Frank:

The excerpts below are taken from a soon to be approved Waterworks standard operating procedure Disposition of Electronically Stored Information which we define as including e-mail.  The document also references a policy that encompasses the disposition of all our records. As folks have already pointed out, email retention is based on content.  You may or may not find these excerpts to be helpful.



In accordance with Waterworks Records Disposition Policy, this standard operating procedure  (SOP) establishes the procedures for the final disposition of Waterworks electronically stored information (electronic messages, records, data, and files) located on City equipment or on removable media.



All ESI with expired retention values shall be purged/deleted following the procedures established for the particular media, format, database or record repository.  All ESI purge/deletion shall be in accordance with established Waterworks policy and procedures, including the use of appropriate forms and authorizations.  ESI purges shall take place on a routinely scheduled basis, following the close of each calendar year.  Deletion of ESI shall take place as needed based on the approved retention requirements of the records.

If there is a legal hold on the disposition of certain records, then all ESI pertaining to that legal hold must be kept until the City Attorney says the legal case is complete.


Like all Waterworks ESI, content of email messages drives records retention. Emails fall into two retention categories – “records” and “non-records.” Emails that are considered correspondence regarding Waterworks issues and business activities have an approved retention as listed in the Waterworks Records Retention Schedule.  Users will have to determine the record type and then check the retention schedule.


While the majority of “record” email is correspondence, some email may take on the persona of another record type.  The retention depends on what kind of record persona the e-mail becomes.



Email messages that are records shall be deleted following approval of the request to delete email records by Waterworks IT Records Management.



Ginny Jones

(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI)

Records Manager

Information Technology Division

Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities

Newport News, VA

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