Asset Management Video Resources

We have over 200 videos on Asset Management in our Documents Database that provide valuable information on how to maintain and manage the equipment, buildings, land, personnel, and any other large, expensive components that are needed to deliver safe and clean water to utility customers. 

Below, we have featured three informative videos/ webinars that can be found in our database. However, if you are interested in looking through videos and webinars on other topics just select "TYPE" in the dropdown then choose "Videos." Once you make that selection, a second dropdown will appear where you can choose "CATEGORY" then select whatever topic you are interested in seeing videos or webinars about (the example image above shows "Asset Management" selected.) The last step is to click the "Retrieve Documents" button to see your results.  

Asset Management Overview

This short video from the WSU Environmental Finance Center provides an overview of asset management components and how they can be applied to fit your utility's needs. 

Asset Management 101 – Finding Financial Assistance for Infrastructure Upgrades

This 1 hour 30 minute U.S. EPA webinar recording from the Technical Assistance Webinar Series: Improving CWA-NPDES Permit Compliance, provides a high-level orientation to the core concepts of asset management, how to prioritize system needs, how to secure funding, what resources are available for small communities, and who to go to for help.

The speakers discuss case studies and highlight tools that small communities will find helpful in preparing long term plans and successfully implementing them. 

Asset Management Plans and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF)

This webinar from U.S. EPA discusses the components of asset management plans, how State CWSRF programs are implementing them, and various incentives that borrowers receive for funding projects that include asset management plans. 

The Best YouTube Channels for Water & Wastewater Operators

Whether it’s to troubleshoot a treatment process, practice for a certification exam, or update your facility’s standard operating procedures, working as a small system water or wastewater operator means that you’re always learning something new to get the job done. Our mission at WaterOperator.org is to make sure you can easily find the best resources to manage and maintain your utility and reliably serve your community. A great way to bolster your knowledge at your own convenience is through training videos and webinar recordings. In this week’s blog post, we’d like to highlight our favorite YouTube channels so you can reference them when you need to develop a new skill, practice for a certification exam, or simply learn more about how to manage your system.

Certification:

American Water College
The American Water College features a variety of water and wastewater training videos that teach operators about operator math, treatment processes, operation and maintenance best practices, and utility management.

CAwastewater
This YouTube channel includes several wastewater math training videos for Grade 1 to Grade 5 operators of California.

Wastewater Dan
The training videos by Wastewater Dan teach operators how to calculate anything from annual energy costs to chemical oxygen demand (COD).

TheWaterSifu
Training videos on TheWaterSifu demonstrate water treatment math, laboratory techniques, and skills useful for the water treatment or distribution exam.

Treatment, Operations, and Maintenance:

Aquafix, Inc
The Aquafix YouTube channel hosts webinar recordings on wastewater treatment and process control. Please note that some of these videos may include promotions for Aquafix products.

Lagoons Do It Better
Wastewater operators can find webinar recordings on lagoon treatment and troubleshooting. The channel also features interviews with industry professionals. Please note that some of these videos may include promotional material for industry products.

R.C. Worst & Co., Inc.
On this YouTube channel, operators can learn about the selection and maintenance of valves, joints, switches, pumps, motors, and tanks involved in onsite wastewater treatment systems, packaged pumping systems, drinking water wells, and water treatment. Please note that some of these videos may include promotional material for industry products.

RCAP (Try their Vimeo and their YouTube channels.)
Both RCAP’s Vimeo and Youtube channels feature training videos and webinar recordings pertaining to water and wastewater treatment, operations and maintenance, monitoring, and utility management.

Wastewater Operations Channel
On this YouTube channel, Wastewater Operator Jon Kercher uploads educational videos filmed during the workday at his wastewater treatment facility. Videos range from troubleshooting treatment processes to learning about biosolids.

The Water Research Foundation
The Water Research Foundation includes webinar recordings of utility case studies, water research, and innovative technology.

Waterworks Training
Operators can watch brief training videos that demonstrate the installation and use of pipe fittings, restrainers, saddles, and couplings.

