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September 9 – 11, 2014 | Hampton, VA

KATHERINE NIXON CITY OF VIRGINIA BEACH, 

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES

SUPRIYA MURTHY ARCADIS US INC.

HOW TO LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY TO 

EFFECTIVELY MEASURE & MONITOR 

YOUR UTILITY’S REGULATORY 

COMPLIANCE
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Background

to verify information, start tracking and enforcing regulations
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Case Study

City of Virginia Beach, Public Utilities

3

1 Regulations impacting Water Utilities

2 Backflow Prevention Program

3 Performance Monitoring Gaps & Pain Points 

4 Technology enabled Transformation

5 Continuous Improvement
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Case Study

4

2

Backflow 

Prevention 

Program

4

Technology enabled 

Transformation

1

Regulations 

impacting Water 

Utilities

3

Performance 

Monitoring Gaps

5

Continuous 

Improvement
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Clean Water Act Limits What We Put in Bodies of Water by Regulating

ü Pollutant Discharge:

1. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)

2. Pretreatment Streamlining

ü National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permits

ü Sewage Sludge (Biosolids)

ü Total Maximum Load of Pollutants in Water

ü Analytical Methods

ü Cooling Water Intakes

ü Industrial Wastewater Discharges
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Safe Drinking Water Act 

Treats and Provides Safe Drinking Water by Regulating

ü Chemical Contaminants

1. Arsenic

2. Lead & Copper

3. Radionuclides

ü Microbial Contaminants

1. Filter Backwash Recycling

2. Groundwater

3. Surface Water

4. Disinfection Byproducts

5. Total Coliform
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Closer to home

What drives regulation at City of Virginia Beach?

CITY ORDINANCE
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Case Study

8

2

Backflow 

Prevention 

Program

4

Technology enabled 

Transformation

1

Regulations 

impacting Water 

Utilities

3

Performance 

Monitoring Gaps

5

Continuous 

Improvement
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WHAT IS A BACKFLOW 

PREVENTION 

PROGRAM?

A mutual effort between 

water purveyors, property 

owners and certified testers 

to educate the public 

about cross-connection 

control and backflow 

prevention requirements. 

These requirements ensure 

that established guidelines 

are followed to 

protect the public 

drinking water supply.
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Scope: Surveying, inspecting,& tracking the testing of all Backflow Prevention 

devices and assemblies within the Public Utilities water distribution systems

Purpose: to protect the health and welfare of the citizens of Virginia Beach by 

ensuring that the City's drinking water distribution system is protected from harmful 

substances 

Requirement: condition for the issuance of water system operator’s license

Backflow Prevention Program 

City of Virginia Beach, Public Utilities
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What is Backflow Prevention?

Backflow is the undesirable reversal of the flow of water & other substances from crossconnection(such as used water, industrial fluids, gasses, or any substance other than the 

intended potable water) into the distribution pipes of the potable water system. 

Cross-connection is a direct or indirect connection between a potable water distribution 

system and any private system (such as a residential plumbing system)
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Roles & Responsibilities

Permits & 

Inspections

Permit required 

inspections & 

Re-inspections

Test Reports for brand 

new installations

Public Utilities

Annual Testing, Monitoring of Test 

Results & Follow-up

Cross connection investigations

System & Record Maintenance & 

Compliance Reporting

Customer Service & Technical 

Resource for Testers

PUBLIC UTILITIES 

RESPONSIBILITY: 

Implement & maintain a 

cross connection control 

and backflow prevention 

program to prevent 

contamination of public 

water supply system
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Public Utilities Organization

Stephen Motley, P.E.

Regulatory Compliance Manager

Surveys

External Contractor

Devices & Cross Connection 

Notification

Inspections

Paul Leonard David Paolucci

Codes Inspector Codes Inspector

Database Management

Jason Truitt Brandy Spicer

Engineering Tech Engineering Tech

City/Schools/Military

Jim Hester Bob Williams

Special Projects Special Projects

Katherine Nixon, P.E.

