It has long been Reclamation’s policy that once construction of an authorized project is completed, the O&M of the facilities are often transferred to the water- user entities responsible for repayment of the project’s construction costs. The O&M of many of Reclamation’s single-purpose irrigation projects, and single- purpose irrigation facilities of multipurpose projects (e.g., canals, pumping plants, pipelines, and drains), are performed on Reclamation’s behalf by the water users, (e.g., water districts). Facilities for which O&M responsibility has been
transferred pursuant to formal transfer agreements with Reclamation are referred to as “transferred works.” In most cases (especially for single-purpose irrigation projects/facilities), the contracting entity funds and manages the day-to-day O&M of the transferred works facilities. However, in nearly all cases (unless authorized by Congress), the Federal Government still owns these facilities (retains the title) and Reclamation maintains an oversight role, which includes periodically
inspecting the facilities and reviewing the water users’ maintenance practices and operating procedures to ensure the Federal investment is adequately protected. In general, Reclamation retains O&M responsibility on its larger (national interest) multipurpose projects, or the multipurpose facilities (e.g., storage reservoirs and power plants) of a given project. These are typically projects or facilities that serve at least two purposes: provide water service to multiple water users, and/or are operated to meet the requirements of interstate compacts, international treaties, and court decrees. Facilities for which Reclamation retains O&M responsibility are referred to as “reserved works.” Reclamation performs O&M activities on these facilities using its employees or through contracts for major non-recurring maintenance tasks. For these facilities, Reclamation collects funds in advance from project beneficiaries to cover the reimbursable share of the estimated annual O&M costs.
Under current funding levels, Reclamation continues to be diligent in its condition assessment practices and programs to identify facility deficiencies which require mitigation and address them at an early stage to avoid or minimize more
significant maintenance and the need for major MR&R activities. Reclamation continues to emphasize preventive maintenance in the O&M of its infrastructure through regularly-conducted facility reviews to identify O&M deficiencies at an early stage to avoid more costly XOM. This has resulted in the lengthening of the service lives of these facilities and their continued reliability to deliver water and power services. However, due to the aging of the infrastructure, there is an increasing need by both Reclamation and its responsible operating organizations to invest in activities to sustain their intended missions. Reclamation resources will be applied such that mission critical assets are maintained, repaired, or
replaced to minimize the risk of not achieving Reclamation’s business objectives. Annual O&M cost for Reclamation facilities in FY 2012 for both transferred and reserved works was $659.3 million.
Capital Asset and Resource Management Application
The Capital Asset and Resource Management Application (CARMA) represents Reclamation’s implementation of the Facility Maintenance System (FMS), a Department investment utilizing Maximo™ Asset Management System as it is a core software product. CARMA is composed of several software elements: Maximo™, Actuate, Oracle RDBMS, and Reclamation Corporate Data Warehouse. CARMA consolidates 18 independent implementations of
Maximo™ version 4.1.1 into a single installation of IBM Maximo™ version 6.x, located in the Denver corporate office, integrated with Reclamation’s Electronic Time and Attendance System.
CARMA is used by 24 Reclamation sites to reduce equipment downtime, closely control and track maintenance expenses, cut spare parts inventory and costs, improve safety, increase purchasing efficiency, and more effectively deploy productive assets, personnel, and other resources. CARMA is employed as a tool to assist in the tracking and scheduling of work so that the highest-value work is readily identified and can be scheduled on a priority basis. Current CARMA sites include: Closed Basin (Alamosa), Central California Area Office, Grand Coulee, Canyon Ferry, Curecanti, Davis Dam, Elephant Butte, Eastern Colorado Area Office, Flaming Gorge/Fontenelle, Glen Canyon, Hungry Horse, Hoover, Milk River/Marias Unit, Northern California Area Office, Parker Dam, South Central California Area Office, Snake River Area Office, Wyoming Area Office, Yuma Area Office, Yuma Desalting Plant, Yellowtail Dam Site, Klamath Basin Area Office, and Columbia Cascades Area Office.
As the result of an OMB TechStat evaluation of FMS in 2010, it was recommended and agreed by all parties (the Department, Reclamation, and
OMB), that CARMA should be segregated from FMS and become an independent Major IT Investment. The first submission of the standalone Reclamation
CARMA IT Investment was in 2010.
The Department is proceeding with the development of Single Instance Maximo (SIM) and an associated interface with FBMS. The Department’s development of SIM includes an upgrade to 7.5. CARMA (present version 6.27) is one of the systems under a moratorium on changes pending FBMS deployment (D8). Reclamation resources will be focused on staying within the defined scope for FBMS (D8) and setting up the existing standard MAXIMO 6 interfaces. Beginning November 2013 CARMA will be integrated with FBMS. Reclamation will remain on MAXIMO version 6.2 with a path forward to MAXIMO 7.5 through working with the National Park Service and SIM environment following the FBMS D8 go-live date of November 2013.