August 2013
Content
wso
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
TM
Managing Our Most Valuable Resource
August 2013
www.wsomag.com
BRIGHT IDEAS:
SCADA for small water systems
Page 40
Players’ Coach
SCOTT BAILEY KEEPS THE MONTICELLO PLANT HUMMING WITH A HANDS-ON MANAGEMENT STYLE
Page 8
Scott Bailey Plant Supervisor Monticello, Ill.
TECHNOLOGY DEEP DIVE:
Analytics from Badger Meter
Page 16
TECH TALK:
How’s your emergency plan?
Page 36
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Managing Our Most Valuable Resource
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4
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Contents
August 2013
QUALITY LEADERS
Plant: Never Satisfied
Page 12
A new ultrafiltration system resolved many issues for the team in Homer, Alaska, but that doesn’t keep them from working diligently to continue getting better.
BY JIM FORCE
Plant: Quick-Change Artists
Page 18
The team at a 120 mgd plant in Tampa relies on a rapid settling process, experience, and automation to produce consistent results from variable raw water sources.
BY TED J. RULSEH
ON THE COVER: It takes a special touch — and a strong leader — to keep a 120-year-old water plant ticking. That’s what Scott Bailey has done for more than 25 years in Monticello, Ill. (Photography by Bradley Leeb)
Operator: Players’ Coach
BY JACK POWELL
Page 8
Scott Bailey keeps the vintage Monticello Water Plant in top form thanks to experience, skills and a hands-on management style.
ON TAP Page 6
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW Page 24
BRIGHT IDEAS Page 40
Getting It Done
Maybe it’s time to revisit a couple of wellestablished but still innovative ways to build and improve water utility facilities.
BY TED J. RULSEH, EDITOR
New Technology Slated for WEFTEC 2013
BY CRAIG MANDLI
Small Scale SCADA
Cloud-based technology provides sophisticated yet affordable system monitoring and control for a small California water company.
BY PETER SAGUES
INDUSTRY NEWS Page 31 CASE STUDIES Page 32
EDITOR’S CHOICE Page 7
Find other useful and timely information at www.wsomag.com
LETTERS Page 7 TECHNOLOGY DEEP DIVE Page 16
Disinfection
BY CRAIG MANDLI
Coming Next Issue: September 2013
FOCUS: Energy Management and Power Generation / WEFTEC Show Issue
U U Quality Leaders – Plant: Energy and water savings in Chelmsford, Mass. U U Quality Leaders – Plant: LEED certification in Champaign County, Ill. U U Quality Leaders – Operator: Leslie Gryder, Lynchburg, Va. U U Tech Talk: A better disinfectant U U Winning Them Over: Water conservation education in Fort Collins, Colo. U U Technology Deep Dive: AquaDAF high-rate clarifier from Infilco Degremont U U Sustainable Practice: Power savings in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
WINNING THEM OVER Page 34
Improvements that Pay Their Way
Turning Data Into Action
Advanced Metering Analytics help utilities use hourly interval information from metering systems to detect issues that need addressing.
BY TED J. RULSEH
A California town encourages improvements that reduce water and energy demand by making the necessary up-front investments — recovered through bill surcharges.
BY PETE LITTERSKI
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE Page 22
TECH TALK Page 36
Creating a Culture
When Will It Be Your Turn?
Portland Water Bureau reduces costs and greenhouse gas emissions through electrical efficiencies and a smart fleet-management program.
BY LISA BALCERAK
Almost every organization has an emergency sooner or later. The best way to make sure you survive it intact is to plan for the worst — today.
BY STEVE FRANK, APR
WORTH NOTING Page 38 Education; Events
ON TAP
By TeD j. rulSeh, eDITOr
Getting It Done
Maybe it’s time to revisit a couple of well established but still innovative ways to build and improve water utility facilities
T
ry to remember a time when it was harder to locate funds to improve water system facilities (or for that matter any public infrastructure). Equipment and buildings are aging. Things are falling into disrepair. Downtime is a worry. Updates to newer and more efficient technology would improve service right away and save money in the long run, but that would require an up-front investment — and where will the money come from? Especially when the decision-makers and customers have little appetite for a rate increase in a still-troubled economy. The answer may be simpler than it seems, and it doesn’t involve some new-fangled, exotic financial instrument. Sometimes it’s easy to overlook a proven solution that has been around for years. In fact, the one I’m about to describe is so well proven and so low risk that I’m amazed more public- and private-sector entities don’t use it.
No leap of faith
It’s called performance contracting, or in the parlance of the federal government, which uses it extensively, energy-saving performance contracts (ESPCs). Across the nation, this tool has been used to improve efficiency at military bases, upgrade schools and city halls, renovate hospitals and, yes, reinvigorate water utility operations. Water utilities have used it to upgrade aging pumps, replace water meters, install automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering
the capital to finance a package of improvements that have been analyzed up front and projected — based on solid information — to deliver a specific level of savings. Those savings are then guaranteed by contract over a defined term, typically 15 to 20 years. Ideally, the annual savings exceed the amount of the annual payment on the improvements, so the utility sees somewhat lower costs right off the bat. At the end of the contract term, the utility reaps all the annual savings. During the contract term, the actual savings are tracked. If the amount of savings in a given year exceeds the guaranteed amount, the utility pockets the excess. If the savings fall short of the guarantee, the energy service company has to write the utility a check to make up the difference.
Time to take a look?
I
It’s hard to imagine any other way to make wholesale improvements with the bare minimum of risk (next to none) and without laying money on the table up front. The old adage — if it sounds too good to be true, then it is — may not apply in this case. Any number of highly qualified and reputable energy service companies can complete performance contracts. In today’s fiscal times, this certainly looks like a financial tool worth exploring carefully. t’s hard to imagine any other way to make wholesale improvements And speaking of innovative approaches, this with the bare minimum of risk (next to none) and without laying money issue of Water System Operator profiles a water on the table up front. The old adage — if it sounds too good to be true, plant in Tampa, Fla., that was constructed under then it is — may not apply in this case. a design-build-operate (DBO) contract. DBO is a departure from the traditional bid-to-spec approach that offers advantages for many projects. infrastructure (AMI) systems, install leak detection systems and more — and in the bargain improve energy efficiency in the administration building, with high-efficiency lighting, better comfort controls, new windows What do you think? and thicker insulation. To my less-than-expert eye, it seems the best feature of DBO is that it Best of all, performance contracting lets a utility take on a big bundle forces the chosen contractor to think not just about holding down the cost of projects all at once (instead of nibbling away at things year by year), of construction, but about holding down the total lifetime cost of ownerand do it without investing any of its own capital. So what’s the catch? Try ship. That means a facility built under DBO is likely to include not the as I might, I can’t find one. lowest-priced equipment and components but those that will be the most reliable and the least costly to operate in the long run. This, too, looks like an avenue worth investigating in times of fiscal stress. Simple concept Do you have experience with performance contracting or DBO? If The concept behind performance contracting is simple. Efficiency you have tried them, what was the outcome? If you haven’t, why not? improvements pay for themselves over time. So why not go ahead and make We would like your thoughts. Send me a note at [email protected]. I the improvements and let the savings themselves make the annual payments? promise to respond, and we’ll include the comments in a future issue. wso In a typical performance contract, an energy service company provides
6
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
editor’s choice
Letters
IncentIves to conserve
I read your article about water conservation in the June 2013 edition of Water System Operator [On Tap: The Conservation Paradox]. I found it quite interesting in light of the way municipalities have handled water rates over the past years. I work for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and have seen decline in water demand, and yet the costs have gone up for the customers. Although there is no immediate remedy to this, I do believe there are ways to entice the customers around the country to help in water conservation. With the ever-increasing cost of chemicals used in water treatment plants, and the increasing cost of electricity and staffing, the term “water conservation” is the only viable and necessary practice. Lowering water rates, as we all know, just will not happen. People will continue to reduce their water consumption, and the rates will continue to rise due to lower product demand, as we have seen in the past. Here is my idea: Municipalities have many residential/family perks — such as swimming pools, indoor hockey rinks, recreational centers, parks, and sometimes the occasional trip to an amusement park or casino. All of these the residents must pay for using. My family does not partake of these because we can get them all cheaper elsewhere. But if cities would offer freebies to families that met a water conservation budget, I think this would help in water conservation and might also help bring future business and revenues to municipalities by showing what can be offered. Free memberships or a free day at the pool — there are many possibilities. Cities won’t go broke offering such things, and they just might help attract new residents. I understand that cities are a big business, but in order to make residents and customers happy, incentives to reward conservation sound like a good business practice. It can show that a city cares in many ways. Timothy S. Aggas Senior Operator Lake Huron Water Treatment Plant Detroit, Mich.
