San Luis Obispo Protects Public Health and Environment with Smart Sewer Technology

Presentation Description: Serving a population of 47,545, the City of San Luis Obispo (SLO) operates and maintains approximately 148 miles of collection sewer lines and 9 lift stations. While the average age of the system dates from around 1970, many of the oldest sections of mains still in operation can be traced back to the early 1900s.

In the early 2000s, SLO had continuous occurrences of sanitary sewer overflows. With locations, including downtown, around major creek systems, sanitary sewer overflows were always a Category 1 when they occurred, threatening both public health and the environment. SLO needed greater visibility into their sewer system to identify and better understand potential situations before SSOs occurred. The search for smart sewer technology began.

This presentation will highlight SLO’s implementation and return on investment of smart sewer technology to prevent SSOs and track inflow and infiltration (I/I). Given the nature of the sanitary sewer overflows, SLO not only needed timely detection, but robust real-time reporting capabilities and trending analysis that provided detailed analytics to allow them to identify and triage spill locations, determine the magnitude of any potential issues, and proactively resolve the issues. Not only has smart sewer technology prevented sanitary sewer overflows from occurring, but it has also led to substantial cost savings in better allocation of resources and equipment. By adopting smart sewer technology, SLO has managed to conserve an estimated tens of thousands of dollars in resources and potential fines.

The greatest benefit smart sewer technology has brought to the organization was recently recognized. During major storm events that occurred from December 1, 2022 through April 30, 2023, SLO saw a 30% increase in I&I – one event was so strong it was dubbed the ‘10-year storm.’ Smart sewer technology enabled SLO to continually monitor their system throughout these events, especially in known high-risk areas. The results: SLO did not have one single sanitary sewer overflow during that timeframe – solidifying the return on investment for smart sewer technology.