Events

Webinar Overview

Vertical assets are essential components of water and wastewater treatment systems. They include treatment plants, pump stations, and storage tanks. These assets are often complex and expensive to replace, making it important to extend their service lives and ensure their reliable operation. Condition assessment is a critical process for evaluating the condition of vertical assets and identifying potential problems before they lead to failure.

The speakers will present a framework to help utilities plan a vertical asset condition assessment program, and will address a variety of condition assessment approaches that can be used for vertical assets:

• Visual inspection to inspect the asset for signs of wear, tear, damage, and corrosion.
• Non-destructive testing (NDT)  using a variety of techniques to evaluate the condition of the asset without causing any damage, including by acoustic testing, vibration analysis, and thermal imaging.
• Destructive testing, involving the collection of asset samples for laboratory testing to determine their properties and condition.

The speakers will also address methods for collecting and managing condition assessment data, as well as ways to incorporate the data into an overall asset management plan.

Condition assessment should be an integral part of any utility's asset management plan. By regularly assessing the condition of its vertical assets, a utility can identify potential problems early on and take corrective action to prevent failures. This can help to extend the service lives of the assets, reduce maintenance costs, and improve overall system reliability.

SPEAKERS

Grace Caballero, PE, ENV SP

Grace is a Water/Wastewater Project Manager with HDR in the DC/Northern Virginia area.  She has 15 years of experience in water and wastewater engineering that includes work in both the public and private sector.  She has led several infrastructure condition assessment efforts for both linear and  vertical assets, is certified with the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) and participates in the IAM’s DC Chapter.  Grace excels in communications and  in field activities, where she frequently coordinates with contractors, operators, and other consulting engineers to execute complex treatment plant condition assessments.

Howard Robinson, WWTP Op-4a

Howie Robinson is a Senior Operations Specialist with HDR in New York, NY.  He is retired from NYC DEP where he served as Plant Superintendent and Chief Operator with over 30 years of experience in Wastewater and Resource Recovery. His experience ranges from Operations management, coordinating a workforce team of 100+ trade and scientific personnel, to managing multi-million dollar construction projects.