Find other useful and timely information at www.wsomag.com
ater System Operator aims to bring stories that help you and your plant perform better. Now we do more of the same on the WSO website. There you’ll find stories that appear only online — and that are current, because they’re not subject to the lead times involved in the print magazine. Here are a few online exclusives recommended by the WSO editorial team:
W
Xylem expands range of Medium-Pressure UV Water treatment solutions
Xylem has expanded its range of medium-pressure UV water treatment solutions with the launch of two additions to the WEDECO Quadron series, suitable for drinking water disinfection and also for fish farming, swimming pool and wastewater reuse. The Quadron series is validated according to the U.S. EPA UV Disinfection Guidance Manual. It can be uniquely tailored to meet the requirements of individual water or wastewater treatment facilities.
Louisville Water Kicks off Pumping station restoration and Water Works Museum
A project to restore the interior of a National Historic Landmark in Louisville, Ky., began this year. The Louisville Water Company kicked off a restoration project at its original pumping station. The project will renovate and restore the interior of pumping station No. 1, built between 1858 and 1860 as part of the city’s original Water Works. The site also features the city’s iconic water tower, also a National Historic Landmark.
Program offers Multi-Faceted Learning With training Laboratory
Mike Smith’s enthusiasm for the Water Quality Management program at Red Rocks Community College is contagious. And his pride in the curriculum he’s helped build is clearly justified. The college, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Lakewood, Colo., has one of the most extensive water quality management programs in the United States with an enclosed mobile laboratory used for coursework and as an emergency response unit in the event of a water-borne disease outbreak. “There’s really no other institution with anywhere near the offerings we have,” says Smith, department chair, program coordinator and lead faculty member.
Virginia Water department earns 2012 excellence in Water treatment Plant Performance Award
The City of Manassas Public Works and Utilities department received the 2012 Excellence in Water Treatment Plant Performance award from the Virginia Department of Health Office of Drinking Water. The awards were recently presented in Roanoke, Va. “The City of Manassas is dedicated to maintain quality water for our citizens,” said Mike Moon, director of the city public works and utilities department. “We’re honored to be recognized for our water treatment performance.” Three levels of performance are honored: gold, silver and bronze. Manassas earned the silver designation. wso
Check out all these stories at www.wsomag.com/ec/2013/August
inspiring stimulating motivating
Savored by municipal wastewater professionals everywhere.
Get your fill for free. Subscribe at tpomag.com
wsomag.com August 2013
7
PLAYERS’
coAcH
STORY: Jack Powell PHOTOGRAPHY: Bradley leeB
Scott Bailey keeps the vintage Monticello water Plant in top form thanks to experience, skills and a hands-on management style
I
“
8
more valuable. “Originally, my associate degree was to have been in construction technology, but I needed a few classes during the day, which I couldn’t take because I was working, so I ended up changing my major and getting a degree in general studies,” he says. “I also took a set of management courses at Parkland and earned a certificate. That has been a big help in my supervisory duties.” when I first started here, I felt like everybody else: you just Bailey’s determination paid off at the water plant, turn on your tap and the water is there. The fact is, you learn built in 1892. He shows pictures from the early 1900s something new every day, and I love that part of the job.” and points out that until a major renovation in 1935, the facility’s water softeners were steam-powered. The ScoTT BaIley oldest well, still in use, was built in 1915. Other renoSeeking advancement vations took place in 1958 and 1976. Nonetheless, “Our water meets all After high school in Monticello, Bailey went to Lincoln Land Comfederal and state standards; we haven’t had a violation in years and years.” munity College in Springfield for the water classes he needed to get his license. Then he attended Parkland Community College in Champaign. challenges and rewards Bailey decided to shoot for a degree, which he felt would make him Bailey, and a pair of operators, maintain two US Filter pressure filters
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
t takes a special touch — and a strong leader — to keep a 120-year-old water plant ticking. That’s what Scott Bailey has been bringing for more than 25 years. Now plant supervisor for the Monticello (Ill.) Water Plant, Bailey started as a laborer with the city Public Works Department in 1987. He has forged a career built on learning all he can about the water business, developing his expertise and motivating the operators who work for him. Indeed, Bailey has proved himself a savvy manager and an innovator at the 1 mgd facility, with 2,460 service connections in this city of 5,300, an hour east of Springfield between Champaign and Decatur. After learning that the plant supervisor would retire in five years, Bailey kept his eyes on the prize. He took courses at two community colleges, eventually earning an associate degree and a certificate in management. He also attended AWWA seminars. In three years, he earned his Class A Surface Water license, and he became water supervisor in 1996. “When I first started here, I felt like everybody else: you just turn on your tap and the water is there,” Bailey says with a smile. “The fact is, you learn something new every day, and I love that part of the job.”
Scott Bailey, Monticello (Ill.) water department
Position: | Water ExPEriEncE: | 26
Plant Supervisor, Monticello Water Plant years cErtifications: | Class A Surface Water License Education: | Associate degree, Parkland Community College MEMbErshiPs: IAWWA Small System Committee, Illinois Rural Water Association, Water Operators Association, City of Monticello Safety Committee Goals: Continue to maintain the plant in the most cost-effective way possible
|
|
scott bailey loves his job as water plant supervisor: he says he learns something new every day. he’s shown with Matt utley, water operator, who is cleaning the post plate of the multi-port valve on the plant’s ion-exchange softener (siemens).
Quality leaders
OPERATOR
scott bailey believes in leading by example.
waTer PlanT SuPervISor 101
What does it take to be a successful water plant supervisor? scott bailey says it starts with listening and responding. “You have to be sensitive to what people in the community want. clean water, sure, but they want to keep their rates low. so you have to prioritize maintenance projects and stick to your budget. that means sometimes you’ll only replace one or two hydrants a year or two or three blocks of water main.” another key to success is leading by example. “When we have a water leak, my guys aren’t the only ones in the hole,” he says. “i’ll get in with them. We take turns on fixing water main breaks. the guys are good, and you have to show that you support them.” responsiveness is another requirement. says bailey, “Whenever we have a leak, we try to get there as quickly as possible. i’ve had people complain about their dirty water and give us holy heck on the phone, but then they praised us because we responded so fast. You have to take care of things right away.” scott bailey, with water operators tom bates, left, and Matt utley.
(Siemens) for iron and arsenic removal and four ion-exchange water softeners (Siemens). The plant averages 500,000 to 600,000 gpd. Treated water goes into a 750,000-gallon clearwell. The city also has two water towers that hold a combined 650,000 gallons. “A typical day at the plant starts with taking readings,” Bailey says. “We have a SCADA system where we get readings on our pumps and meters. We check the plant inside and out, then come back and do our testing at the lab. We also do maintenance inside the plant and keep the infrastructure in shape.” His biggest challenge came in 2006 when the U.S. EPA reduced the arsenic limit in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10. From the time he heard talk about the new regulations, he began doing pilot studies, experimenting with treatments and chemical combinations that finally yielded the 10 ppb level. But Bailey wanted to do even better. “We used a lot of chemicals, and I was able to eliminate some of them through trial and error,” he says. “We had a chemical engineer who wanted to treat the water with chemicals, so we started out using copper sulfate, hydrogen peroxide, ferrous chloride, chlorine bleach and a SUPERFLOC A-1894RS polymer (Kemira).
