Smart sanitary sewer evaluation
Stop studying your sewer system. Start understanding it.
Smart SSES turns inspection data, sensor intelligence, and hydraulic modeling into one living digital twin of your collection system — so you can find, fix, and forecast problems before they cost millions.
PINPOINT I&I AFTER ONE RAIN EVENT · WITHOUT INSPECTING THE OTHER 80% OF THE SYSTEM
U.S. Sewer Pipe
500K+miles
Public sanitary sewer pipe across America. 20–40× the circumference of Earth.
Sanitary Manholes
~6.5M
Each one a potential I&I entry point. Most are completely unmonitored.
Underserved Communities
10K+
Small-to-mid utilities (5K–50K pop.) priced out of traditional SSES.
I&I as % of Flow
20–45%
Of total wastewater flow is rainwater and groundwater that shouldn't be there.
The real problem
You don't have a capacity problem.
You have a visibility problem.
Most utilities are running their collection systems on the same approach they used in 1995. Inspect everything. Hope you find something. Repeat in five years.
The data tells a different story: 80% of your system is fine. 20% causes most of the problem. The question isn't what condition is the pipe in — it's which 20% actually matters.
01 / 04
You inspect 100% of the system
Crews CCTV miles of pipe to find inches of defect. Most of what gets inspected is fine.
02 / 04
You rely on snapshots
Flow meters give you 3–5 data points across an entire basin. They miss what's happening on a Tuesday at 4:17 AM during a storm.
03 / 04
You find defects, not impact
CCTV finds cracks. It doesn't tell you which crack is letting in 50,000 gallons during a rain event.
04 / 04
And then you build bigger plants
Without visibility, utilities expand treatment plants for $50M – $500M+ — when the actual problem is leaks they can't see.
The Pareto truth
20% of your system causes 80% of your problem.
It's not a slogan. It's how collection systems behave. Field studies with dense micro-monitoring consistently find that the vast majority of inflow and infiltration enters through a small handful of micro-basins.
Smart SSES doesn't try to inspect everything. It identifies the basins that actually matter — sometimes after a single rain event — and lets you focus your money where it moves the needle.
See the math80 segments · fine
20 segments · driving 80% of I&I
Find the amber 20. Skip the rest.
The cost comparison
Traditional SSES costs $29 to $118 per foot.
Smart SSES starts at $1.32.
Same goal. Same regulatory standards. Same defensible methods. Different math — because you're no longer paying to inspect the 80% of the system that isn't the problem.
Method
Per Linear Foot
17,000 LF Basin
Time to Result
Traditional SSES
Full basin · CCTV everywhere
$29 – $118PER FOOT
$500K – $2MPER BASIN
6–12 moMULTIPLE STORMS
Smart SSES — Micro Detection
iTracker sensors only
$1.32PER FOOT
$22,44017,000 LF BASIN
1 storm~7 DAYS
Smart SSES — Full Program
Sensors + CCTV + smoke + modeling
$5 – $15PER FOOT
$85K – $255K17,000 LF BASIN
4–8 wkTARGETED
Savings vs. Traditional
up to 96%
~$1.7M
10× faster
Sample basin · 17,000 LF
One mid-sized basin. Same answer. Different price tag.
Traditional SSES (mid-range)$1,250,000
Smart SSES Full Program$170,000
Avoided spend$1,080,000
Test it on one basin
You don't need another study.
You need an answer.
Value to communities
Communities aren't broke because infrastructure is failing.
They're broke because they don't know where it's failing.
When a utility can finally see its system clearly, six things start happening. None of them are about engineering. All of them are about the people who pay the bill.
01
Stop treating water that shouldn't be there
Every gallon of inflow and infiltration costs money to pump, treat, and discharge. Communities are quietly billing residents to clean rainwater and groundwater that leaks into pipes that should be sealed.
$2 – $5 per 1,000 gallons treated02
Avoid unnecessary plant expansions
Without visibility, utilities expand treatment plants when the real issue is leaks upstream. Smart SSES separates true growth from I&I — so capital projects reflect actual need, not bad data.
