Why Most Wastewater Collection System Data Never Gets Used
A short read for utility leaders, engineers, and operators
Map of a typical wastewater collection system.
Control room
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Sewer smart monitoring system
Utilities generate enormous amounts of data from wastewater collection systems flows, levels, pump runtimes, alarms, rainfall, and more. Yet, only a fraction of this information ever influences decisions.
So where does all that data go?
Below are the most common reasons wastewater collection data remains underused and what it reveals about how systems are managed today.
Data is collected for compliance, not action
A large share of collection system data exists to satisfy regulatory and reporting requirements. Once reports are submitted, the underlying data often has no defined operational purpose. Without a clear action tied to it, the data simply gets archived.
Too much data, not enough context
Numbers alone don’t tell a story. Flow and level data without weather, asset condition, maintenance history, or historical trends makes it hard to answer practical questions like:
Is this normal?
Is performance degrading?
Should we intervene now or later?
Without context, data becomes noise rather than insight.
Data lives in silos
Collection system data is typically scattered across multiple platforms:
SCADA
GIS
CMMS / work-order systems
Spreadsheets and vendor tools
When these systems aren’t connected, it’s difficult to understand cause and effect so analysis rarely moves beyond basic monitoring.
Staff time and skills are limited
Operators and engineers are focused on keeping systems running. They rarely have the time or specialized analytical tools to dig into trends or perform deeper analysis. As a result, data is used reactively for alarms, not proactively for planning.
Data quality issues reduce trust
Inconsistent sensor calibration, communication dropouts, and unclear naming conventions quickly erode confidence. When staff don’t trust the data, they stop relying on it altogether.
No decision framework
Data becomes useful only when it supports decisions. Many utilities lack defined rules such as:
What level of infiltration triggers investigation?
When does pump runtime justify inspection?
At what point does trend data demand action?
Without thresholds and response plans, data remains passive.
Legacy systems weren’t built for analytics
Most collection systems were designed decades ago for monitoring and alarms not prediction or optimization. Advanced analytics often require additional tools and processes that many systems were never designed to support.
A reactive culture still dominates
Historically, wastewater collection operations respond to failures:
Overflows
Blockages
Equipment breakdowns
Shifting to preventive and predictive decision-making requires more than new software it requires a cultural change in how data is viewed and used.
The takeaway
Most wastewater collection system data goes unused because it lacks context, integration, trust, and a clear decision purpose.
When utilities align data collection with specific operational and planning decisions and make insights easy to access the same data suddenly becomes a powerful asset instead of a forgotten archive.
Interested in learning what data truly matters or how utilities are turning unused data into actionable insights? Stay tuned for our next issue.