18843_Authority_Dec

municipalauthorities.org │ 41 B uilding o perational e ffiCienCy : h ow nBCMa e MBraCed giS and i ntegration Submitted by 1Mark™ Northampton Bucks County Municipal Authority (NBCMA) is a mid-sized authority with an outsized responsibility. Serving approximately 37,000 residents and 12,000 connections in Northampton Township, Bucks County, the Authority oversees 195 miles of water main, 205 miles of sewer main, 16 wells, six booster stations, six storage tanks, and nearly 5,000 manholes. The day-to-day demands of maintaining such a vast network fall to just 23 employees. For years, those employees relied on paper records, fragmented systems, and a patchwork of manual workflows to keep the water flowing and the sewers clear. As the community grew, so did the complexity of NBCMA’s operations. The Authority’s leadership recognized that continuing with paper and siloed databases was unsustainable. In 2017, NBCMA engaged Pennoni in a year-long project to document all of its water and wastewater assets in GIS and associate their digitized record plans to each asset. It was Jonathan Vito, Water and Wastewater Manager at NBCMA , who helped guide the Authority in taking its GIS system to the next level. With support from colleagues, consultants, and technology partners, Vito set the vision: NBCMA would move beyond paper and into a digital future where data could drive smarter, faster decisions. A Shift from Paper to Digital Before embarking on this journey, NBCMA’s staff faced the same frustrations common to many municipal authorities: work orders lost in paperwork, data scattered across departments, and limited visibility into the true condition of the system. Paper maps could not keep up with infrastructure changes, and responding to emergencies meant time lost tracking down records rather than addressing the problem. “Every time we sent a crew out, there was a risk they weren’t looking at the most current data,” Vito recalled. “We needed a way to get everyone on the same page — literally and figuratively.” The turning point came when NBCMA decided to treat GIS not as a stand-alone system but as the backbone of its operations. With guidance from Pennoni, a multidisciplinary engineering and design firm with decades of geospatial and asset management expertise, NBCMA began laying the foundation for a digital future. Pennoni’s team, recognized by Esri as a System Ready Specialty partner, helped NBCMA frame the project not simply as a mapping exercise but as a cultural change that would impact every part of the organization. Digitizing paper documents and documenting actual field conditions also provides lasting benefits for the NBCMA by creating a reliable, easily searchable archive of operational records. Accurate digital files preserve critical information on infrastructure, regulatory compliance,and system performance, ensuring that future staff can quickly access historical data without the risk of loss, damage, or misfiling common with paper records. By eliminating guesswork and improving data continuity, digitization supports better decision-making, enhances institutional memory, and strengthens long-term efficiency in managing vital water and wastewater operations. Continued on page 60.