AWWA ACE54247

This paper provides a disciplined method for maintaining municipal water storage facilities. The procedure is designed to provide information needed to develop a cost effective tank maintenance program that includes the optimum use of fundsfor tank rehabilitation. The program is briefly presented in this paper to establish a general understanding of the system. However, the primary focus of this paper is to present a financial decision procedure and how it is used to provide a rational basis for making decisions based on the lowest total cost and not just the initially least expensive alternative. Case studies of existing rehabilitation considerations are presented to illustrate how the system works. The following items are important considerations in the rehabilitation program: how frequently tanks should be evaluated and to what detail; is overcoating inlieu of blast/repaint technically effective and cost efficient; should the tank be rehabilitated or is replacement more cost effective; if a tank doesn't meet current criteria, which renovation items are mandatory; and, how often should rehabilitation be undertaken for maximum cost efficiency? These considerations are relevant to any size water system, whether it be the City of Houston with in excess of 1,500,000 connections or a much smaller city with only a few hundred or thousand connections. Includes tables.