AWWD GIS Editing Guidelines and
Specifications
This document is a compilation of guidelines and specifications to help GIS editors maintain
consistency and integrity of data entry in the District’s GIS system. On occasion the guidelines
and specifications in this document go beyond the traditional conventions, providing reasons
and explanations, as well as contexts through use of scenarios, to help editors make the best
editing judgements in ambiguous situations. The document is dynamic, as new entries are
continually added and existing ones updated to reflect operational and business process
changes.
AWWD GIS Editing Guidelines and Specifications
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Table of Contents
Attaching Record Drawings to GIS
Hydrant Replacement, Upgrade, and Relocation
Hydrants and County/City Fire Districts
Plats, DEs, and ULIDs
Splitting Water Mains
Bypass Lines on Mains
DC Meters
Backflow Devices
King County Flow Swap
Normal Operational States of Valves
Collection Facilities (Side Sewer, Lateral and Collection Sewer Lines)
Conveyance Facilities (Main and Trunk Sewer Lines)
Drainage Basins and Mini-Basins
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Splitting Water Mains
The following are situations where a Water Main must be split:
1. At an inline gate valve.
a. When M&O performs a work order on a water main the surrounding gate valves are
shut off to isolate the spot on the segment where the work is to be done. The best
configuration then is where two gate valves isolate the segment between
them. Therefore, a water main segment should always be split at an inline gate
valve, except when the gate valve is placed at a distance ≤ value TBD from a Tee.
b. Generally, having more water main segments does not negatively affect M&O’s
operations as multiple segments can be added to a work order.
2. At a Tee.
a. In GIS a water main must ALWAYS be split at the Tee where another main segment
connects laterally to the original main resulting in three pipe segments starting at the
Tee.
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b. In most cases a gate valve is installed on each side of the Tee, inline with the pipe
on each branch of the Tee. Each gate valve is installed within 10 feet of the Tee.
Rather than splitting the main at each of the three valves, the point where the two
mains connect will be the split point of the original main.
c. In some case a valve is not installed on one or more of the branch segments near
the Tee either by design or due to an obstruction preventing the placement of the
valve near the Tee.
d. In some case, such as an obstruction preventing the installation of a valve near a
Tee, the valve may be installed further away from the Tee. In such case the original
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main will be split at the Tee AND at the displaced valve installed further away from
the Tee, provided the distance (x) between the displaced valve and the Tee is ≥ 10
feet.
This same splitting specification applies to a displaced valve installed further away
from the Tee on the laterally connected main.
e. At a hydrant assembly at the Tee connection to a main. Fire flow calculation to a
hydrant is taken to be the flow at the junction node closest to the hydrant. For an
explanation of this criteria consider the following scenarios in reference to the pic
below:
i. If there IS NOT a split (junction node) at the 8”-8”-6” Tee where the hydrant
lateral connects to the 8” then the flow to the hydrant would be taken to be
the flow at the junction node at the 12”-12”-8” Tee. This means the flow
velocity supplying the hydrant is that of a 12” pipe.
ii. If there IS a split at the 8”-8”-6” Tee where the hydrant lateral connects to the
8” then the flow to the hydrant would be taken to be the flow at the junction
node at the 8”-8”-6” Tee. This means the flow velocity supplying the hydrant
is that of an 8” pipe.
iii. The above difference and the fact that there is a 37” run from the 12”-12”-8”
Tee to the 8”-8”-6” Tee (friction) will yield significantly different flow values for
the hydrant between the two cases.
iv. To get the most accurate fire flow calculation a main should always be split at
the Tee where the hydrant lateral is connected to the main.
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Attaching Record Drawings to GIS
When attaching record drawings to GIS the record drawing must have the RECORD
DRAWINGS stamp as shown below. The drawing must also be signed and dated.
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Plats, Des, and ULIDs
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A plat is a developer’s piece of land that they plan to divide into parcels to build homes.
Once the homes are built the county assigns parcel numbers (tax IDs) to them.
A Developer Extension is a developer project that is for extending water sewer services
to the new home constructions.
