Part of the San Francisco Bay Area, Richmond encompasses 56 square miles of land and 32 miles of shore line. Excessive precipitation causes sanitary sewer overflows in the Richmond sewer system as well as problems at the wastewater treatment plant. During the winter of 2005 and 2006, one particular area of trouble proved to be MacDonald Avenue and the need to increase sewer capacity along this road became a priority.

Using SewerGEMS and SewerCAD, Swinerton Management & Consulting used well-developed GIS data to identify problem areas. The hydraulic model created was used in presentations to both the Richmond city engineer and the Richmond Redevelopment Authority. In both cases, with the help of the model, it took only 10 minutes for the decision to be reached that the sanitary sewer line needed to be replaced.