“We reached 10 ppb, so I started changing the formula and eliminating one chemical at a time, doing some testing and sending samples into the lab. Just by accident we upped the polymer until we finally got the arsenic level to 6 ppb. What really worked best was using bleach at the well and then adding the polymer right before the water went to the filters.” Beyond the positive health impact, there was an economic benefit to the arsenic removal, according to Floyd Allsop, city manager and Bailey’s boss for 18 years. Allsop feared that the new regulations and the accompanying increase in chemicals would force the city to raise water rates in a tough economic climate. “Scott worked with engineers and others, experimented, tested and came up with a relatively low-cost way to reduce the amount of chemicals we use and still cut arsenic levels to below EPA standards,” Allsop says. “As a result, we’ve been able to hold rates steady. In fact, we haven’t had a rate increase in more than five years, and that’s a real credit to Scott and his team.”
earning honors
Such devotion drew notice in 2012, when Bailey was named Operator of the Year by the Illinois Potable Water Supply Operators Association (IPWSOA). His quarter-century of service includes being a member of the Iowa AWWA section and serving on its Small System Committee, being a member of the Illinois Rural Water Association, and serving on the City of Monticello’s Safety Committee. Bailey joined three finalists on stage at last September’s IPWSOA annual conference in Springfield. “Then I looked around, saw I was the only one left, and thought ‘Oh, that’s me,’” he says. He earned the award in the Groundwater Division after a rigorous selection process that included extensive review of plant performance, interviews and a plant tour by IPWSOA committee members. In typical fashion, Bailey credited just about everybody but himself: his two Class A operators, Tom Bates and Matt Utley; and the city Public Works employees.
10
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
“
If Scott were a coach, he’d be a players’ coach. He’ll always say, ‘can you do this?’ rather than ‘Go do it.’ That’s his style. He’d never ask us to do anything he wouldn’t do. He’s 100 percent hands-on, which is great in a supervisor.”
ToM BaTeS
scott bailey’s Monticello team members look on him as a coach, mentor and father figure and appreciate his hands-on approach to supervision.
Allsop observes, “With Scott as water supervisor, I don’t have to worry about ensuring that our water meets state and federal standards. He takes quality water personally, so I know that whether he’s at the plant or on vacation, he’s monitoring it and keeping in close contact with the other operators. It’s a good feeling to be able to trust someone to do the right thing.” The Water Department has received a Fluoride Award from the state Department of Public Health for seven consecutive years for maintaining the proper fluoride levels all 12 months. Again, Allsop credits Bailey and his team. “This is an older facility, which Scott has been able to maintain and upgrade when the need arises,” he says. “Scott and I have a budget for maintaining the plant and the infrastructure. This includes replacing undersized or old water mains or changing out three or four fire hydrants every year. That can be expensive, since we often have to replace fittings and valves. We’re able to do this cost-effectively because of Scott’s knowledge and experience. He has lots of good ideas, and he isn’t afraid to try new and innovative approaches and work with others.” Those who work for Bailey share Allsop’s assessment. Bates, a 17-year veteran, says, “If Scott were a coach, he’d be a players’ coach. He’s been there and done that, so you have confidence he knows what he’s talking about. Scott will always say, ‘Can you do this?’ rather than ‘Go do it.’ That’s his style. He’d never ask us to do anything he wouldn’t do. When we have a leak or main break, he’ll go down in the hole and work with us to fi x it. He’s 100 percent hands-on, which is great in a supervisor.” Utley, who has been at the Monticello plant for five years, considers Bailey “a mentor and father figure. When I started here, I had my Class D [distribution] license, and Scott encouraged me to better myself and
get my Class A license. I’ve really enjoyed working for him. He knows so much about water and the plant and what it takes to be a good operator.” Toni Sommers, a water department billing clerk, adds her two cents: “Scott’s a great guy to know and work with. He’s one of a kind — very cooperative and always willing to help. He gives tours for high school kids, and they really enjoy hearing him talk about the water plant.”
Job that never ends
While grateful for the praise, Bailey remains focused on his work, which includes a program to replace three or four blocks of water main per year. Last year, he and the Public Works staff put in a mile of new water main. He also considers which hydrants to replace, taking that seriously because hydrant prices have gone from $900 to more than $2,000 in the last several years. Bailey also serves as water operator at three small water treatment plants about 10 miles from Monticello: the Village of Cisco (serving 300), the Village of Deland (300), and White Heath Water Works (600) residents. He does the work on Saturdays, making sure the plants are More InFo: running the way they should. Kemira Bailey insists it’s all part of the 800/533-5990 job. “People often take water for www.kemira.com (See ad page 43) granted,” he says. “It’s nice when we go on a job and someone says, Siemens Water Technologies Corp. 866/926-8420 ‘That’s a lot of work; thanks for getwww.water.siemens.com ting our water back.’ I’m proud to be part of the plant’s success.” wso
wsomag.com August 2013
11
NEVER
A new ultrafiltration system resolved many issues for the team in Homer, Alaska, but that doesn’t keep them from working diligently to continue getting better
STORY: Jim Force PHOTOGRAPHY: m. Scott moon
SATISFIED
P
erfectionists. That’s the conclusion you draw after a conversation with the treatment crew at the 2 mgd Bridge Creek Water Treatment Plant in Homer, Alaska. Superintendent Todd Cook and his staff strive to improve constantly as they deliver drinking water to 1,500 customers in this community on the Kenai Peninsula, 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. The plant includes the largest ultrafiltration membrane installation for drinking water in the state, but the Homer operators don’t let such advanced technology keep them from tweaking plant processes and adjusting chemistry. They’re on the alert against organics, iron and manganese, disinfection byproducts and more, and they have even made adjustments to the membranes and the control systems to give them better results. “We don’t get bored around here,” Cook says.
Bridge creek Water treatment Plant, Homer, Alaska
Built: | 1970s
Step up to membranes
For many years, the Bridge Creek plant used pressure sand filters, but frequently had to deal with filter blinding. Filter backwashing required a high volume of water, reducing the amount of finished water for customers to only 40 to 60 percent. The ZeeWeed ultrafiltration units (GE Water & Process Technologies) are the highlight of a major plant upgrade completed in 2009. Raw water comes from the 35-acre Bridge Creek Reservoir, a few hundred yards from the plant. Byron Jackson multi-stage turbine pumps (Flowserve Corp.) bring the water uphill to the plant, where it passes through strainers (S.P. Kinney Engineers) and then is mixed with recycled water decanted from the filter backwash water ponds.
(membrane plant started 2009) mgd Service area: | City of Homer, plus users in two neighboring communities connectionS: | 1,500 Source water: | Bridge Creek Reservoir treatment proceSSeS: | Rapid mix and flocculation, ultrafiltration infraStructure: 43 miles of distribution lines, 22 pressure-reducing stations, 5 water storage tanks SyStem Storage: | 2.1 million gallons annual Budget: | $1.9 million weBSite: | www.cityofhomer-ak.gov
treatment capacity: | 2
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Alum is injected in a rapid-mix tank to promote development of pinfloc in the flocculation basin, which is equipped with three impellers. “We don’t want a bigger floc, because that could blind the membranes,” explains Jerry Lawver, lead operator. After the floc basin, the water is gravity-fed to the membranes. The membrane train consists of five cassettes, each with 48 modules. The cassettes can hold 64 modules, a feature that will make it easy to expand. Each module contains thousands of vertically strung membrane fibers, with millions of microscopic pores in each strand. Water is filtered by
12
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Joe young, operator iii, checks the pH, alkalinity, turbidity and chlorine levels of a water sample to verify the accuracy of online instruments.
