Carson City Asset Management Plan

In 2014, Carson City was awarded a $548,158 grant as part of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE)’s Stormwater, Asset Management and Wastewater (SAW) program initiative.

The SAW program provides grant money for the development of plans to identify and manage stormwater and/or wastewater assets, stormwater treatment management plans, planning and design of sewage, stormwater, or nonpoint source pollution reduction projects, and the testing and demonstration of innovative water quality improvement projects. The goal of the program is to accelerate the statewide use of asset management practices that improve Michigan’s water quality and public health.

Carson City’s sanitary and storm sewer system was built throughout the 1960’s. Spicer Group assisted Carson City officials with applying for and the administration of the SAW grant, along with the development of the City’s wastewater asset management plan and stormwater asset management plan. This work included developing an inventory of all assets owned by the city for both systems and a development of a GIS database within the City’s service area and then developing the database and digital maps of the area.

The state and condition of those assets was determined with researching existing information, on-site inspections, and the televising of pipes. More than 51,000 linear feet of sanitary sewer was televised, 175 sanitary manholes were inspected, 56,000 feet of storm sewer was televised and 200 manholes were inspected. The condition of all of the assets was rated, along with the criticality of each of the assets, and working with Carson City officials, a level of service for the wastewater system was determined.

Spicer Group developed a plan for the city on how to maintain and improve their systems for the future, and developed a revenue structure to implement a capital improvement project plan to do that. A water rate study led to structured rate increases over the next five years.