Umbria Ideaproject workshop

1. The management of the 2012 flood in the
Umbria Region: lessons learnt by a Water
Romano Menechini
Manager of the Water plants and network of the Valle Umbra
Servizi (VUS)
Idea Project Workshop
Oxford 5-6 April 2016

2. Valle Umbra Servizi company
• The Valle Umbra Servizi core-business
is:
• Management of integrated
water services (collection,
abstraction and distribution of
drinking water for civil use,
sewerage and wastewater
treatment)
•
management of methane
distribution services in the
municipalities of: Foligno,
Spoleto, Campello, Trevi,
Bevagna, Montefalco, Spello e
Castel Ritaldi;
• management of urban waste
services (collection, transport
and disposal of waste ,
sweeping) for 21 municipalities Valle Umbra Servizi
• Valle Umbra Servizi (VUS) is a public capital-
based society, whose member are the 22
municipalities located in the district of Foligno,
Spoleto and Valnerina for a total of 150.000
inhabitants.

3. Autumn 2012 flood events
October/ November 2012
Flood event has involved
mainly the territory of:
- Spello
- Spoleto
- Gualdo Cattaneo
where the most important
damages to water plants and
networks so as to sewerage
networks have been
recorded.
- minor problems have
been verified also in other
managed municipalities.

4. Damages caused by the flood
• Damages to the water
network
• Involvement of shallow wells
used for drinking water
integration with related
contamination of the water
distributed (bacteriological
pollution)
• Subsidence of land with a
ruptured water distribution
pipelines.

5. Damages caused by the flood
• Damages to the water network
• Landslide in Montemartano, an
area prone to hydrogeological
risk, with progressive damage to
the drinking water source.

6. Damages caused by the flood
• Damages to sewers
• collapse and related blockage
of sewers and inspection wells.
• Blockage of grids of sewerage
spillways discharging waste
materials in the receiving
channels
• Treatment plant
• 3 sewage treatment plants were
flooded.

7. Damages caused by the flood
• Damage to methane networks
and plants
There were not registered any
damage to natural gas networks
and plants.
The failure of these networks
presents a serious risk to safety of
persons and properties and the
service repairing costs are very
high.

8. Damages caused by the flood
• Also indirect damages to the Company have to be
recorded like:
1 - claims for damages by individuals
2 – damages to company’s image
3 - legal proceedings related to
environmental issues
4 - Increase in energy costs and for the use
of reagents or polymers in water treatment.

9. • For the water supply network
• An ordinance was issued to communicate to 10,000 residents within
the area of Spoletino that water was undrinkable and
1 – water tanks service was activated
2 – operations of extraordinary cleaning of affected structures
3 – Extraordinary campaign of networking and analytical controls
4 – Info communication in collaboration with Information Press Office
of the Municipality and civil protection:
• leafleting and alerts with cars equipped with speaker in the affected
areas
• Press releases
• constant information through social media and websites
• public meeting with citizens, ARPA, USL and Municipal administration
• Provisional restoring intervention to reactive damaged aqueduct
and later on installment of the new water distribution conduit.
Taken actions

10. • For the water supply network
• Total makeover of the control
room of the Montemartano
source with waterproofing of the
entire structure
Taken actions

11. • for sewers
• extraordinary cleaning of pipelines , inspection rooms,
spillways and treatment plant pumping stations .
• Rebuilding sections of the sewage system damaged
by the flood event.
• for treatment plants
• dismantlement of two sewage treatment plants with
new construction of pumping stations and rebuilding
sections of sewer
• reparation of the access road to a sewage treatment
plant and remake of all the electric panels with
replacement of pumps.
Taken actions

12. Damage costs
Activities Costs Notes
Emergency management for no-drinkable water
ordinance:
- Water tanks (2 days)
- Operations
- Information to community
- Bacteriological and chemical controls
€ 5.000
€ 25.000
€ 7.000
€ 16.000
(In addition to the civil
defense volunteers)
New acqueduct sections € 14.000
Rebuilding of Montemartano spring € 50.000
extraordinary cleaning of pipes and inspection
chambers and restoration of sewage system
€ 10.000
For purification : rebuilding of the drainage
system for waste diversion
€ 85.000
Access road and electric panels € 7.000
Total € 219.000 Excluding internal
and energy costs

13. Insurance
• The Valle Umbra Services S.p.A. has an
insurance policy that covers Corporate
personnel activities (legal protection) and the
risks linked to the normal management of
networks and systems.
• The policy mainly covers damages caused to
third parties from our operations or plants. We
also have an insurance policy against fire and
theft but with no coverage due to inclement
weather or natural disaster events.
• This type of coverage would result in
unjustifiable costs for the Company

14. Lessons Learnt
Lessons learnt Corrective/preventive actions
Need for continuous monitoring of
residual chlorine in the network
Upgrading of the automatic control
systems of the residual chlorine in the
network

15. Lessons Learnt
Greater control of external sources
during events
Monitoring system of water turbidity
and eventual closure of parts of the
distribution system
Difficulties in managing emergencies
without action and coordination
protocols
Preparing security plans of individual
aqueducts for the emergency
management in collaboration with the
involved institutions (Municipality, Civile
Protection, USL, ARPA and Region)

16. Lessons Learnt
Lessons learnt Corrective/preventive actions
Environmental risks due to sewage
network blockages or to increase of the
flow towards treatment plants
continuous monitoring of spillways ;
control programs of networks and
systems;
Strengthening and increase of the
overflow of sewerage systems

17. Lessons Learnt
Lessons learnt Corrective/preventive actions
- Need for timely reporting of damages
and utility of a system shared with the
agencies involved in emergency
management.
- The availability of such a system
would reduce the response time, the
costs and above all the hardships on
the people.
- Preparation in the Corporate
management system of specific
items of expense and work orders
for the reporting of the interventions
coded as an emergency.
- Approval of contingency plans
based on various hypothetic
scenarios.