Andrea Paul

Michigan Technological University

Visit the EPA’s website to view the training page

(water.epa.gov/infrastructure/drinkingwater/pws/cupss/training.cfm)

Watch the six informational modules as slideshows, or

Download the PDFs

• Use as reference documents as needed

Enter basic information, o Phone number, address, daily usage, number

of customers, and NPDES permit number.

Set up user profiles o Names, contact information, and passwords.

Can be accessed and edited at any

later time, but the database cannot be

saved until they have been completed.

Enter the regularly scheduled O&M

tasks.

The program has a number of daily,

weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks which

can be added to add to the database’s

calendar and edited as necessary

Adding new tasks is easy.

o Click the link on the calendar page and enter the necessary information.

Existing tasks can be edited o Double-click the task and make desired

changes.

o In the final report, the task will show up for

each version existing in the calendar.

Most time consuming task within CUPSS

o Enter the location

o Label the asset

o Describe its condition.

o Enter lifespan, installation date, and

replacement cost

o There is an optional section for

manufacturer information.

Enter information into a spreadsheet

program o Good back-up

o Allows for cut-and-paste into CUPSS

o Makes replacement cost for mains (cost per linear

foot) easier to compute.

After entering the manholes and sewer

mains into the program, add the sewer plant,

lagoons, lift stations, and backup generator.

Two steps:

1. Enter line item information for each year,

going back as far as the utility desires. o Enter cash on hand and growth rate

o Enter revenue and expense

o Can enter budget and actual

o Line items from one year can be carried over to

the next

2. Complete the “My Finance Check Up Report”

in order to customize the financial graph in

the final report.

oSet population growth rate

oSet inflation rate

Requires GPS coordinates, which Fowler did

not have so this portion wasn’t done.

However, if completed, the schematic can

then be exported to Google Maps and

projected as an overlay.

CUPSS generates the final report for

submittal to DEQ. o Much of the financial and asset information is

directly entered into the report by CUPSS.

o User edits the automatically generated

information wherever needed.

Report is formatted exactly as the MDEQ

requires, thus making compliance with new

standards less difficult.

Very user friendly

Initial O&M setup

Ability to add labels when the program does

not already have a suitable one

Ability to copy line items from one financial

year to the next

Ease of generating and editing final report

Inability to mark O&M tasks as completed if

CUPSS is not used daily

Lack of an auto fill option for very similar

assets

Ease of accidentally deleting information

CUPSS is a very useful program for meeting new government standards without being very time consuming o Entire project took just under 30 hours