Quality leaders
PLANT
applying a slight vacuum to the end of each fiber, drawing the water through the pores and into the fibers themselves. The filtered water is dosed with orthophosphate for corrosion control and adjusted for pH with caustic soda. Chlorine for disinfection is generated onsite in a Miox system, which creates sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen gas through electrolysis of salt. While on-site generation is becoming more common due to the risks of transporting chlorine over the road, Homer uses the technique mainly because shipping chlorine to the plant would be difficult. “There are few roads, or no roads, up here,” Cook says. “Liquid chlorine would have to come by boat and would be classified as a hazardous material.” The filtered, chlorinated water flows to a 1-million-gallon clearwell, then downhill to the city distribution system, which consists of just over 43 miles of pipe and 22 pressure-reducing stations. A small portion of the finished water is provided to private haulers who deliver it to customers in two neighboring communities. Besides Lawver, Cook’s staff consists of Joe Young and Dave Welty, operators, and Paul McBride and Bob Kosiorek, maintenance technicians. They follow a standard membrane cleaning protocol. The filter modules are regularly back-pulsed with an air scour feature and backwashed by reversing the flow. In a maintenance clean, the membranes soak for 15 minutes in a solution of chlorine or citric acid. A full recovery clean involves soaking in a chlorine solution for six hours. Filter backwash water passes to two backwash water ponds in series. As solids settle, clear water decants from the first pond to the second. From the second, water is returned to the plant inlet, where it is mixed with raw water. The water recovery rate is 92 percent, meaning that only 8 percent of the water being processed does not end up going to customers — that’s a huge improvement over the old setup.
Keeping it running
While the upgrade to membranes has resolved the issue of filter blinding and low water recovery rates, the Homer team continuously seeks to improve treatment operations and water quality. Iron and manganese can cause problems. Cook and his crew have found that the membranes remove most of the iron, but only about half of the manganese. “We used to get black water complaints, and the clear tubing on our chlorine meters would turn black,” Cook says. By experimenting with increases in the orthophosphate and caustic soda injection rates, the Homer staff brought the manganese issue under control. “We upped the phosphate addition from 0.2 to 2 ppm and are now back to 1 ppm,” explains Cook. The relatively low pH of the source water, driven even lower by We don’t get bored the alum dosing, can also contribute to lead and copper issues and around here.” disinfection byproducts (DPBs), todd cooK so the Homer staff works carefully to increase pH and maintain it at 7.5 to 8.0. The operators have taken several other measures to minimize DPBs. “We have only 1,500 connections, and over 43 miles of water distribution lines,” Cook say. “That’s a lot of standing water in the system.”
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todd cook, treatment superintendent, checks the pH of an acid cleaning in a filter train.
Winning PerFormerS
it’s cause for celebration when an operator at a water treatment plant wins a prestigious state award; it’s an even bigger deal when two operators are so honored. at the Bridge creek water treatment plant, Joe young and Jerry lawver received the alaska rural water association operator of the year award in 2011 and 2012. they’re both invaluable to the success of the Bridge creek operation, says treatment plant superintendent todd cook. “Joe has a mechanical background,” cook says. “He’s sharp, and our go-to guy for Scada issues. Jerry’s been here since 1991 and brings a lot of experience to the table. He became our lead operator in 2011.” young started with the city of Homer in 2007 as a treatment plant mechanic and has applied himself to learning the treatment techniques of both the water and wastewater plants. “not only does he do an outstanding job operating the plant, but his knowledge of computers and the Scada systems is invaluable,” says cook. “He is willing to tackle any challenge that may arise, and i have found nothing that he can’t figure out given the time and resources.” lawver has 26 years’ experience in water and wastewater, 21 with Homer. as lead operator, he is responsible for operating alaska’s largest drinking water ultrafiltration plant. “Jerry has been very helpful in passing his knowledge on by training new operators on the system,” says cook. “He has probably forgotten more about this plant than most operators will ever know. He is always trying to optimize the operation to run the system as efficiently as possible.” the alaska rwa presents its operator awards — based on outstanding performance and professionalism — at its annual training conference each fall.
The utility recently added variable-frequency drives on its pumps and motors as a way to keep water moving throughout the system. Before, the pumps ran on a fill-and-draw basis; in winter it took six to eight hours to fill the storage tank, and then the system would shut down for 16 to 18 hours. “With the VFDs, the pumps are running at a slower pace and the water keeps moving in the system,” says Cook. “We’ve seen some reduction in DBPs, and our power consumption is more efficient.” The staff also pays close attention to organics. Influent TOCs come in at about 4 parts per million and leave the membrane system at 2 ppm or less. The operators rely on UV transmittance testing to track TOCs in the raw and finished water, enabling them to better adjust the plant’s alum addition rates. “We use hand-held UVT meters from Real Tech so we don’t have to send samples out for analysis,” says Cook. “There’s a direct correlation between TOCs and UV transmittance. The higher the UV transmittance through the water, the better organic kill we’re getting. So if our UV transmittance is in a certain range, we know our TOCs are in a certain range, and can adjust our alum dosage rates accordingly. We don’t want to overfeed or underfeed alum.” On the other hand, turbidity is not an issue. “Our source water is very low in turbidity,” says Cook. “The turbidity in our finished water is 0.02 NTU, rock solid. The filters pretty much do what the manufacturer says they’ll do. They’re awesome from that standpoint.” That wasn’t always the case in the old days; Lawver remembers the staff used to “backwash and hope the turbidity would come down, then backwash and hope the turbidity would come down.” When summertime temperatures reach into the 60s and 70s, the reservoir can experience
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Jerry lawver, lead operator, takes a routine coliform water sample from a homeowner’s tap.
algae and diatoms. “You can see them in the vial, and they used to blind off the old sand pressure filters. Slime would build up. But they don’t blind off the membranes.”
Final analysis
Nearly five years into the $11 million upgrade, Cook and his staff are pleased with the results but nowhere near ready to slack off on fine-tuning. “Our membranes have been pretty bullet proof so far,” Lawver says. “They’re making good water.”
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our membranes have been pretty bullet proof so far. they’re making good water.”
todd cook and his team at the Bridge creek water treatment plant treat source water that comes from a mountainside above Homer, alaska.
more inFo:
Flowserve Corp.
972/443-6500 www.flowserve.com
Jerry LAWver
The biggest issue has been with programming, Cook says. One of the original issues was with the chemical pumps used for membrane cleaning. “We were locked out from adjusting the length of time that they would run,” says Lawver. “Run times were too short, especially with the sodium bisulfite — the chemical used for neutralizing chlorine.” After a chemical clean, he says, the rinse water would have a chlorine residual as high as 2.0 mg/L. The rinse water is discharged to the backwash ponds, which concentrate the organics removed by the filters. “The combination of high organics and chlorine created DBPs in the pond,” Cook says. “Tests of the decant water proved DBPs were being formed on site. The operators contacted GE/Zenon to have their programmers remove the locks so the operators could adjust the chemical pumps as needed. It’s under control now. All the chlorine is neutralized before it is sent to the decant pond, and we have seen the DBPs drop off.”
Cook concludes that with advanced technology and a new SCADA system sometimes the engineers and programmers haven’t seen eye-to-eye. “It took awhile in some cases, but the operators got things worked out,” he says. That’s typical — Alaskans are known for self-reliance and are not ashamed to brag about it. At the bottom of Cook’s email signature, he quotes “Star Wars” Jedi master Yoda: “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” At Homer, they “do.” wso
GE Water & Process Technologies
866/439-2837 www.gewater.com
Miox Corp
800/646-9426 www.miox.com
Real Tech, Inc.
877/779-2888 www.realtech.ca
S.P. Kinney Engineers, Inc.
800/356-1118 www.spkinney.com
wsomag.com August 2013
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Technology Deep DIve
Turning Data Into Action
Advanced Metering Analytics help utilities use hourly interval information from metering systems to detect issues that need addressing
By TeD J. Rulseh
dvanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with fixed network communication has given water utilities an abundance of data — typically hourly information on customers’ water usage. The challenge has been turning that data into information that can guide performance-enhancing actions. Meeting that challenge is the aim of Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) from Badger Meter. The technology combines the company’s ORION SE two-way or GALAXY one-way fixed network AMI solutions, its secure analytics-based ReadCenter software, and its family of meters and encoders. Essentially, the system takes in the hourly AMI data, identifies conditions that require attention, and alerts appropriate personnel to take action — all automatically. Morrice Blackwell, marketing manager for software solutions with Badger Meter, talked about the technology and its applications in an interview with Water System Operator.
