The Springfield Water and Sewer Commission (SWSC) was under an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrative Order to reduce Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) frequency and volume of discharges to the Connecticut and Chicopee Rivers. The SWSC sought innovative separation strategies and enhanced pump station performance strategies that would enable it to meet the desired level of CSO control detailed in its Long-Term Control Plan, but avoid constructing large, expensive, offline CSO storage systems or to complete area-wide sewer separation proposed by a previous consultant.

holistically addressing requirementsDue to economic decline and reduced resources, the City of Sprinfield has struggled to afford all of its infrastructure and water resource management obligations under a variety of environmental permits. Lack of revenue has resulted in under-investment in its infrastructure over a long period of time. The City needed a plan that holistically addressed its water quality protection requirements, while also prioritizing the rehabilitation or replacement of its greatest “at-risk” infrastructure critical to its continued safe operations. The plan needed to be affordable and sustainable over the long term.

incorporating a risk-based approachKleinfelder developed an Integrated Long-Term Control Plan that addresses both the CSO and non-CSO components of the wastewater infrastructure. Based on extensive modeling, condition assessment, and alternatives analyses of both green and grey infrastructure solutions, the plan incorporates a risk-based asset management approach and uses adaptive management principles to establish milestones and metrics to demonstrate success. The plan is one of the first in the country to leverage the EPA’s Integrated Planning framework concepts for practical implementation.

location:Springfield, Massachusetts project cost:$11 Million(cost of planning phase)

owner:Springfield Water and Sewer Commission (SWSC)

An Employee-Owned Company | © 2013 Kleinfelder. All rights reserved.

proJect results

The SWSC is proceeding on a

vastly different approach than

that proposed in previous

planning documents. The new

approach assures continued

regulatory compliance and,

more importantly, addresses

infrastructure deficiencies in a

cost-effective and sustainable

manner. The new plan will

reduce the City of Springfield's

costs to achieve its program

goals by 50%, saving tens of

millions of dollars.

springfield long-term cso control plan