Utility Management:

Environmental Finance Center at UNC-Chapel Hill
This YouTube channel includes training videos and webinar recordings to teach systems how to improve their financial, technical, and managerial practices.

Smart Management for Small Water Systems
Small systems can use these webinar recordings to improve or develop asset management plans, start a capital improvement project, or better understand utility finances.

WaterOperator.org also maintains a YouTube channel of our own so you can find previously recorded webinars, interviews, and playlists that highlight our favorite videos. Check out the playlist Free Webinars for Water/ Wastewater Utilities to find other useful webinar recordings by organizations like the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

New Video Series: Compliance Conversations for Small Water Systems

Every time we hop on a call or head to a conference, we hear from experts with a wealth of knowledge. From "Why didn't I think of that?" tips to fascinating case studies, we're bringing the juiciest tidbits to you with a new video series.

Compliance Conversations offers insights on operating and managing a small public water system from a range of contributors. Each episode will feature an interview with a water industry professional so you can learn from the comfort of your computer or favorite device.

The first four episodes feature Jeff Oxenford, of Oxenford Consulting and the Rural Community Assistance Partnership. In these episodes, Jeff breaks down the most common drinking water compliance issues:

• The Most Common Drinking Water Compliance Issues | 001
• A New Way to Look at Your Water System's Sanitary Survey | 002
• How to Prepare for the Unexpected at Your Water System | 003
• The Most Important Factor for Public Water System Compliance | 004

We're already working on a new batch of episodes, so make sure to subscribe to the WaterOperator.org YouTube channel so you will be the first to know when new videos are uploaded!

Featured Video: Rural Missouri Climate Adaptation

Though it may still feel like spring, depending on where you are in the country, summer is just around the corner. And with summer comes the possibility of drought. Is your utility at risk of drought conditions? Do you know what you'd do if a drought visited your community? Occasional but severe weather events can feel hard to plan for, but not planning at all can make the situation worse. In this 2-minute video, a small rural community in Missouri talks about the planning efforts they're taking on to be prepared for drought in the future, after a particularly tough 2012. Interestingly, their plans to combat drought mesh well with their concerns about sediment in their source water supply as well.

If you'd like to learn more about climate adaptation planning for your utility, check out the tools available through the EPA's Climate Resilient Water Utilities portal, and in particular their risk assessment tool.

Featured Video: Is Your Drinking Water Protected?

For the last two weeks, our featured videos have talked about the benefits of stormwater management. While stormwater management and green infrastructure are great ways of protecting your source water, a lot more goes into source water protection. Source water protection plans, wellhead protection plans, and watershed protection areas can all play a vital role in ensuring your source water enters your treatment plant in the best condition possible. This week's video takes three minutes to summarize the financial, environmental, and water quality benefits of formal source water protection planning. It does mention the state of Pennsylvania specifically, but much of the information is useful to anyone considering these questions.

If you're interested in learning more about how source water protection planning works, you might be interested in the materials offered by the Washington Department of Health's Source Water Protection program and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Wellhead Protection program. 

Featured Video: Green Infrastructure for Small Rural Communities

Last week, we shared videos for educating your consumers in ways to improve stormwater quality and increase infiltration. But maybe you're interested in these topics as well. In that case, this week's video is for you. This hour-long webinar recording highlights green infrastructure efforts taken on by two small, rural communities. Representatives from the utilities in those communities discuss reasons why they wanted to take on stormwater management, reasons why they chose green infrastructure, the projects and programs they implemented, lessons learned, and project funding. It includes before and after and process images, but is not a highly detailed build guide.

Featured Video: Freddy the Fish

If April showers have arrived at your utility, then stormwater topics are probably at the forefront of your mind---and your customers' minds too. This makes it a great moment for public education. There are things utilities can do to mitigate stormwater quality, but nothing works quite as well as having your community pitch in to clean up the watershed. This week's video presents basic practices that improve stormwater quality, in terms aimed at your youngest consumers. Freddy the Fish focuses on reducing litter, picking up dog poop, and eliminating storm sewer dumping, and combines these messages with animated and live-action video and brief singalongs. The video would be a particularly good fit for presentations to young school-age children, which in turn can be a great way to engage your community.