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those meters were to malfunction or slow down mechanically, the utility would lose significant revenue. One of the analytics we run for customers is for average consumption. We allow them to set up the analytics to alert them when a large customer’s metered usage falls a certain percentage below that customer’s average consumption.
wso: In simple terms, how does the analytics process work? Blackwell: First we define the system exceptions the customer cares about. Next we define the accounts to monitor for those exceptions — say, commercial meters over 2 inches. We then define who at the utility should be alerted when that exception occurs, and how they should be alerted — such as by email or SMS text. We also define how often they should be alerted — the first time the exception happens? Every time it happens? And finally, we define what action they want the person to take upon receiving the alert. wso: So, how might this process play out if monitoring for under-consumption? Blackwell: Suppose we set the analytics to flag consumption down by 25 percent from the average on commercial meters 2 inches or larger. When this happens for a given customer, the system would send the meter supervisor or other appropriate party an email saying the account has shown consumption under normal usage, and the action to take is to set up a work order for investigation. wso: What other conditions would a utility want to monitor?
wso: What is the market need this offering is designed to address? Blackwell: It’s part of the evolution of automated meter reading (AMR), which is a very efficient way to get meter information. AMR has been around since the 1980s. The first fixed AMI metering networks for water arrived in 1996 and supplied daily information. Most manufacturers now have gone to hourly information, but until now all that has done is give utilities loads of data without giving them a reason to have it. We saw that having hourly interval data in a water system could be very powerful if it were analyzed and presented in a meaningful way. So
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Blackwell: They would definitely want to know about our trainers work with utilities to explain how the analytics work and help them set leaks, tampers and reverse flows. up the alerts they care about. A utility has to be smart about deploying the analytics.” Let’s consider leaks. If a conMoRRIce BlAckwell sumer has a leak in the home, the endpoint will notify the we worked with our customers to understand certain conditions they utility that the customer is in a continuous usage state. The system will were concerned about within their water systems. And we developed anathen send an email telling a customer service representative to call the customer. lytics that allow them to take the hourly information and get feedback on Another useful alert is for inactive accounts. This is helpful in states those conditions. like Florida, where for the summer months some residents live elsewhere. wso: What would be an example of a condition this system would flag? Those people like someone to monitor their homes to make sure they don’t get a pipe burst or some leak that goes on while they’re away. The Blackwell: Let’s consider under-usage. In any water utility you have utility can issue a consumption alert, so that if an account in an inactive the 80-20 rule: About 80 percent of users are residential, and about 20 state uses more than some small amount per day, someone is sent out to percent are commercial or industrial users. In many small communities, investigate that. five or six large users may make up a very large share of the revenue. If
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
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wso: How would notifications work for tampers or reverse flows? Blackwell: If a wire is cut, the endpoint knows there has been a short in the line, and then broadcasts to the utility that it is in a tamper condition. It could be that someone is trying to steal water, or it could be that the wire was damaged by accident. Reverse flow could occur because of poor piping condition. Or you could have an industrial user operating at a pressure that overcomes the normal water pressure in the system. The AMA system would let the utility know, and someone would be alerted to take action right away. wso: Are there any alerts to possibly notify someone about a malfunction in the metering equipment itself? Blackwell: Yes. Endpoints that have been out in the field for a long time will send an alert if they go into a low-battery condition. The system will also provide notification of encoder errors or programming changes that may or may not have been performed by authorized personnel. In addition, utilities may want to know when a particular meter reaches a certain amount of total consumption, as this may trigger them to perform maintenance on that meter. They may say for example that when a 2-inch turbo meter reaches 500,000 gallons, it is time to do a repair or maintenance on it. It’s easy to set up an analytical alarm that sends notifications for those conditions. wso: How do you ensure that customers are ready to use the analytics optimally? Blackwell: Our trainers work with utilities to explain how the analytics work and help them set up the alerts they care about. Every utility is a little different. A utility has to be smart about deploying the analytics. If they set them wrong, they could be overwhelmed with alerts. But if they set the alerts correctly and inform the right people to act on them, the analytics can be quite useful.
wso: What other attributes does the analytics system have? Blackwell: The hourly data is very useful for settling billing disputes. Traditionally, when a customer disputes a bill, the utility would go out and test the meter and explain how the meter works, and that’s a lot of time and effort. But when you have proof of how much water the customer used on an hourly basis, it’s much easier to reach a resolution. The customer may look at the data and say, “Oh, that’s right, my aunt and her three kids were here for a week and they took two showers a day.” Another benefit is for network management. When a utility installs a fixed network for the first time, there can be a bit of consternation about whether all the endpoints are calling in, and whether all the data collectors are online and functioning. We provide a system dashboard with easy-to-understand graphs that show the endpoints and the data collectors and the status they’re in. wso: How has this system been received in the marketplace so far? Blackwell: We have several customers using it, and they are seeing the value of the analytics. One utility has an area in town with about 10 large hotels. They used to send someone out every day to monitor those meters, because if one of them were to go down, they could lose hundreds or thousands of dollars per day. With our system in place, they no longer have to send someone out, and no one even has to run reports to check. You tell the system what you’re concerned about, and you don’t have to take any action unless the system tells you to. It’s a system that enables proactive management. It provides vital information utilities need, when they need it, and in the format of their choice, all to improve decision-making. And because it’s web-based, it’s easy to administer and deploy. wso
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QUICK-CHANGE
ARTISTS
STORY: TED J. RULSEH PHOTOGRAPHY: CHip WEinER
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
The team at a 120 mgd plant in Tampa relies on a rapid settling process, experience, and automation to produce consistent results from variable raw water sources.
s big as it is, the 120 mgd Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant is just part of the supply network for Tampa Bay Water, a wholesale utility serving three counties and three cities on the Gulf side of Florida. The plant’s operating team has to cope with changeable raw-water quality, and with changes in volume dictated by Tampa Bay Water’s comprehensive strategy for supplying 2.4 million residents in its member jurisdictions. The plant draws raw water from four sources: The 15.5-billion-gallon C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir, the Alafia River, and two pools in the Tampa Bypass Canal. Helping to keep the finished water Michael Kuhn, area manager supply consistent in quality is a at the Tampa Bay Water rapid sedimentation process aided Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant, stands near by the addition of microsand in the filter pipe gallery. the settling basins. The team also relies on extensive automation to meet the Enhanced Treated Water standards in the plant’s operating contract. Veolia Water built the plant in 2002, expanded it in 2010, and operates it under a 20-year agreement, according to Mike Kuhn, P.E., Veolia area manager.
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same treatment processes and additional solids handling capacity — to its current 120 mgd capacity. The upgrade also added two 1,250 kW emergency generators (Caterpillar) able to power the plant at the 66 mgd rate. At the heart of the facility is the Actiflo high-rate clarifier process from Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies. In this process, water is flocculated with ferric sulfate, microsand and polymer. The microsand enhances formation of robust flocs and acts as ballast, significantly reducing settling time. “We achieved significant capital savings because the Actiflo process generally has a footprint about one-fifteenth the size of a conventional settling process with similar capacity,” says Kuhn. Water enters the plant from a combination of its four sources as dictated by Tampa Bay Water and fills two raw-water tanks with 12.5 million gallons total capacity. “In the pipe on the way to Actiflo, we inject sulfuric acid for pH adjustment to 4.0 to 4.5, which is optimum for the enhanced coagulation process. In the Actiflo basin, we can trim the pH with acid if we need to by way of a lower-capacity injection point.” In the basin, ferric sulfate coagulant is added rather than alum. “Our source water tends to be higher in color and TOC more so than suspended materials,” says Kuhn. “We need to remove precursors for disinfection byproducts (DBPs), which means we need to knock down the TOC in the Actiflo. Our jar testing showed that ferric was much more effective at TOC removal than alum. “We also have stipulation in our contract to produce a sludge that can be beneficially used. All the sludge we produce goes to Vigiron, our vendor, who uses it to make proprietary iron micronutrients, and potting soil materials. Their products are used by golf courses, sod producers, citrus orchards,
Critical need
Tampa Bay Water was formed in 1998 to provide single-source water-supply responsibility for its member governments. At the time, groundwater was the only source of drinking water, and heavy withdrawals were affecting lakes and wetlands. As part of an alternate supply plan, the agency built the reservoir, a seawater desalination plant and the surface water plant to supplement its wellfields. Water from all these sources is now wheeled around the service territory, the mix of sources depending on cost, seasonal availability and other factors. The surface water plant, designed by the CDM Smith engineering firm, was built with a 66 mgd capacity and expanded in 2010 — with new trains of the
Tampa Bay (Fla.) Water Regional Surface Water Treatment plant
BuilT: | 2002
Quality leaders
PLANT
(expanded 2010) mgd SeRvice aRea: Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco counties; cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, New Port Richey cuSToMeRS SeRved: | 2.4 million SouRce WaTeRS: C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir, Alafia River, Tampa Bypass Canal TReaTMenT PRoceSS: | Rapid sedimentation, ozone, biological filtration annual BudgeT: | $9.9 million (operations) WeBSiTe: | www.tampabaywater.org
TReaTMenT caPaciTy: | 120
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John conyers, shift lead, at the plant control console.