$50M – $500M+ avoided03
Reduce overflow risk and EPA fines
Every overflow is reportable. Every reportable event compounds penalties. Pinpointing the basins that overflow first means you fix them before the next storm makes the news.
Up to $66K/day per violation04
Spend on what actually matters
Traditional SSES inspects 100% of a system to find 20% of the problem. Smart SSES flips it — find the 20% first, then send crews where the work matters.
80/20 Pareto05
Protect ratepayers and growth
I&I consumes capacity that could serve new homes, businesses, and economic growth. Reclaim that capacity by fixing leaks instead of building bigger.
Lower rates, faster growth06
Operate proactively, not reactively
Most utilities run a five-year cycle: problem, study, partial fix, problem returns. Continuous visibility breaks the cycle. You see things developing in time to act.
Real-time, not 5-yearWhy this is a financial issue, not an engineering one
The bill always lands somewhere. Usually on a household.
When you can't see where I&I enters your system, three things happen — and ratepayers pay for all three.
A
Higher monthly sewer bills
Treatment plant operations & maintenance pass through to ratepayers. More flow = bigger bills, even when the new flow isn't sewage.
+ $$$PER HOUSEHOLD
B
Bond debt for plant expansions
A capacity expansion gets financed over 20–30 years. The community pays interest on debt that may not have been needed if the system had been understood first.
+ $$$$$$DECADES OF DEBT
C
Stalled growth, blocked development
When a system runs near capacity, new connections get throttled. Housing stalls. Industry passes you by. Tax base shrinks. Bills go up again.
— growthCOMPOUND DAMAGE
Built for the 10,000 communities that need it most
Smart SSES is for the cities that
traditional consultants priced out.
Environmental savings
The most expensive water in your system is rainwater.
Every gallon of inflow and infiltration is clean water you're paying to treat, energy you're paying to pump, and capacity you're paying to over-build. Fixing I&I is one of the most direct climate and conservation actions a utility can take.
What gets recovered
Find the leak. Recover the resource.
The numbers below are typical for a mid-sized U.S. utility (around 50,000 population) once Smart SSES identifies and prioritizes the leaks that matter.
Clean water recovered
~250Mgal/year
Stormwater and groundwater no longer entering the sanitary system, no longer needing treatment, no longer pumped to the plant.
Treatment energy avoided
~750KkWh/year
Aeration, pumping, and process energy no longer expended on water that should never have been in the system.
Chemicals avoided
~40Klbs/year
Disinfection chemicals, polymer, and process aids that don't get used because the flow doesn't need to be processed.
The watershed perspective
Every overflow is a contamination event for someone downstream.
EPA NPDES data shows the most common reportable impact of a sewer overflow is sewage on land surface with potential human exposure — followed by aesthetic impairment, aquatic habitat impairment, and beach contamination. Preventing overflows isn't an engineering metric. It's how a utility honors the river, the bay, and the community downstream.
Carbon & climate
Wastewater treatment is one of the largest energy users in most cities.
Reducing flow to a treatment plant has a direct, measurable carbon impact — typically the largest single sustainability lever a utility controls.
01
Pump-station energy
Lift stations and force mains run continuously. Lower flow = lower runtime = lower load on the grid.
↓ 15–30%TYPICAL REDUCTION
02
Aeration energy
Aeration is the largest energy use in most plants. Less hydraulic load means proportionally less aeration demand.
↓ 10–20%TYPICAL REDUCTION
03
Receiving water quality
Fewer overflow events means fewer pathogens, less sediment, and lower nutrient loads reaching streams, rivers, and shorelines.
↑ qualityDIRECT IMPACT
04
Avoided new construction
Embodied carbon in a treatment plant expansion is enormous. Right-sizing through I&I reduction is climate action.
— concreteEMBODIED CO₂
For the communities downstream
Cleaner water, smarter spend,
fewer overflows.
The cost of I&I
One basin. $1.7M in savings.
