Serving millions of residents across Orange County is no small task.
For Orange County Sanitation District (OC San), it means operating and maintaining a vast, complex wastewater system while balancing aging infrastructure, budget constraints – and a big responsibility to use public funds wisely.
“OC San’s mission in serving 2.6 million residents is to provide high-quality wastewater recycling services with our infrastructure and also seek the lowest marginal cost improvements to maintain our system,” says OC San Engineer Troy Edwards.
OC San manages more than 380 miles of pipe, with regional flows conveyed to two centralized treatment plants in southern Orange County. Together, those facilities treat an average of 190 million gallons of wastewater every day. Like many utilities, OC San faces the realities of aging assets and the growing need to identify and address defects before they become failures.
“Our assets are aging and developing defects over time that need to be addressed,” Edwards continues. “We do have constraints budget-wise, and we have to prioritize the riskiest assets to use public funds wisely.”
Turning data challenges into actionable insights
As inspection practices have evolved, OC San has encountered new data challenges. The biggest change has been the upsizing of their digital assets – higher quality images and videos meant upsized storage needs.
“We had had some issues with data management and accessibility,” says Edwards. “OC San recently changed to using high-definition videos for all of our inspections, which significantly increased file sizes.”
Using Autodesk Info360 Asset, OC San found a way to manage large volumes of CCTV inspection data in a single, connected environment. Field contractors can now upload inspections directly for review, streamlining workflows and reducing friction across teams.
And the upgrade to Info360 Asset didn’t just help with their CCTV footage: “Info360 Asset has helped OC San manage large volumes of not only CCTV but also GIS data.”
Connected systems, better collaboration
Integration played a critical role in OC San’s success. They are extensive user Esri products, so they needed a seamless connection between Autodesk Info360 Asset and Esri software.
“The integration that Autodesk has with Info360 Asset and Esri software was essential. It’s much more efficient.”
By operating in a cloud environment, OC San can more easily share condition information, risk analysis, and scoring with internal teams and external collaborators. Stakeholders only need a viewer account to access the information they need, giving them the ability to make faster, more informed decisions.
“This technology in the cloud environment more easily enables OC San to share its condition information, risk analysis, and condition scoring with other collaborators,” says Edwards.
Turning data into decisions
With better access to trusted data and risk insights, OC San has strengthened its ability to focus resources where they matter most.
“Nowadays, OC San has a better toolbox to really prioritize what is risky in the system and allocate our resources there,” says Edwards.
The impact goes beyond efficiency. Improved workflows, clearer visibility into asset condition, and risk-based prioritization are helping OC San deliver better projects with long-term value for the organization and the communities it serves.
“It has significantly improved workflow efficiency for our asset management program and led to better projects that are being better prioritized. It’s an investment worth making.”
Go deeper into the story
Watch Troy’s Autodesk University class Empowering OC San’s Sewer Asset Management with Info360 Asset, where he goes even deeper into OC San’s asset management practices. He shows you how his team of nine asset management engineers create and maintain their Asset Management Plan (AMP), providing some excellent graphics, charts, and data that show why they decided to switch from their old InfoAsset Planner installed software to cloud-based, collaboration-friendly Info360 Asset.