tree farms and other farming applications. They are also incorporated in fertilizer mixes sold by fertilizer manufacturers at consumer outlets.” The sludge is dewatered to about 18 percent solids on six belt presses, four J-Belt units (Siemens) and two Alfa Laval / Ashbrook Simon-Hartley units.
On downstream
After the Actiflo process, the water enters a basin where the pH is adjusted to about 5.5 by addition of lime (with caustic soda as a backup). The water is then fed into ozone contactors equipped with Fuji ozone generators for primary disinfection. “We need tight pH control in the ozone contactors to avoid formation of bromate,” Kuhn reports. Another pH adjustment to 7.3 follows. The flow then passes to biological downflow filters with a top 4-foot layer of granular activated carbon (top-off material supplied by PICA, a Jacobi Carbons Company), a 6-inch layer of sand, and Leopold underdrains. “The filters have two purposes,” says Kuhn. “The first is traditional straining to remove turbidity caused by lime addition. The second is chemical
and biological action. TOCs remaining after the Actiflo process are fractured by the ozone treatment. At that point you create the opportunity for organics that can be combined with chlorine downstream to form DBPs. “Instead, we allow the bugs that live on the activated carbon to eat those organics. The bugs are very happy in the warm climate of Florida. They’ve stayed healthy since we began operating the filters back in 2002. We have not seen any decline in the microbe populations or in the effectiveness of the treatment.” Filtered water passes through a set of clearwells and then into a 2-million-gallon covered chlorine contact chamber, where pH is adjusted with caustic soda and sodium hypochlorite is added for chlorine residual. From there, Tampa Bay Water adds ammonia to form chloramines, and the water then enters a set of three 7.5-million-gallon finished water storage tanks for delivery to the water company’s network.
Dealing with variation
The plant’s 29-member operation, maintenance and lab team deals
EnHanCED WaTER TREaTmEnT
under its agreement with Tampa Bay Water, Surface Water Treatment Plant operator veolia Water must maintain extremely high standards of finished water quality. The contract requirement of enhanced Treated Water means some compliance parameters
are stricter than those of the Florida department of environmental Protection. For example: Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) must be below 0.05 mg/l (maximum-average) rather than 0.08 mg/l. Haloacetic acids (Haa5) must be below 0.05 mg/l (maximumaverage) rather than 0.06 mg/l. color must be 5 pcu (maximum-average) with a maximum of 15 pcu, rather than always below 15 pcu. odor must be 2 Ton (maximum-average) and
always less then 3 Ton, rather than always below 3 Ton. iron must be 0.15 mg/l (maximumaverage) rather than always below 0.3 mg/l. Turbidity for individual filters must be 0.2 nTu or less 95 percent of the time, and for the combined filters 0.1 nTu or less 95 percent of the time, never exceeding 0.25 nTu. This is stricter than the deP requirement of less than or equal to 0.3 nTu 95 percent of the time, and never exceeding 1.0 nTu.
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
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We have what is likely the most automated surface water plant in the U.S., but operators still have to use the art of operation for any given water that’s coming in to achieve maximum efficiency in the chemical use.”
mikE kUHn
The team at the Tampa Bay Water Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant includes, from left, Tom Keyes, John conyers, david Mccormick, Scott Stuhr, Tom Romaelle, Barry agines, Patrick canada, Bruce doan, cedrick McBride, Phil leon, Terry Kingery, Melanie lasch, lloyd Rogers, Pam london-exner, Mike Knowles, Ken Beyea and Jack Thornburg.
THiS iS Tampa BaY WaTER
Tampa Bay Water supplies wholesale drinking water for 2.4 million residents in the Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas and the cities of Tampa, new Port Richey and St. Petersburg. The agency is a non-profit regional utility, funded through sale of water to member governments. The members share in the cost of developing new supplies, share voting rights equitably among the three counties and pay the same wholesale water rates. Tampa Bay Water policies are established by a nine-member board of directors that includes two elected commissioners from each member county and one elected representative from each member city. Tampa Bay Water meets the region’s drinking water needs with a diverse, flexible supply network, state-of-the-art water quality monitoring, and careful protection of the natural environment. it is the only water utility in the united States that combines three sources of water: groundwater, surface water and desalinated seawater. all told, the agency operates eight treatment facilities, five pumping stations and more than 200 miles of large-diameter piping that carries water to 16 delivery points in the member jurisdiction. daily flow varies from 140 million to 250 million gallons. The supply network includes the 15.5-billion-gallon c.W. Bill young Reservoir, 120 mgd permitted capacity of groundwater from wells, the 25 mgd Tampa Bay Seawater desalination Plant and the 120 mgd Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant. Team members at the surface water plant are: Jack Thornburgh, project manager; Phyllis lanier, administrative assistant; Melanie lasch, special projects manager; Tom exner, controls and computer systems senior associate; Pam london-exner, lab manager; Scott Stuhr and greg laffen, lab technicians; Ken enlow, assistant project manager; Barry agines, Patrick Brand, John conyers, clyde crews, Ryan Harless, Paul lorenz, Phil leon, david Mccormick and Tom Romaelle, o&M technicians; Ken Beyea, chemicals lead operator; James Sheridan, solids lead operator; Scott Self and cedric McBride, utility workers; Terry Kingery, maintenance manager; Mike Knowles and lloyd Rogers, instrumentation/electrical; Peter Sallas, Tom Keyes, Bruce doan and Patrick canada, maintenance technicians; and eugene lounders, reservoir technician.
often with changes in source water quality and quantity. Depending on Tampa Bay Water’s needs, the plant may produce 50 million to 80 million gallons on a given day, and from a different mix of sources. Seasonal events affect the water composition. “In winter we see water that looks much like groundwater,” says Kuhn. “The TOC is lower, but it has higher hardness. In summer, we see more color and more organics in the water, especially after a rain. Suppose we’re treating mostly Alafia River water and we just had a big rain and a whole lot of organics wash into our basins. That’s a tremendous difference in a short time in what the water looks like. “That’s another argument for Actiflo. We need to react quickly to chemistry changes and quantity changes. Actiflo gets us there. It has a very short detention time, we can make chemical adjustments very quickly, and we can bring more basins online in a short time — generally a couple of hours. It’s a very resilient process.” The primary process adjustment is in the ferric sulfate dosing, which relates mainly to the raw water TOC. Operators stay abreast by analyzing process control samples 24 hours a day. In addition, Tampa Bay Water keeps the plant apprised of changes in volume and the mix of sources, generally a week or so in advance. “We have enough history to know in general what will happen if they switch to a certain balance of sources at certain times of year, or if there has been a rain recently,” says Kuhn. “We have what is likely the most automated surface water plant in the U.S., but operators still have to use the art of operation for any given water that’s coming in to achieve maximum efficiency in the chemical use. “For example, right at the operating console we have a chart that tells us the general target ferric dose for a given TOC in the raw water. Our operators, using the process control lab, then can really nail down what the best dose is for that particular water.” Operators enter the correct dose into the plant SCADA system (Intouch/Wonderware), and the chemical feed system (designed by CDM Smith) feeds that dose. The plant is monitored around the clock by a lead operator at one of three control panels in the operations room. A second operator makes
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SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE
Mount Hood and Bull Run Lake are in the uppermost part of the Bull Run Watershed.