For more stormwater public outreach materials, search our document database using the category Stormwater and the type Factsheets/Case Studies. You might also be interested in the EPA's video on stormwater (for adults) here.

Featured Video: Arsenic Treatment in a Rural Town

Over time, low levels of exposure to arsenic can result in cancer. This is a sobering fact for anyone, but it's particularly challenging for small rural towns with arsenic in their drinking water. When neither the utility nor the residents have access to other water options, treatment is of the utmost importance. But because arsenic doesn't cause taste or odor issues, or produce immediate health effects, getting that treatment in place can sometimes be difficult. Learning how other small utilities did it can help. In this week's video, the manager of a small rural utility in Montana introduces his utility and describes how they chose to put arsenic treatment in place for their system.

For more on arsenic in drinking water topics, see this USEPA factsheet (PDF), or search our document database using the category Arsenic.

Featured Video: Valve Maintenance

Spring is traditionally the time to knock out the cobwebs and dust off the high shelves. For those of us living in areas with cold winters, it's often the first time going outside has felt pleasant for months. For those in warmer climates, it's often time to batten down the hatches for the serious summer heat. But no matter where you live, spring cleaning season is officially here. And your utility doesn't need to be any different! Spring can be a great time to start your valve exercise program, whether you're making your post-winter maintenance assessment or getting things in shape for the summer. And this week's video, from our partners at the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), is a great resources as you get started. The 4-and-a-half minute video provides a brief walkthrough of the valve exercising process, along with dos and don'ts and maintenance tips.

For more videos from RCAP, check out their channel on Vimeo. For more on valve topics, search our document database using the keywords "valve exercising" or "valve maintenance" (both without the quote marks) in the Keyword Filter.

Featured Video: Operator Math

In a lot of ways, the ability to do math is like the ability to use a muscle. You always have muscles, of course, but whether you're able to use a particular muscle or muscle group depends on how developed it is. In other words, it depends on how often you use those muscles, whether you're lifting weights regularly or just hauling around a heavy toolbox on a daily basis. Math is the same way. Sure, on any good day you can probably handle 2 + 2. But for more complicated problems, regular practice and a thorough understanding of the principles can help those equations go from a headache to a breeze. Since water and wastewater operators often find themselves calculating things like chemical doses, the volume of complicated objects, and rate of flow, keeping in good mathematic shape can go a long way to making your life easier. And of course, being in practice doesn't do any harm when it's time to sit for your exams either!

There are a lot of ways to brush up on your math skills, and sometimes it helps to try a couple until you find what works best for you. Our document database has collected math help in a wide variety of formats under the Certification/Exam Prep category. Use "math" (without the quote marks) in the keyword filter box to narrow it down to just math help. But if you're someone who needs to see someone else work the problem in order to get what's going on, this week's videos might be a particularly good fit.

Indigo Water Group, a water and wastewater operator trainer in Colorado, has created a playlist of videos in which their owner works common water and wastewater math problems. Most of these videos are short and broken down by kind of problem. The exception is an hour long video devoted to wastewater math. At the time of this writing, the other videos in the playlist covered unit conversions, geometry, dosing, reducing MLSS concentrations, velocity and HRT, and digester problems. But more topics have been slowly added over time, so there may be more in the future. The video below links the entire playlist, which starts with three short unit conversion videos.

The YouTube channel CAwastewater takes a slightly different approach. Instead of breaking the videos down by topic, the channel owner (who is an operator himself) breaks down the videos by the state exam level where the problems are most likely to appear. He has playlists for the California exam levels 1, 2, and 3, and one playlist that combines the math for 4 and 5. Though these videos are aimed at California wastewater operators, both water and wastewater operators from across the country will likely get something out of them. The individual videos are about 5-10 minutes long, and the playlists are about a half hour to an hour. Choose the playlist that looks most interesting to you.

Hopefully, these operator math videos will help you round out your mathematical fitness routine, leaving you well prepared for operations challenges and certification exams alike. And if there's a great free math resource that we didn't mention here that you want to be sure we know about, let us know in the comments!