May 2025 Vol. 80 No. 5
Features
Jeremy Wagner leads NASSCO through eventful year
Corinna Hunt, Contributing Editor
Growing up, Jeremy Wagner had no interest in computers.
“Really did not like them, didn’t care about them,” he said. “I was actually going to be a dentist at one point.”
Instead, after taking a gap year, he enrolled in business classes, including one called Systems Analysis and Design.
“That’s what really got me hooked on computers,” he said. “So, once I finished that up, I actually signed up for a different school and for a computer program there and got into software development — and that’s kind of where it went.”
Having originally joined the wastewater industry on the software development side more than 20 years ago, Wagner is now president and CEO of PipeLogix, a pipeline inspection software company based in Palm Desert, Calif.
PipeLogix is also one of many organizations that are part of the National Association of Sewer Service Companies (NASSCO), having gotten involved with the organization over 20 years ago, Wagner said.
“NASSCO created the PACP coding structure — Pipeline Assessment Certification Program is what it stands for — as a new standard for North America, or at least for the U.S., and then it basically became North America and beyond,” Wagner said. “When that was created, I implemented that into our software, and that’s when I really got involved. My partner Joan Stone at the time — she retired in 2016 — started going to NASSCO meetings and being a part of that, and she ended up being a former president of NASSCO, as well.
PipeLogix has been involved throughout all the versions of NASSCO: PACP, LACP and MACP, and at many different levels. With each change and evolution, the company has incorporated that into its software.
In mid-April, Wagner became the immediate past president of NASSCO, handing off the presidency to Randy Belanger. Wagner spoke with Underground Infrastructure to share some insight into the past year and what’s next.
UI: What were some of the top priorities throughout this past year, and where do those stand now?
Wagner: We have a new self-paced, online course that NASSCO’s released called BSDI — “Building Sewer & Drain Inspections.” This is geared more toward the plumber market, and something that was quite needed, because there’s nothing else out there as a standard in the market at all. Over the past year, we’ve been fine-tuning it and it was released in mid-February. It’s now available for people to go and take an online training class. Right now, we’re also working on the continuation of this as Drain Cleaning, so it’ll coincide with the Building Sewer & Drain Inspections – the two of them will be able to be products that the plumber market can take together.
Also over the past year, with PACP, MACP and LACP, version 8.1 was released, just in the past month or so, along with an online recertification course. That means you don’t have to go and take a full-on class anymore if your license is up for renewal; you can just do the online recertification. The recertification course also allows people who only hold PACP certification to add on LACP and MACP through successful completion of the recertification exam.
We’ve always had government relations and we’ve done a lot of advocacy for our industry through that. This past year we’ve added in a Canadian committee for advocacy in that markets and it’s grown quite well. We’re in South America as well: they’re working on the online training and the manuals in Spanish. A lot of customers down in South America are taking on the NASSCO standard and utilizing it throughout their systems.
I’ve already mentioned the BSDI, but we’re constantly evolving e-learning, moving some of our ITCP training classes into that direction to make those more accessible. We always want to be the industry source of information so that people will come to us and find what they need.
UI: As president, what was your biggest focus throughout the last year?
Wagner: My background is primarily software, so I was heavily involved with the BSDI – not because I was president, but just because I wanted to participate in that to ensure it was going in the direction we needed it to go.
We have a great Board with a lot of experience – people from different parts of membership, because you’ve got contractors, suppliers, professionals like engineers – and you get a lot of different experience from all those different individuals. Being part of the Board really opened my eyes to other parts of the industry that I’m not involved with day to day. It’s great to see what else is going on, and how it all comes together.
UI: Have there been any challenges over the past year, particularly with implementing the new programs?
Wagner: I don’t think there have been any serious challenges, though there are always things that have to be looked at, discussed and figured out. The release of version 8 of PACP, LACP and MACP – training started on that in January 2024, and then we had to get all the software vendors up to date on that, as well so they can implement it. I dealt a lot with that over the past year. And as we were developing the BSDI program, we wanted to link in similarities from the PACP so we’re not reinventing the wheel. So if anybody’s used to PACP, BSDI can use similar terminology, for example.
UI: Could you give an example of how BSDI might integrate with a product or service from PipeLogix?
Wagner: BSDI is basically its own standard. Right now, it’s just a PDF form; ultimately, the next phase of this is to bring it more into a software program, like with our Phoenix software, ultimately scoring and producing reports. Once we start getting into the next phase of “What do municipalities want out of this?” and adding in the scoring side, we’re taking it to the next level. So if you have information you collected as BSDI and maybe somebody says, “I need to get an LACP inspection done on this now,” you can easily convert that information over to LACP, for example.
Like all the other trainings, e-learning classes and everything else we do, it’s just going to continue to evolve and grow. And as new things come in, we’ll just keep adding those to the list of: “How can we as NASSCO take what we already have and apply it to that industry, and incorporate it into what we do already?” Technology’s always changing, so we have to evolve, as well.
UI: From a personal, as well as a business standpoint, what are you most looking forward to next?
Wagner: From my point of view with my company, the BSDI, I think, is something that’s really going to take off. From when it was released, I think it was the following week, we did a presentation on it at a trade show in Indianapolis. The response to it was great. There are already quite a few people who have signed up and taken the course. So now, it’s making the industry aware that it’s out there.
UI: What else is NASSCO looking forward to in this new year?
Wagner: As I mentioned, the drain cleaning product is being developed right now and that will be released sometime this year or early next year. There are also some asset management courses that we are developing; we’re always evolving that. And the e-learning side has been a huge part of NASSCO: being able to bring everything online and make it available to our customers.
UI: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with our readers?
Wagner: I think NASSCO’s in a great place right now. The leadership of the Board is definitely going to take NASSCO to the next level. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do in the future, based on what we’ve done over the past 20+ years. Looking forward to NASSCO’s 50th anniversary, which is next year; we’ll be celebrating in Puerto Rico next March.
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