A ULID project/job is when a group of home owners get together to apply for
water/sewer service for their group of homes. A ULID must involve more than one
homes. If there is just one existing home that is currently on a well or septic and they
want water or sewer then that owner’s application is still consider a developer extension.
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Hydrants and County/City Fire Districts
There are a lot of hydrants that fall outside of fire district zones as this snapshot shows.
This is because we have inter agency agreements with only County Fire Districts to share
data with. Some areas do not have county fire districts. Instead there are just city fire
departments in those areas. We currently don’t have any agreements with any city fire
departments.
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Hydrant Replacement, Upgrade, and Relocation
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When a hydrant is upgraded or replaced:
o In GIS the original hydrant is moved to the abandoned layer
o In GIS a new hydrant is added with a new GISID but takes the same
FACILITYID as the original hydrant
o The result is in MC the original Hydrant will be deactivated as the W-FH-1235
hydrant is shown in the snapshot below. The new hydrant (upgraded or
replaced) is W-FH-311165
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When a hydrant is relocated
o In GIS it does NOT move to the abandoned layer
o It keeps both its GISID and FACILITYID
o It simply gets moved spatially to the new location
o In MC nothing about the hydrant is changed
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Bypass Lines on Large Water Mains
On Water mains with gate valves that are 12” or larger when the gate valve is closed for
maintenance on the main and when the maintenance is done and the gate valve needs to be
opened again to return to normal operation, sometimes the pressure difference across the
closed gate valve is so great that it is difficult or impossible to open it. In this case a bypass line
with a bypass valve is installed to reduce the pressure difference across the gate valve on the
main. The bypass line and valve would be significantly smaller than the main. The bypass line
would be drawn in GIS in the wLateral layer with the LINETYPE = “Bypass”. Below is an
example of a bypass line in GIS and asbuilt drawing:
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DC Meters
1. Industry wide DC meters are Detector Check meters.
2. Here is the American Water Works Association’s description of DC
meters:
o Detector check meters consist of an automatic‑weight or
spring‑loaded main check valve with an elastomer seal, a
bypass piping system that incorporates a ⁵⁄8 × ¾ in. meter, ¾
in. check valve, ¾ in. ball valves, and a meter test valve. In
operation, the main‑line valve is held closed by the weight or
spring with any low flow being directed through and measured
by the bypass meter. When the pressure loss through the
bypass reaches the engineered main valve opening point
(normally a pressure loss of 1 to 2 psi or approximately 5 to 10
gpm), the main valve opens automatically, allowing full flow for
emergencies. Water continues to be measured through the
bypass meter, but flow though the main check valve is
unmetered.
3. At AWWD DC Meters are actually DCDA assemblies for Fire
Systems. We do measure flow across the DC meters for
consumption and bill the business for the consumption.
4. As such our DC meters are installed on the Fire Service line itself
rather than on a bypass line. When we install DC meters we don’t
install a bypass line.
5. At AWWD meters that are 3” and above are DC meters. Most of
AWWD’s DC meters are 6 to 10”
6. As of 10/31/2022 there are 521 accounts in NS that have DC Meters
assigned to them.
WITH cte AS
(
SELECT *,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY account_no ORDER BY occupant_code DESC) AS rn
FROM [Northstar64_Test].[dbo].[pu_account_pay]
)
SELECT * FROM cte WHERE rn = 1 AND bill_code like '%DC%' order by account_no
7.
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Backflow Devices
The District requires privately owned devices to be installed and maintained by property owners to
protect District assets and water/wastewater services.
WATER
1. Devices:
 Backflow Device Types:
o DCVA
o DCDA DCDA (this assembly contains a detector check meter that is read by District
staff)
o RPBA
o RPDA
 None of these are District devices. Even in the case of assemblies, all components
are privately owned.
 These non-District assets are not consistently in GIS. Those in GIS may have
incorrect information.