Creating a Culture
Portland Water Bureau reduces costs and greenhouse gas emissions through electrical efficiencies and a smart fleet management program
By LISA BALCERAk
WSO welcomes stories
about your green and environmentally progressive initiatives for future “Sustainable Practice” articles. Send your suggestions to [email protected] or call 877/953-3301.
T
he City of Portland is well known for its environmentally minded citizens and government. This sustainable culture extends to the city’s water bureau, which has been steadily reducing use of electricity and vehicle fuel and installing more solar energy arrays. The improvements mean big cost savings and lower greenhouse gas emissions. With a staff of 600, the bureau serves 935,000 people in Portland and 19 wholesale-buying communities in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties. The fiscal year 2012-2013 budget is $219 million. The primary water source is the 102-square mile Bull Run Watershed in the Mount Hood National Forest, federally protected land managed strictly for drinking water and hydropower production. The pristine waters enable Portland to bypass filtration. The water is gravity-fed through 22 miles of pipeline to the city. At the Bull Run Headworks treatment plant, chlorine is added. The water travels five miles to the Lusted Hill treatment plant, allowing time for chlorine absorption. Then ammonia and sodium hydroxide are added to sustain the chlorine level and adjust the pH.
Six reservoirs and 62 storage tanks hold three days’ supply of water; 30 pump stations deliver water to customers. The system delivers an average of 100 mgd. When the watershed has high turbidity or during high water demand, Portland uses a secondary groundwater source of 27 wells that can produce up to 102 mgd.
Energy charter
In February 2010, the bureau adopted an energy management charter that set goals for energy efficiency and renewables. Having all department directors on board was key to setting things in motion. “There was a high level of buy-in from decision makers on energy management,” says Kavita Heyn, sustainability coordinator. “We developed a culture of energy awareness to encourage efficiency, promote renewable projects and establish a baseline to track and evaluate energy use.” Staff from resource protection, engineering and operations came together to identify efficiency improvements (especially at pump stations), seek financial incentives to implement and track projects. Portland has cut energy consumption by using its pumps more effectively. Since 2005, operators have been analyzing pump efficiency in the seven largest pump stations, which offer the greatest potential for energy savings. They use baseline data from the SCADA system to determine how long the pumps run and how much water they move. In stations where there are redundant pumps, the most efficient pumps are used most of the time and are set to fill the tanks during offpeak hours when electricity is least expensive. Besides using information from the SCADA system, operators manually read pump gauges and finetune valves, yielding more efficiency. “Originally our system used altitude valves because the pump stations would pump directly into distribution lines,” says Mia Sabanovic, engineering associate. “Now that we pump into the tanks, the valves have been dialed down, which cuts energy waste. We gained efficiency by doing field inspections.” In the colder months, operators close louver vents and lower thermostat settings in the pump stations. More efficient pump operations saved 1.5 million kWh in 2010.
PhotoS courteSy of Portland Water Bureau
Operations staff members Sara Maier and Joshua Gatov Beck accept an energy incentive check for pump station energy efficiency improvements.
Building efficiencies
In 2010, the bureau updated its 15,000-square-foot meter testing shop
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Water Bureau’s Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles. BELOW: Jennifer Deviren, operating engineer, at one of the bureau’s pump stations.
LEFT: One of Portland
(Continued from page 21)
to LEED Gold certification by adding energy- and water-saving features. A water recycling system allows reuse of half the water used for meter testing. A 12.24 kW roofmounted solar photovoltaic array replaces 10 to 25 percent of the building’s utility power and has saved an estimated $3,030 in energy costs. A solar thermal system provides all necessary hot water for half the year. An energy recovery ventilation system captures 75 percent of the heat from exhausted air before it leaves the building. Sensors automatically adjust interior lighting when sunlight is present. The meter shop renovation cost $3.26 million, paid with help from a $30,000 incentive from the Energy Trust of Oregon. The bureau plans to incorporate energy- and water-saving features into two new LEED Gold certified staff buildings under construction. Besides the solar array at the meter station, the bureau has a 9.8 kW roof-mounted array on the groundwater treatment station that has saved an estimated $749 and six tons of CO2 to date. A 267 kW array at the groundwater pump station includes 1,274 Kyocera solar panels that annually produce almost 300,000 kWh. When the groundwater pumps are operating, the array can fulfill 5 percent of the pump station’s energy need. The array was installed under a seven-year agreement with Groundwater Solar, which paid most of the $2.1 million cost in exchange for revenue from power sold to the grid.
“
These ozone generators (Fuji electric) are an integral part of the plant’s primary disinfection process.
it doesn’t make sense to save $1 today on the capital cost of a project if instead you could spend $2 and as a result save $5 on operations over the project life.”
mikE kUHn
rounds and does process w sampling. Maintenance and administrative staff generally work the day shift.
Life cycle savings
Kuhn notes that the facility was created under a design-build-operate (DBO) model that is projected to save Tampa Bay Water some $85 million over a 20-year life cycle. The savings result partly from the Actiflo process and its small footprint, saving significantly on land and construction costs, but also from multiple decisions made with an eye toward the long term. “We looked at this not just as a construction project but as an operating entity,” says Kuhn. “It doesn’t make sense to save $1 today on the capital cost of a project if instead you could spend $2 and as a result save $5 on operations over the project life. A DBO team looks at the full picture because they have skin in the game all the way along. “We’ve got guarantees on this facility. We guarantee power use, chemical use, and the quantities and quality of the water. So we had to be competitive to win the project, and we have to be smart about how we operate it over the long term.” wso
Fleet management
To reduce fuel consumption in its 400 passenger and construction vehicles, the bureau has an extensive fleet management program. A database tracks each vehicle’s fuel use, miles per gallon and total mileage. “We can see if a vehicle is as efficient as it should be and allocate vehicles with lower miles per gallon to staff members who drive fewer miles,” Heyn says. “We also use engine coolant heaters in 40 of our trucks so they don’t idle to warm up on cold winter days.” Most vehicles use a biodiesel blend that emits fewer particulates, reduces engine wear and cuts greenhouse gas emissions. Between 2007 and 2011, the bureau reduced its gasoline and diesel use by 16 percent, saving 7 percent of CO2 emissions annually. Overall, the bureau has built a culture of sustainability by educating staff on the benefits of the efficiency and encouraging participation at every level. “We’ve empowered employees so anyone can share good ideas on how to improve operations,” Sabanovic says. “We share the results of our improvements and include the staff, right down to the operators who installed the pumps. Every operator wants to be the one saving money for the organization.” wso
mORE inFO:
Alfa Laval / Ashbrook Simon-Hartley
800/362-9041 www.alfalaval.us/wastewater
Leopold - a Xylem Brand
704/409-9700 www.fbleopold.com
Caterpillar, Inc.
309/675-1000 www.cat.com
PICA Corp. A Jacobi Carbons, Inc. company
215/546-3900 www.jacobi.net
(See ad page 17)
CDM Smith
617/452-6000 www.cdmsmith.com
Siemens Water Technologies Corp.
866/926-8420 www.water.siemens.com
Fuji Electric Corp. of America
510/440-1060 www.fujielectric.com
Invensys Operations Management
949/727-3200 www.iom.invensys.com
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies North America
312/552-2887 www.veoliawaterna.com
wsomag.com August 2013
23
New Technology Slated for WEFTEC 2013
BY CRAIG MANDLI
mounting flange or adjustable mounting feet, which adapt to various mounting configurations. They feature metallic or nonmetallic latches and molded-in latch keepers and mounting bosses, and a tongue-and-groove seal joint between cover and base. A clear polycarbonate cover is also available for instrumentation applications. Optional adjustable corner panel mounts for supporting an aluminum hinge front panel within the molded-in corner slots provides either flush positioning with the box top or adjustability down in the box 1.5 inches deep. 419/6364217; www.alliedmoulded.com.