Multiplied across thousands of basins.
When you do the math at the per-foot level, traditional SSES looks like an expense report from another era. Here's what that comparison actually looks like — and where the savings come from.
Per-foot reality
$29–$118 per foot vs. $1.32 per foot.
Traditional SSES bills out as if every pipe needs equal attention. It doesn't. Smart SSES finds the few that do — and only deploys the heavier tools where the data points.
Method
Per Linear Foot
17,000 LF Basin
Time to Result
Traditional SSES
Full basin · CCTV everywhere
$29 – $118PER FOOT
$500K – $2MPER BASIN
6–12 moMULTIPLE STORMS
Smart SSES — Micro Detection
iTracker sensors only
$1.32PER FOOT
$22,44017,000 LF BASIN
1 storm~7 DAYS
Smart SSES — Full Program
Sensors + CCTV + smoke + modeling
$5 – $15PER FOOT
$85K – $255K17,000 LF BASIN
4–8 wkTARGETED
Savings vs. Traditional
up to 96%
~$1.7M
10× faster
Sample basin · 17,000 LF
$500K – $2M of guesswork. Or $170K of clarity.
Traditional (mid-range)$1,250,000
Smart SSES Full Program$170,000
Avoided spend$1,080,000
What you stop paying for
The savings aren't from cutting corners.
They're from cutting noise.
Smart SSES isn't a cheaper version of traditional SSES. It's a different approach — one that pays for the work that finds answers and skips the work that doesn't.
01
Inspecting pipes that aren't the problem
Traditional SSES CCTV's 100% of the system to find the 20% that matters. Smart SSES uses sensor data to point CCTV crews where defects actually drive overflows.
↓ 60–80%CCTV SCOPE
02
Long-running flow meter studies
Traditional flow meters cost $25K–$75K per site, per year. Smart SSES deploys dense sensor networks at a fraction of the cost — and gets you answers in one rain event, not eight.
↓ 70–90%MONITORING COST
03
Plant expansion driven by I&I, not growth
The single largest hidden cost. A $50M+ plant expansion built on bad capacity assumptions is debt the community pays for 30 years. Smart SSES separates real growth from I&I before the bond is sized.
↓ $50M+CAPITAL AVOIDED
04
Repeating the same study every 5–10 years
Traditional SSES is a snapshot. The system changes; the snapshot ages. Smart SSES is continuous — once it's running, you don't pay for the same study again. You just keep watching.
↓ recurringSTUDY CYCLE
05
EPA fines and consent decree exposure
Federal civil penalties up to $66,712/day per violation. Smart SSES gives you the defensible documentation regulators look for — and the early warning to prevent the next event.
↓ exposureREGULATORY RISK
Run the math on your own basin
Bring us your worst basin.
We'll show you what it really costs.
The crisis we're solving
America's sewers spill billions of gallons
of untreated sewage every year
and the storms keep coming.
Every wet-weather event sends raw sewage into the rivers we drink from, the bays we fish in, and the beaches our kids swim at. Smart SSES is the toolkit utility teams use to see it happen, find the source, and stop it.
SSO Events / Year
23K – 75K
Sanitary sewer overflows reported across the U.S. annually.
EPA · Office of Wastewater Management
Untreated Sewage
3 – 10Bgal/yr
Discharged from SSOs alone. CSOs add hundreds of billions more.
EPA Report to Congress · 2004
Beach Closure Days
20K+
Annual U.S. beach closing & advisory days. Sewage and runoff are the leading causes.
NRDC Testing the Waters
People Sickened
3.5M
Americans get sick each year from contact with sewage-contaminated water.
EPA Beach Advisory data
Feature 01 · Video Playback
Watch your collection system respond to a storm in real time.
The most important feature in Smart SSES. A GIS-based time-scrubbed visualization showing how rainfall, manhole levels, and capacity react across your basin — minute by minute.
From raw data to system intelligence.
Traditional SSES gives you a binder full of static numbers. Video Playback turns the same data into a living map you can scrub through — the way meteorologists scrub through radar.