 These non-District assets are not present in Maintenance Connection. They are in a
system called XC2.
o XC2 relies upon customer data from NorthStar. XC2 and NorthStar are not
integrated
 The District has a compliance role in the testing of the devices
 Testing reports are stored in OTIS
 The District oversees about 5000 private assemblies in about 2000
properties/facilities
2. Process/Work Order Considerations (Cityworks)
 Letters (reports)
o Annual letters are sent to the billing address on the water account to notify that a
test is due, 1 month prior to the deadline
o A second enforcement letter is sent days after the deadline
o The next month, a lock-off letter will be sent
o Out of Calibration Letter (see testing below)
 Database must contain the BAT certification (license) of the Test Company
 Testing companies email test reports to AWWD (and in some cases fax)
o Test reports contain test kit calibration information and annual company license
o Any test done with an out of calibration kit will be rejected with a letter
o Any test done without current BAT certification will be rejected
WASTEWATER
1. Devices:
 Backflow Device Types:
o CGI
o Exempt
o GGI
o Grease Trap in Floor
o HGI
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o Interceptor
o No PT Required
o OWS
None of these are District devices.
When business change hands, at times the device is left in place but is not required.
Compliance communications will still take place with the property owner.
These non-District assets are in GIS, displayed as points on the parcel, not indicating
the actual location of the device. The users would prefer to know what structure on
the Parcel has the device(s).
These non-District assets are not present in Maintenance Connection through an
import from GIS.
GIS contains information from Northstar (manually entered in GIS)
The District has a compliance role in the maintenance of the devices
The District oversees about 400 private pretreatment assets
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King County Flow Swap
In 2018 King County and AWWD agreed on a flow swap of some sewer accounts. In this image
below areas NC-1, SC-1, SC-2 and SC-4 are our customers whose sewer flows used to flow to
Everett. We have to pay our share of their capital cost of treating these flows. One reason for
the flow swap is for us to save on these costs. The other major reason for the flow swap is to
utilize our Picnic Point treatment plant sewer treatment capacity. We needed more flow to our
plant to maintain the health of the plant because of the biological processes in the treatment
tanks. Areas SC-3, SC-7, and SC-9 below used to flow to KC. Our agreement to KC is to
redirect NC-1, SC-1, SC-2 and SC-4 flows to KC and in turn areas SC-3, SC-7, and SC-9 are
redirected to flow to our treatment plant. We had to build lift station 23 to accommodate the flow
redirection to the treatment plant. The customers in SC-3, SC-7, and SC-9 have always been
AWWD customers. However, because their sewer were being treated by KC, they were
subjected to the long term capacity charge ($50 some dollar per month). So we bought the
remaining balance of the capacity charge of these accounts from KC for the swap. Now we
must bill these customers these charges to recoup the cost of purchasing their balances from
KC.
Billing has decided that we will be billing these 243 accounts quarterly. We will create the bills
and send them out ourselves. At the same time we will upload these billing amounts to
Paymentus for customers to be able to pay online.
In 2018 King County and AWWD agreed on a flow swap of some sewer accounts. In this image
below areas NC-1, SC-1, SC-2 and SC-4 are our customers whose sewer flows used to flow to
Everett. We have to pay our share of their capital cost of treating these flows. One reason for
the flow swap is for us to save on these costs. The other major reason for the flow swap is to
utilize our Picnic Point treatment plant sewer treatment capacity. We needed more flow to our
plant to maintain the health of the plant because of the biological processes in the treatment
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tanks. Areas SC-3, SC-7, and SC-9 below used to flow to KC. Our agreement to KC is to
redirect NC-1, SC-1, SC-2 and SC-4 flows to KC and in turn areas SC-3, SC-7, and SC-9 are
redirected to flow to our treatment plant. We had to build lift station 23 to accommodate the flow
redirection to the treatment plant. The customers in SC-3, SC-7, and SC-9 have always been
AWWD customers. However, because their sewer were being treated by KC, they were
subjected to the long term capacity charge ($50 some dollar per month). So we bought the
remaining balance of the capacity charge of these accounts from KC for the swap. Now we
must bill these customers these charges to recoup the cost of purchasing their balances from
KC.
Billing has decided that we will be billing these 243 accounts quarterly. We will create the bills
and send them out ourselves. At the same time we will upload these billing amounts to
Paymentus for customers to be able to pay online.