Backflow Prevention Manager
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Impact of failure for City

Public Health Compromised Regulatory Compliance Issues & Exposure to Litigation

Negative Impact on Customer 

Confidence & Loss of Public Support

Fines, NOVs and Consent Orders
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Case Study

15

2

Backflow 

Prevention 

Program

4

Technology enabled 

Transformation

1

Regulations 

impacting 

Water Utilities

3

Performance 

Monitoring 

Gaps

5

Continuous 

Improvement
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Metrics Reported

Customer Database

Process & Reporting – How it was

Manual 

Data 

Entry
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Process & Reporting – Gaps Identified

Business need : a customizable & integrated solution for 

tracking, monitoring and proactive management of regulatory 

compliance

Manual processes with 

aggregation 

predominantly in desk 

drawer databases

Reactive or Lagging 

Indicators

Limited focus on 

process improvement

Discrete & siloed data 

sources and systems, 

limited integration or 

business intelligence
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18

2

Backflow 

Prevention 

Program

4

Technology enabled 

Transformation

1

Regulations 

impacting 

Water Utilities

3

Performance 

Monitoring 

Gaps

5

Continuous 

Improvement

Case Study
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Process & Reporting – How it is now

ü Streamlined process for data integration

ü Tracking of monthly and annual trends

through Compliance Dashboard

ü Comparison against targets, identify repeat

offenders, report stop-light metrics if metric

is approaching or is non-compliant.

ü Standard reports to authorized business

users enable preventive & corrective action

ü Simple and interactive forms on enterprise

reporting platform allow automatic updates

and aggregation into reporting dashboard

for Overdue Device Letter Tracking
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üEnterprise Reporting – Centralized, Scalable, Secure

üElimination of Manual Data Entry

üLogic enabled for key process controls

üAutomation of the Overdue Tracking Tool

üReduced duplicate entry, lesser errors

üMultiple users/viewers

üPersonalized user rights

üAddress Comparisons with Customer Database

üData integration & analytics

Integrated 

Enterprise 

Reporting

Technology enabled Transformation
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Compliance Monitoring Metrics

ENABLING UTILITY MANAGERS TO GET 

AHEAD OF COMPLIANCE ISSUES!
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Lessons Learned

Design & Requirements

1. Modeling the design is critical - 

visualize what you want your end 

product to be before development

2. Define business rules and publish on 

dashboard for all users 

Project Delivery

1. Enterprise IT Integration is nuanced

2. Testing plan is very important – go 

through each test scenario more than 

once before going into production

External Factors

1. Know your vendor ‘s limitations 

(Seller’s Market)

2. Know your regulation

Change & Communication 

Management

1. Data reporting & process standardization 

2. Training to get team to a level of comfort 

with new technology
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Define Measure Analyze Improve Control

Observe the 

Processes

Measure 

Performance Over 

Time

1 2 3 4 5

Map the Processes

Gather and 

Measure Data

Cause & Effect 

Analysis

Generate Solution 

Ideas

Validate Solution 

Ideas

Formalize 

Opportunities and 

Benefits

Sustain 

Improvements 

Gained

Look for Continuous 

Improvement 

Opportunities

Review Background 

Information

Form Core Team

Interview 

Stakeholders

Develop Initial 

Findings

Implement 

Quick Wins

Pilot Larger 

Improvements

Document 

Improvements

Full Scale 

Implementation

Performance Evaluation Implementation

Enabling Performance Evaluation
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Case Study

24

2

Backflow 

Prevention 

Program

4

Technology enabled 

Transformation

1

Regulations 

impacting 

Water Utilities

3

Performance 

Monitoring 

Gaps

5

Continuous 

Improvement
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Define Measure Analyze Improve Control

Observe the 

Processes

Measure 

Performance Over 

Time

1 2 3 4 5

Map the Processes

Gather and 

Measure Data

Cause & Effect 

Analysis

Generate Solution 

Ideas

Validate Solution 

Ideas

Formalize 

Opportunities and 

Benefits

Sustain 

Improvements 

Gained

Look for Continuous 

Improvement 

Opportunities

Review Background 

Information

Form Core Team

Interview 

Stakeholders

Develop Initial 

Findings

Implement 

Quick Wins

Pilot Larger 

Improvements

Document 

Improvements

Full Scale 

Implementation

Performance Evaluation Implementation

Targeting Continuous Improvement
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Thank you! SUPRIYA MURTHY, 

CMA, ENV SP

ARCADIS US INC.

Supriya.murthy@Arcadis-us.com

(757) 419-3978

KATHERINE NIXON, P.E.

CITY OF VIRGINIA BEACH, DEPARTMENT 

OF PUBLIC UTILITIES

knixon@vbgov.com

(757) 385-8860