Click any manhole during playback to see its level, baseline, percent change, the rainfall above it at that moment, related defects, and the recommended next action. The whole digital twin in one screen.
- See where I&I enters — manholes pulse amber as wet-weather response exceeds dry-weather baseline.
- Spot surcharge zones — pipe segments and capacity-constrained areas highlight in red as they reach critical levels.
- Compare before vs. after rehab — rerun the same storm against last year's data to prove the fix worked.
- Generate council-ready exports — a 30-second clip of one storm beats a 60-page report every time.
BASIN-04 / NORTH OAK CREEK · LIVE PLAYBACK
Storm Event
14:20 · Dry baseline
14:42 · Rain begins
15:18 · Surcharge
16:00 · Recovery
Normal
I&I response
Surcharge
The rest of the platform
Five more features working together as a digital twin.
Each feature feeds the others. The sensor map informs the playback. The defect explorer correlates with the hotspot detector. Hydraulic capacity drives rehabilitation priority. The whole stack is one connected system.
Feature 02 · Sensor Network
Hundreds of sensors. One map.
Deploy iTracker level sensors at every manhole that matters. Cellular IoT data streams in at 1, 5, or 15-minute intervals. Live system health, missing-data flags, and battery status — all visible in one place.
This is what makes the digital twin real. Without dense sensor coverage, you're guessing. With it, you're watching.
Cellular IoT
1–15 min intervals
Sensor health scoring
Auto-alerts
Sensor map · Basin overview
247 sensors active
3 surcharge alerts
1 offline
Feature 03 · Defect Explorer
Every NASSCO PACP/MACP defect, connected to its consequence.
CCTV finds defects. The Defect Explorer tells you which ones matter. Cross-reference structural codes with sensor data, hydraulic surcharge, and overflow history — so the rehabilitation list is ranked by impact, not just severity score.
Search by code, severity, basin, pipe material, or upstream sensor anomaly. Click any defect to see the inspection video, the sensor response above it, and the cost-per-gallon-of-I&I-removed estimate.
NASSCO PACP
MACP
SewerAI export
CCTV viewer
Top defects · Basin-04 · Sorted by I&I impact
FL 5
Fracture Longitudinal
8" VCP · I&I correlation 0.91
MH-247 → 248
CC 5
Crack Circumferential
10" VCP · I&I correlation 0.84
MH-201 → 202
RFL 3
Roots Fine, Lateral
6" VCP · I&I correlation 0.72
MH-318 → 319
DAR 3
Deposits Attached, Ragging
12" RCP · capacity loss 22%
MH-156 → 157
JOL 2
Joint Offset Large
8" PVC · groundwater path
MH-422 → 423
Feature 04 · I&I Hotspot Detection
Pareto in pixels: find the 20% that drives 80%.
Smart SSES auto-ranks every micro-basin by wet-weather response. The heatmap shows you the system's hotspots after a single rain event — sometimes after two or three storms for harder-to-isolate cases.
This is what makes the platform faster than traditional flow monitoring. You're not waiting eight months for a full study. You're seeing the hotspot before the next council meeting.
Pareto ranking
Auto-detection
Cost-per-gallon
Rehab routing
I&I severity heatmap · 40 micro-basins
Low I&I
Hotspot · 4 micro-basins · 78% of basin I&I
High
Feature 05 · Hydraulic Capacity Layer
Stop wondering. Start modeling.
Smart SSES feeds sensor data and defect intelligence directly into the hydraulic model. See which pipes surcharge first, which lift stations are at capacity, and which rehab projects buy you the most relief — before you spend a dollar of capital.
This is the answer to "do we really need the plant expansion?" Sometimes the answer is yes. Often it isn't. Either way, you'll have the data to defend the decision.
Model calibration
Surcharge mapping
What-if scenarios
Capacity vs. growth
Hydraulic capacity · Critical reaches
What-if: Reduce I&I in SB-04 by 60% → trunk C-04 falls from 96% to 71%. Lift LS-07 falls from 101% to 79%. Plant expansion deferral feasible.
