The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA) received a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award for its innovative use of GIS technology for managing data on public fire hydrants. DC WASA was selected from more than 300,000 organizations worldwide to receive this honor for its vision, leadership, and innovative use of ESRIs geographic information system (GIS) technology. The Authority received the award at the 2009 ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) in San Diego, California.

DC WASA maintains the hydrants and related infrastructure used by DC Fire and Emergency Services (DC FEMS) for fire suppression in the District of Columbia. The Authority had already been using GIS technology, but then in 2006, DC WASA set out to create a more integrated enterprise GIS framework. A DC WASA in-house technical team integrated GIS technology into the Authority’s existing Computerized Asset and Maintenance Management System enabling DC WASA’s operations department to share the data, features, and functions of both GIS and asset management systems. DC WASA and DC FEMS personnel use the system, which utilizes mobile computing technology, to collect and extract geographical location and condition assessment data on fire hydrants. This provides near real-time status information for asset replacement planning and execution.

Mujib Lodhi, Chief Information Officer at DC WASA commented on the award, “ESRI has enabled us to create a superior asset management system for the District’s public hydrants. As we move forward, we’ll be evaluating GIS technology in areas where it is not typically used such as more efficient crew dispatch, geographical analysis of consumption patterns and integration with SCADA [automated control system] and much more.” Added Jack Dangermond, ESRI president, “At ESRI, we are always extremely impressed with the work of our users and want to recognize their efforts with our Special Achievement in GIS Award."

Other organizations being honored at the ESRI UC include Artesia Water Company, NASA Langley Research Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and DHL Express. To learn more about the 2009 SAG Award winners and to view their photos and project descriptions and images, visit www.esri.com/sag.

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About The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA) is an industry-leading authority of District government that provides drinking water and wastewater collection and treatment for a population of more than 500,000 in the District of Columbia. DC WASA also treats wastewater for a population of 1.6 million in Montgomery and Prince Georges counties in Maryland, and Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia. The Authority operates the world’s largest advanced wastewater treatment plant, with a capacity of 370 million gallons per day and a peak daily capacity of more than a billion gallons. DC WASA’s service area covers approximately 725 square miles.

About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the worlds mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.

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