How FloCis Was Developed

David J. Saylor, the founder and creator of FloCis Applications Corp. has developed a new and innovative way of handling preventative maintenance in collection systems. He began in 2001 with the FloCis concept and it has matured into a methodology that when enacted can save rate payers and utility owners money by making smart repairs and avoiding costly failures in the system's infrastructure. David's firsthand experience as an owner and being under EPA enforcement has equipped him with the skills to help other utilities not make the same mistakes he did.

In early 2001, as an owner of a privately-held utility in Northwest Indiana, David J. Saylor the founder of FloCis, knew a United States EPA enforcement action against his utility would take place sometime in the future. The common advice from engineering firms was to flow meter large general areas of the collection system, clean and video inspect his entire collection system and then repair the obvious defects. Because this standard approach does not remove enough groundwater leaking into the sanitary pipes to eliminate all sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), the rehabilitation work usually stops. Replacing sewer pipes in large reaches of the collection system being too expensive, the utility must store the excess ground water in large equalization basins or enlarge the waste water plant to treat all flows during all wet weather events. Mr. Saylor's utility followed this advice in the early 1990's and the treatment plant capacity was increased tenfold in 1995. But even with these improvements, the frequency of sanitary sewer overflows increased. In light of the federal enforcement action, it seemed reasonable for the utility to take a different approach.

In the spring of 2002, Mr. Saylor filed his first patent application, Process For the Assessment of Gravity – Type Collection Networks. This methodology known as QFlow is a basic FloCis process for investigating the root cause of 96% of sewer surcharges due to a lack of downstream capacity**. All sanitary sewer overflows and basement backups are predicated on surcharging or overfilling the sewer pipes. Surcharging is caused by downstream restrictions, excess upstream flow or both.

On November 18, 2003, Mr. Saylor signed a court-ordered Consent Decree with the United States EPA which required an acceptable preventative maintenance program. Extensive research suggested that a combination of managing information with inexpensive tools to characterize the collection system flows gave the staff and owners of the utility the ability to prioritize and isolate problem areas. By expending resources on only the problem areas, investigative techniques began to show positive results almost immediately. Though unconventional, the United States EPA subsequently approved the utility's maintenance plan. This program was used with demonstrated success until the utility was sold on August 1, 2008.

One of FloCis' central missions is to provide training to owners and managers of sewer collection systems, utility staff and associated regulatory agencies.

David J. Saylor, the founder of FloCis, has over the past two years completed over sixty presentations to thousands of waste water professionals. He has spoken at local rural water associations, municipal operator associations, mayoral associations and state chapters of the Water Environmental Federation (WEF). In 2006, he had the honor of presenting QFlow at the national WEF conference in Washington, DC.

Cick HERE to view David Saylor's Professional Presentations and Certified Training for CEU Credits Nationwide.

While there are hundreds of different options for continuous education credits for utility operators, FloCis offers the unique opportunity to receive training on collection system preventative maintenance and ground water abatement programs.

If you are a training coordinator for a rural water association, utility board member, waste water regulator or a state chapter of the WEF, you may contact us for more information on opportunities to schedule Mr. Saylor for your group.