Conference Agenda

Keeping existing wastewater systems running during invasive construction projects requires precise planning and significant collaboration between designers, contractors and O&M staff. Ignoring the practical realities of system operational constraints and requirements can create headaches for O&M staff, increases the potential for contractor claims and schedule delays and heightens risk of discharge permit violations. Successful projects avoid or minimize operations disruptions and carefully manage critical shutdowns.

A diverse panel of agency staff, engineers and contractors experienced in construction at operating facilities will share insights and experience from their careers. The panel will discuss best practices during both design and construction to prepare for interruptions and interface with existing facilities. Common challenges will be highlighted along with specific activities to avoid gaps and hiccups. Potential topics include:

- Early identification of process constraints

- Successful engagement of O&M staff during design

- Incorporating requirements into contract documents

- Structured processes during construction

- Communication strategies to align parties

VIrtual Speakers

The combination of rising sea levels, changing storm patterns, and greater rainfall intensity in the coming decades is expected to increase the magnitude and frequency of coastal flooding across the Pacific Northwest. Flood hazards and associated impacts are of concern to many coastal utilities who are engaged in planning efforts to protect infrastructure and ensure resilient operations in the future. The City of Bellingham (City) owns and operates the Post Point Resource Recovery Plant (Post Point), which is located on the coast of Bellingham Bay. The City has partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to implement the Puget Sound Coastal Storm Modeling System (PS-CoSMoS) to help evaluate risks of storm induced flooding in combination with sea level rise, and to evaluate opportunities for increasing infrastructure resiliency. An initial application of the model is to evaluate potential impacts to the City’s Post Point facility and guide its planning and design.

PS-CoSMoS is developed to evaluate extreme water level recurrence to help federal, tribal, state and local agencies and communities identify impending hazards and inform coastal planning efforts across the Salish Sea into the next century. Flood hazards associated with sea level rise and climate change effects to river floods and storms are computed across the region at 1-meter resolution integrating regionally downscaled global climate models. PS-CoSMoS predicts tides and storm surge with a mean absolute error of 10 cm across 13 tide gages over the period 2018-2019. The model resolves the relative contributions and projected changes of atmospheric pressure anomalies, outer shelf wind effects, interannual ocean dynamics like the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, and local wind setup to extreme water level. Overland flooding and wave setup are modeled with a rapid 2D flow solver and flood extent, depth, duration, and velocities are mapped for several sea level rise scenarios. This presentation will describe the model and its application to the Post Point facility planning and design update.