{"id":502132,"date":"2024-01-16T19:04:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T19:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uat.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/blog\/?post_type=blog&p=502132"},"modified":"2025-04-07T22:19:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T22:19:27","slug":"city-of-plano-texas-inventories-81000-plus-water-service-lines-to-meet-lcrr-requirements-and-inform-residents","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/blog\/articles\/city-of-plano-texas-inventories-81000-plus-water-service-lines-to-meet-lcrr-requirements-and-inform-residents","title":{"rendered":"City of Plano, Texas, Inventories 81,000 Plus Water Service Lines to Meet LCRR Requirements and Inform Residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Plano, Texas, paired Esri\u2019s ArcGIS with OpenGov\u2019s asset management software to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lead and Copper Rule Revisions <\/em>(LCRR<\/a>) inventory requirements and continue to provide safe drinking water to the community. Here\u2019s how the city did it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

The LCRR has a series of requirements that all water systems in the United States\u2014over 60,000 different water systems\u2014must meet by October 24, 2024.<\/p>\n\n

The City of Plano, Texas, is a rapidly growing metropolis dedicated to using modern practices to optimize its work. Located a half-hour from Dallas, its water system has over 81,000 individual lines serving a population of almost 300,000 residents. The city is leveraging Esri\u2019s ArcGIS and other digital tools to make data-driven decisions. The city leadership expected the challenge of meeting the LCRR requirements to be difficult and may take months or even years. So, they rolled up their sleeves and began looking for the best way to get the work done.<\/p>\n\n

Challenge<\/h2>\n\n

One of the most challenging requirements of the LCRR is that the city needed to create an inventory of all its service lines on both public and private sides. A service line is a smaller waterline that delivers water from the city’s main waterline to homes or businesses. In the City of Plano, the public side is from the water main to the water meter, and the private side is from the water meter to the home or business. To put this inventory requirement in perspective, a small water system could easily have tens of thousands of service lines\u2014the City of Plano has more than 81,000. The service line inventory must contain not only information about the line\u2019s materials but also the age of the line, the precise location, and the address for the line.<\/p>\n\n

\n
\"\"
The City of Plano’s ArcGIS system shows water mains, customer service lines, and meters.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n

But how do you go about tackling such a massive project? Using a spreadsheet quickly becomes cumbersome. Plus, it won\u2019t help you understand the locations of all your lead service lines in a way that best supports the work to replace them, which is one of the main goals of creating the inventory.<\/p>\n\n

Partner<\/h2>\n\n

OpenGov<\/a>, an Esri partner, makes software specifically for local governments. One of its offerings\u2014Cartegraph Asset Management\u2014is a platform designed to help public works and other city departments track assets and manage work orders tied to asset maintenance<\/a>. The platform integrates with Esri\u2019s ArcGIS, allowing personnel to capture vital data on asset location, work history, and conditions; combine maps and data for robust planning; and analyze data in both platforms to prepare high-performance reports and analyses.<\/p>\n\n

Solution<\/h2>\n\n

To create its service line inventory, the City of Plano turned to OpenGov\u2019s Cartegraph Asset Management, knowing it could leverage the system\u2019s integration with ArcGIS to help identify and locate the service lines in its purview. The city planned to lay GIS data over asset data, creating layers with vital information to inform its service line inventory work.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cOpenGov\u2019s Cartegraph Asset Management and the ArcGIS integration were crucial in our work to create a lead service line inventory. It lets us track historical records and repairs. It gives us information that allows us to go out and see trouble spots and how they correlate with the rest of our system. It\u2019s a game changer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Brendon Lockette<\/cite>Asset Management Coordinator, City of Plano, Texas<\/span><\/div><\/blockquote><\/section>\n\n

The Public Works Asset Management Team for the City of Plano spearheaded the effort to create the inventory. With assistance from the Technology Solutions\/GIS department, line features were added using water meter locations and the closest water main to represent the water service line at each address. The goal was to build an inventory that could be easily visualized and provide accurate locations for the lines and other information for maintenance. <\/p>\n\n

To begin populating the public-side service line material for the inventory, the Asset Management Team drew from historical records and as-built drawings. The desktop analysis was the first step to narrowing the number of service lines where the material type was unknown, so field crews didn\u2019t have to inspect every location.<\/p>\n\n

To populate the material type, three data sources were used:<\/p>\n\n