Feature 06 · Smart SSES AI Assistant
Ask questions. Get answers with citations.
The AI assistant has read every defect record, every sensor reading, every rainfall event, and every rehab work order in your system. Ask it anything in plain English and it answers with the data, the location, and the source it used.
This is how a director gets council-ready answers in 30 seconds — and how a field crew gets a ranked investigation list before they leave the truck.
Natural language
Cited sources
Report drafts
Field investigation lists
AI Assistant · Live transcript
Which manholes had the largest level increase during the March 12 storm?
Three manholes in Sub-basin 04 showed wet-weather response over 3× baseline: MH-247, MH-248, and MH-251. Combined I&I contribution: ~12,400 gallons over the 4-hour storm window.
📊 sensor_readings · 2026-03-12
🌧 rain_event_id 0412
📍 basin_04
Which of those have known PACP defects?
MH-247 → 248 has an FL 5 (Fracture Longitudinal) on the 8" VCP between them — coded in the November 2025 CCTV inspection. MH-251 has no current defect record. Recommend smoke testing MH-251 next dry day.
🎥 cctv_2025-11-04
📋 inspection_log
See it on your own basin
One storm. One basin.
One look at your system in motion.
The Smart SSES partner network
The ecosystem behind every basin we save.
Smart SSES is too important to build alone. We partner with the contractors who deploy sensors, the suppliers who manufacture the hardware, and the engineers who turn the data into capital plans. Together we serve the utilities that serve the communities downstream.
How the ecosystem works
Find. Fix. Monitor.
Every member of the network plays a role in one of three jobs — finding I&I, fixing the defects that drive it, or monitoring the system so problems get caught before they cost millions.
Suppliers
Build the hardware
iTracker level sensors, smart manhole monitors, panoramic cameras, and the connectivity stack underneath.
Contractors
Find the leaks
Deploy sensors, run smoke and dye testing, perform CCTV inspections, code defects to NASSCO PACP / MACP.
Engineers
Turn data into decisions
Run hydraulic models, prioritize rehab, write the council memo, defend the capital plan.
Utilities
Fix & monitor
Award rehabilitation work, deploy continuous monitoring, track overflow rate down — basin by basin.
Three partner tracks
Pick the track that fits your business.
Each track has four tiers — Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum — modeled on the partner ecosystems that scaled GIS, BIM, and SCADA across thousands of cities. Move up the tiers as you serve more basins, train more staff, and contribute more case studies.
Track 01
Suppliers
Sensor manufacturers, hardware OEMs, IoT platforms, manhole-camera vendors, AI-defect-coding tools, and connectivity providers building the physical & data layer Smart SSES runs on.
Track 02
Contractors
Field service firms doing CCTV, smoke testing, dye flooding, manhole inspections, sensor deployment, and PACP / MACP coding. The crews who turn pipe into data.
Track 03
Engineers
Civil engineering & consulting firms running hydraulic modeling, rehab prioritization, CMOM/CSAP programs, and capital plans. The team that turns findings into funded projects.
The four tiers
Bronze. Silver. Gold. Platinum.
Modeled on the ESRI partner program — the most successful infrastructure-software ecosystem ever built. Same idea, applied to sanitary sewer collection systems.
Smart SSES
Partner program
Bronze
Affiliate
Listed in the directory. Access basics. Start small.
$0 / year
Silver
Certified
Trained, certified, and routed real basin work.
Application + cert
Gold
Specialist
Track record. Co-marketing. Preferred routing.
By invitation
Platinum
Strategic
Roadmap input. Co-development. Region exclusivity.