In 2018 King County and AWWD agreed on a flow swap of some sewer accounts. In this image
below areas NC-1, SC-1, SC-2 and SC-4 are our customers whose sewer flows used to flow to
Everett. We have to pay our share of their capital cost of treating these flows. One reason for
the flow swap is for us to save on these costs. The other major reason for the flow swap is to
utilize our Picnic Point treatment plant sewer treatment capacity. We needed more flow to our
plant to maintain the health of the plant because of the biological processes in the treatment
tanks. Areas SC-3, SC-7, and SC-9 below used to flow to KC. Our agreement to KC is to
redirect NC-1, SC-1, SC-2 and SC-4 flows to KC and in turn areas SC-3, SC-7, and SC-9 are
redirected to flow to our treatment plant. We had to build lift station 23 to accommodate the flow
redirection to the treatment plant. The customers in SC-3, SC-7, and SC-9 have always been
AWWD customers. However, because their sewer were being treated by KC, they were
subjected to the long term capacity charge ($50 some dollar per month). So we bought the
remaining balance of the capacity charge of these accounts from KC for the swap. Now we
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must bill these customers these charges to recoup the cost of purchasing their balances from
KC.
Billing has decided that we will be billing these 243 accounts quarterly. We will create the bills
and send them out ourselves. At the same time we will upload these billing amounts to
Paymentus for customers to be able to pay online.
More information is available in the “2017 Wastewater Comprehensive Plan.pdf”
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Normal Operational states of Valves
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Blow Off Valve is manually operated by a person
Zone Iso Valves can be gate or butterfly depending on the size.
Intertie Valve – Normally open or actively in use to separate our and other agencies
systems
Emergency Intertie Valve – Normally closed. Open in emergencies. Also separates our
and other agencies systems.
Seismic valves generally are for shutting during an earthquake to prevent water loss.
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Collection Facilities (Side Sewer, Lateral and Collection Sewer Lines)
A side sewer line is a private line that collects wastewater from individual customers and
transports it to District-owned lateral sewer lines. Side sewers are typically on private property,
while laterals are generally located within the public right-of-way or easements. The lateral line
takes the wastewater from a single, or multiple customers and transports it by gravity to the District’s
conveyance system. Side sewers are a minimum of 4 inches while laterals are a
minimum of 6 inches in diameter.
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Conveyance Facilities (Main and Trunk Sewer Lines)
Main lines are the second-largest pipes within a wastewater system, and are used to transport
wastewater from the collection facilities to lift stations and trunk lines. Sewer main lines make up
the “branches” of the wastewater system, and are a minimum of 8 inches in diameter. Trunk
lines are the largest pipes in a system and have very few connections into them in order to limit
infiltration and inflow. They are used to transport wastewater from collection facilities to a
wastewater treatment facility. Trunk lines are analogous to the “trunk” of a tree and are 10inches in size and larger. For mapping and higher-level planning assessments, trunk lines are
depicted as those 15-inches and larger in size.
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Drainage Basins and Mini-Basins
A drainage basin is a geographic area defined by the topography of an area, with the highest
elevations at the edges and sloping down to a lower point. Drainage basins are used in the
District to maximize the use of gravity-flow sewers to as many customers as possible.
Topographic considerations are important because the use of lift stations and force mains to
overcome large elevation changes can quickly become cost-prohibitive and increase operation
and maintenance costs.
Mini-basins are subdivisions of drainage basins, and are used to denote smaller topographical
areas. Some sewer service providers also establish micro-basins (subdivisions of mini-basins)
for system maintenance and modeling efforts.
The District has five drainage basins (EV-Everett, BC-Bear Creek, NC-North Creek, SC-Swamp
Creek, and PP-Picnic Point), and as described above their boundaries were established based
on area topography, natural and physical barriers, and the District’s wastewater service area
boundary. The mini-basins flowing south to King County were originally delineated by King
County as part of their Regional Infiltration and Inflow (I/I) Control Program. The District has
continuously refined the basin and mini-basin boundaries by review on a parcel-by-parcel basis.
There are currently 75 mini-basins served directly by the District, and seven mini-basins that
flow into the District from other sewer service providers.
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