Purdue University Leading WRF Project 5365 Research

Project will Tackle I&I Detection and Mitigation at Street and Private Lateral Levels

The Water Research Foundation (WRF) has awarded Project 5365, State-Of-Practice Manual for Inflow and Infiltration Detection and Mitigation at Street and Private Lateral Levels, to a Purdue University research team.

The team is led by principal investigators Dulcy Abraham, Ph.D, and Tom Iseley, Ph.D. The team also includes Ph.D. student Sihan Zhou, who serves as graduate research assistant, and research engineer Wei Liao.

The project will develop a practical manual of practice (MOP) to help utilities and municipalities detect, quantify, evaluate, and mitigate inflow and infiltration (I&I) associated with street and private sewer laterals.

I&I remains one of the most persistent operational and capital-planning challenges for wastewater utilities. While public sewer rehabilitation programs have received substantial investment, many communities continue to experience wet-weather capacity problems, sanitary sewer overflows, treatment-cost increases, and basement backup risks.

A key reason is that I&I sources are not limited to public mains and manholes; street connections and private laterals can represent a significant portion of the total I&I burden.

Project Focus

Project 5365 will address this gap by evaluating state-of-the-practice and emerging approaches across three connected dimensions: technologies, practices and strategies, and policies and ordinances.

The research will examine: inspection, monitoring, quantification, rehabilitation, funding, procurement, homeowner responsibility, and public-private implementation models.

Through literature review, structured interviews, technology assessment, case-study analysis and expert workshops, the team will engage utility agencies, consulting firms, technology providers and an international advisory council. The work will focus on practical utility needs, including cost-effectiveness, feasibility, reliability, scalability, and implementation under different service-area conditions. The project will also draw upon BAMI-I’s technical network and buried asset management expertise.

The project brings together more than 20 partner organizations, including water utilities across the United States and Canada, consulting firms, technology providers and an international advisory council. The council includes members from Finland, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Kuwait.

The final manual of practice is expected to provide utilities and municipalities with actionable guidance for reducing or eliminating I&I at street and private lateral levels, where technical solutions must be aligned with policy, financing, access, and homeowner participation.

Purdue Course

For several years, Iseley has taught a graduate level course on Asset Management of Underground Infrastructure (AMUI). This course is supported by the Buried Asset Management Institute-International (BAMI-I) utilizing the Certification of Training in Asset Management (CTAM) course materials.

Wei Liao is the co-instructor for the Fall 2026 AMUI course. The WRF 5365 project will be introduced in this course as well as progress updates. The objective of the AMUI course is to prepare future water industry leaders. The course coordinates with our student chapters to encourage undergraduate participation.

For more information about WRF Project 5365, contact Abraham at dulcy@purdue.edu and Iseley at diseley@purdue.edu.

SOURCE – Purdue University

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