Limited / region
Eligibility
Years in business All tracks
1+ years
3+ years
5+ years
10+ years
Annual basin volume Contractors / engineers
Any
3+ basins
10+ basins
25+ basins
Smart SSES certified staff Trained & tested
1
3+
8+
20+
Co-published case studies Suppliers / contractors / engineers
Optional
1
3+
5+
Benefits
Public partner directory listing Found by utilities
✓Standard listing
✓Featured listing
✓Specialty badge
✓Top-of-region
Smart SSES badge For your website & proposals
✓Bronze badge
✓Silver badge
✓Gold badge
✓Platinum badge
Training & certification Sensor deploy + data analysis
Self-serve
Live cohorts
Live + 1:1
Embedded with team
Lead routing from utilities Pilot + program inquiries
Directory only
✓Regional
✓Preferred
✓Exclusive territory
Co-marketing & case studies Joint LinkedIn, conference, press
—
Annual feature
Quarterly
Co-branded program
Roadmap & product input Help shape what gets built
—
—
Quarterly council
Direct line, monthly
Pricing on Smart SSES platform For partner-led deployments
List
10% off
20% off
Custom strategic pricing
Conference & event support Booth, speaking, sponsorship
—
Booth co-share
Speaking slots
Headline placement
Apply
SCROLL HORIZONTALLY ON SMALLER SCREENS · APPLICATIONS REVIEWED MONTHLY · NO COST TO ENTER AT BRONZE
For utilities & municipalities
Cities don't pay to be partners. They become members.
Member Utilities is the track for the cities, towns, sewer districts, and authorities running the systems we exist to protect. Different incentives. Different commitments. Same mission.
Member Utilities
Membership is free.
Membership is free.
The benefits aren't.
If your community runs a sanitary sewer collection system, membership is open. We don't charge utilities to participate. We share data, benchmarks, and best practices because that's how the entire program gets better.
Members shape how the partner network serves them — including which contractors get routed work, what training matters, and how Smart SSES evolves to fit municipal procurement reality.
Become a member utility01
Free benchmarking against peer utilities
Anonymized I&I rates, overflow frequency, and capital efficiency, compared to systems your size in your region.
02
Vetted partner directory
Find Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum partners by service, region, and certified specialty — without sitting through ten sales calls.
03
Quarterly Founding Utilities Committee
Direct input on the platform, the partner standards, and the rehabilitation playbooks shared across the network.
04
Co-authored case studies under your name
If your basin shows real results, your utility's name goes on the case study — not buried in someone else's marketing.
05
Pilot program with no-result, no-pay terms
Members get the standard pilot offer: one basin, one rain event, defensible data — or you don't pay. No fine print.
Apply to the partner network
The communities are waiting.
Let's go meet them.
Start saving today
You don't need a five-year plan. You need one basin.
Smart SSES is built to start small. One basin. One rain event. Clear results before the next budget cycle. Here's how a community goes from problem to pilot to program.
The four steps to a pilot
From "we have a problem" to "we have data" in 30 days.
Step 01 · Day 1–3
Pick the worst basin you have
Choose the basin you can't explain. The one that overflows first. The one with mystery flow. The one your council keeps asking about. We'll start there — and the data will speak for itself.
Step 02 · Day 4–10
Deploy sensors at the manholes
Smart SSES sensors deploy in minutes, not weeks. No confined space entry. No flow meter mobilization. Cellular data starts streaming the moment the lid closes.
Step 03 · Day 11–20
Wait for one rain event
That's all we need. One storm, captured across dense sensor coverage, will tell us which 3–4 manholes drive the basin's wet-weather response. Most utilities have never seen their system this clearly.
Step 04 · Day 21–30
Get an answer, not a binder
You receive a one-page summary, a basin map with the hotspots circled, and a cost-impact estimate. If the data doesn't show you something useful, you don't pay. That's the offer.
Join the committee
The Smart SSES Founding Utilities Committee.
A working group of utility directors, superintendents, and engineers shaping how the next decade of sewer evaluation gets done. No vendor pitch. No annual fee. Quarterly calls, pilot insights, and direct input on the platform roadmap.
- Quarterly virtual roundtables with peer utilities
- Early access to pilots and new sensor deployments
- Free benchmarking against similar systems
- Direct line to product, engineering, and policy leads
- Co-author published case studies under your utility's name
Or just talk to us