all the individual capital projects for the department. This critical planning tool helps us decide what assets need rehabilitation or replacement as they approach the end of their life cycle, especially because even small repairs are important and expensive.

For example, in March 2018 we finished a small project to improve the odor control system at our West Area Water Reclamation Facility, replacing a badly corroded chemical scrubbing system constructed in 2000 with a more efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective system. The project took over three years for assessment, design, and completion of construction and cost almost $3.0 million! Now imagine the time and money that is required to complete the more than 45 capital improvement projects that we currently have in progress.

Capital infrastructure costs account for a very large portion of Water Services' total costs and this long-term planning helps to spread the costs over many years in order to avoid raising rates significantly in any one year, as well as keeps our water and sewer systems reliable and in good working order for the entire city.

Glendale Water Services has five chemists working in the Water Quality Lab with a combined total of 116 years of laboratory experience! You can learn more about the various water services staff who help keep the water flowing in next month’s edition of What's on Tap .

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