This article was originally published by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) on their Clean Water Voice blog. Aquasight is sharing it here to highlight the innovative leadership of St. Louis MSD and the future of infrastructure planning.
By: Jay Hoskins, P.E., Assistant Director of Engineering, St. Louis MSD and Mahesh Lunani, Founder & CEO, Aquasight
Across the country, clean water utilities are navigating aging infrastructure, regulatory compliance pressures, and growing expectations from ratepayers for reliable, cost-effective service. Few face these challenges at the scale of the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD), which manages over 850,000 horizontal assets spanning wastewater and stormwater systems.
To meet these demands, MSD, in collaboration with Aquasight, is transitioning to a modern, integrated, data-driven approach. By leveraging Aquasight’s GIS-based AMP™ platform, MSD can now automate the processing of vast and disparate data sources, generate accurate performance, condition, and consequence metrics, and produce system-driven recommendations. These recommendations help identify which assets require inspections, repairs (with specific strategies), and replacements, including optimal pipe types and associated CIP costs.
This shift to a digital workflow will empower MSD teams to act faster, make more informed decisions, and plan smarter for future infrastructure needs.
St. Louis MSD oversees one of the nation’s largest and most complex wastewater systems, spanning over 850,000 horizontal assets across sanitary and stormwater networks.
Before adopting a digital workflow, MSD had already established a comprehensive asset inventory supported by thousands of CCTV inspections and a strong GIS foundation. However, with a consent decree requiring the repair, rehabilitation, or replacement of 65 miles of pipe annually, simply having asset condition data was no longer sufficient. MSD needed deeper insight into what mattered most, which pipes posed the highest risk, and which projects would deliver the most value.
Working with Aquasight, MSD deployed AMP to create a centralized calculation engine and decision-support system, integrating GIS data, Maximo work orders, GraniteNet CCTV inspection ratings and defect codes, and unit cost information for repairs and replacements. Crucially, AMP allowed MSD to integrate the consequences of failure into decision-making, considering factors like traffic disruptions, environmental risks, and proximity to sensitive areas.
Historically, existing repair work orders, which considered asset condition if available, guided decision-making processes. Now, AMP’s integration of over 20 publicly available datasets such as proximity to wetlands, parks, rail lines, and critical facilities elevates planning to a multidimensional risk assessment. Pipes that once appeared low risk are now prioritized appropriately based on potential real-world impacts.
For example, pipes located beneath major roads or near water bodies automatically rise to the top of capital planning scenarios, allowing MSD to proactively prevent costly, disruptive failures.
High-risk sewer mains identified by AMP™ to support proactive replacement and planning.
“Meeting the consent decree is our baseline. Raising the bar means using risk to direct every inspection and every dollar toward the greatest community benefit. AMP helps us tackle the biggest hazards first, stretch public dollars farther, and deliver reliability our customers can count on today and for years ahead”
-- Andrew Kaufman, Program Manager, Engineering, St. Louis MSD
Through AMP’s insights, MSD’s planning engineers can now generate precise, asset-specific strategies and associated cost estimates. This streamlined, digitized workflow empowers teams to:
Inspection Efficiency: Optimize CCTV schedules by combining grid-based and high-risk-based strategies.
Prioritized Investment: Prioritize infrastructure projects using AMP-driven risk models to support cost-effective decision-making.
Project Planning: Fine-tune capital projects using newly available risk and consequence data.
Regulatory Compliance and Justification: Demonstrate the optimization of repair and replacement activities to satisfy consent decree and CMOM compliance requirements.
Capital Cost Allocation: Target investments where they will have the greatest risk-reduction impact, improving long-term infrastructure sustainability.
Board/Council Engagement: Using advanced technology demonstrates the utility’s commitment to efficiency and business practice improvement and highlights measurable community benefits.
AMP has allowed MSD to move beyond short-term, inspection-driven planning toward a coordinated, long-term infrastructure strategy. Risk forecasts now inform 6-, 12-, and even 20-year budget outlooks, allowing for more holistic capital planning and reserve funding projections.
The platform’s flexibility supports cross-departmental collaboration, providing engineering, operations and maintenance (O&M), and finance teams with a single source of truth.
AMP is currently in the early stages at MSD but anticipate an increase in cross-department collaboration as we incorporate more risk-based asset assessment.
- Andrew Kaufman, Program Manager, Engineering, St. Louis MSD
Cross-department collaboration in action—shared data environments empower teams from engineering to finance to make unified, informed decisions.
Designed with adaptability at its core, AMP integrates data, risk models, a recommendation engine, and a flexible, cloud-based architecture to evolve alongside utility needs. As the platform ingests new data sources and regulations shift, AMP continuously forecasts asset life expectancy and system risk to enable proactive management.
AMP’s modular architecture also accommodates emerging technologies, IoT sensors, and evolving datasets. Its digitized workflows and customizable reporting help utilities not only keep pace with infrastructure challenges but stay ahead.
Additionally, critical utility knowledge is now digitally captured, meaning organizational memory persists even as staffing changes occur. Looking forward, Aquasight envision future enhancements like the integration of AVA™, an intelligent assistant designed to answer planning questions and support engineers to make AMP even more powerful and accessible for future utility professionals.
MSD’s experience offers clear takeaways for utilities pursuing modernization:
View platforms like AMP not as mere software, but as shared workspaces combining infrastructure knowledge, planning, and risk modeling.
Ensure foundational asset inventories are complete and accurate.
Standardize risk assessments using industry best-practice frameworks.
Maintain flexibility in cost capture and project-specific variations.
Assemble cross-functional teams across planning, O&M, GIS, IT, and finance.
Empower super-users to champion system adoption, training, and refinement.
Hold regular workflow review meetings to ensure seamless AMP integration across business processes.
While MSD is still early in its digital transformation journey, through dynamic risk simulations, real-time updates, and forward-looking budget planning, MSD and Aquasight have co-created a living, risk-based roadmap that helps teams align on shared goals.
A new generation of utility professionals is embracing digital tools to build smarter, more resilient infrastructure systems.
As utilities nationwide face tightening budgets, increasing regulations, and aging infrastructure challenges, MSD’s story demonstrates the power of merging advanced technology with thoughtful planning. Together, MSD and Aquasight are setting a new standard for the future of clean water infrastructure.
MSD is excited to see the future potential of the AMP platform and how utilizing AI to make the program more efficient than it is already today.
-Andrew Kaufman, Program Manager, Engineering, St. Louis MSD
Aquasight is proud to partner with forward-thinking utilities like St. Louis MSD. Together, we are building smarter, more resilient infrastructure systems for the future.