Operator10 from AllMax Software features custom dash-
AllMax Software
EFTEC, the Water Environment Federation’s annual technical exhibition and conference, provides wastewater and water professionals from around the world with quality education and training and a vast technology display. This year’s event, Oct. 5-9 in Chicago, showcases the latest products for municipal and industrial water professionals.
W
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
The ACRS line of automatic scraper-strainers from Acme Engineering Products automatically removes solids and large particles using only dirty water for blowdown. The strainers are available in sizes up to a 66-inch body in steel or corrosion resistant metals. These units are ideal for removing large, irregularly shaped solids and contaminants from graywater for recycling in cooling applications, water and wastewater plants and the protection of downstream fine filtration equipment. They are available down to 75 microns to cover a broad range of straining requirements, and can be designed to fit into existing conventional strainer locations. They are available in FRP construction with Monel internals. 518/236-5659; www.acmeprod.com. Division 1 / Zone 1 explosionproof enclosures from Adalet are constructed from stainless steel 316L. Designed for use in highly corrosive areas, they provide ideal construction material for offshore, petrochem, or volatile industrial areas where environmental conditions require additional corrosion protection. Features include a watertight gasket and stainless steel cover bolts, stainless steel hinge kit, mounting panel, removable lifting eye bolts, cover alignment device, cast-on mounting lugs and internal/external ground screws. A flat plate cover allows for additional working area for viewing win-
Acme Engineering Products
dows and operating devices such as pushbuttons, selector switches and pilot lights. 216/267-9000; www.adalet.com. The IVP 250 from Hydra-Stop, a Division of ADS Environmental Services, is a 16-inch, permanent, insertable gate valve offering increased strength, improved performance, and simplified installation and operation. It features a 2-inch-diameter stainless steel valve stem, interchangeable valve gate, thrust washers and double o-ring seal. It is rated for 250 psi working pressure and up to 375 psi test pressure. 800/538-7867; www.hydra-stop.com.
boards that allow for quick review of specific data and shortcuts to frequently accessed areas of the program. Enhancements to dashboards have made them more customizable for an improved user experience. More flexibility has been added to many features, including DataViews, the program’s data entry screens. The eDV Viewer tool, which allows non-users of the software to submit data to the database remotely, has been redesigned, and an auto-update feature has been added to keep users up to date with the newest software developments. 800/670-1867; www.all maxsoftware.com.
ADS Environmental Services
Bolted, stainless steel tanks from American Structures can be utilized for water, wastewater, commercial and municipal storage applications. The use of bolted, stainless steel in the tanks provides sustainability with little or no maintenance. 715/235-4225; www.ameristruc.com. Felt CIPP liners from Applied Felts utilize a single-pass extruded process for coating to ensure that no pinholes are present. Additional tests are conducted to monitor coating uniformity, mass and weight distribution. Each roll is sampled and destructively tested, including density at various pressures, tensile strength, and coating distribution. During production, the liners are continually checked to ensure they satisfy specifications. Finally, a sample is cut from each finished liner for testing across more criteria to make sure the circumference, density, length, coating integrity and weld strengths meet requirements. 276/656-1904; www.appliedfelts.com.
American Structures
Applied Felts
Agru America
Adalet
corrosion prevention solution for the construction and rehabilitation of concrete containment and transmission systems. It features high backpressure and pull-out resistance, and is low maintenance. It eliminates exfiltration and infiltration, protecting the environment. It also has a high chemical and mechanical resistance. 800/373-2478; www.agruamerica.com.
Sure Grip concrete protective liner from Agru America provides an economical and long-term
Aqua-Aerobic Systems
The Aqua MegaDisk cloth media filter from Aqua-Aerobic Systems features 30 percent larger
Allied Moulded Products
POLYLINE polycarbonate enclosures from Allied Moulded Products come standard with multi-
mounting capability, including an out-of-the-box
diameter disks and fewer mechanical components in a fraction of the space. The result is more hydraulic capacity and lower capital and O&M cost. It achieves low-level TSS and NTU, and accommodates high solids and hydraulic loading rates. It
24
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
also offers low backwash rates, low energy consumption and has a fully automatic PLC control system. This filter is ideal for municipal reuse and phosphorus removal applications with limited land space, or deep bed filter retrofits. 800/940-5008; www.aqua-aerobic.com. The ChemScan mini Mn analyzer from ASA Analytics is designed to assist in process monitoring for manganese removal. Manganese is a natural element present in water. At elevated levels it can adversely affect water taste and color, causing discolored tap water associated with stained clothing, stained bathroom fixtures and clogged ice makers. The analyzer offers real-time data for process monitoring and cost control. It features a long-life LED light source, large I.D. sample tubing and auto cleaning to reduce maintenance requirements. 800/665-7133; www.asaanalytics.com.
Asahi/America Inc.’s Chem Proline piping systems have been certified by NSF to NSF/ANSI Standard 61-G. Made from PE resin, pipe and fittings possess the greatest resistance to slow crack growth. It is a lower cost alternative to metal, fiberglass reinforced plastic pipe and lined steel pipe. A complete system includes pipe, fittings and valves. Available in pipe sizes up to 12 inches, it is ideally suited for use in water treatment and chemical process applications using a variety of chemicals including sodium hydroxide, sodium hypochlorite, caustic soda and low concentration acids. 800/343-3618; www.asahi-america.com. E-Series ultrasonic meters from Badger Meter are constructed from a lead-free stainless steel and engineered polymer. They capture ultra-low flow measurement and offer a high level of metering accuracy. When used in conjunction with Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) solutions, they provide the ability to convey information that can be helpful in detecting leaks or other alarm conditions, a feature not typically available through traditional mechanical meters. 800/876-3837; www.badgermeter.com.
ASA Analytics
The M2L 3000 mediumvoltage variable-frequency drive from Benshaw is designed for industrial applications, but benefits from Curtiss-Wright’s experience in defense and nuclearrelated technologies, an arena where products must meet the most rigorous standards and where failure is simply not an option. Its topology, a modular multilevel converter (M2LC), is powered by stateof-the-art hardware and software control, and is extremely energy efficient and arc resistant. 412/968-0100; www.benshaw.com.
Benshaw
puts. A digital input can be configured via the menu to reset the totalizer, to go into the HOLD mode, to start a zero-point calibration and to activate a replacement measurement value. It also has an adjustable backlit display and a third color-coded LED to allow viewing the device from a distance. It immediately signals if the device status is good or if a warning or an error is active. 800/325-1405; www.burkert-usa.com.
Caldwell Tanks
The Bilco Company
Asahi/America Inc.
from The Bilco Company provides a permanent means of fall protection for the company’s line of singleand double-leaf floor access doors. It is constructed of lightweight aluminum grating and stainless steel hardware for corrosion resistance. The grating panel has a safety yellow powder coat finish, and the system features a stainless steel hold-open device that secures each panel in the full 90-degree position, maximizing the door’s usable access area. 203/934-6363; www.bilco.com.
Fall Protection Grating
Blacoh Fluid Control
age tanks designed and constructed to meet the requirements of AWWA D110 and ACI 372. They are a proven, low-maintenance choice for a variety of applications, including potable water, municipal and industrial wastewater and thermal energy storage. They combine the reliability of a 125-year track record in liquidcontainment with decades of combined experience in the successful design and construction of prestressed concrete tank structures to provide customized storage solutions for customers. 502/ 964-3361; www.caldwelltanks. com.
Prestressed Concrete Tanks (PCT) from Caldwell Tanks are wire-wrapped, prestressed concrete stor-
Badger Meter
SENTRY Revolution dampeners from Blacoh Fluid Control offer a solution for pulsation dampening in harsh and corrosive applications. These 10-cubic-inch pulsation dampeners are available in both PVC and CPVC for improved chemical compatibility, and feature threaded housings in place of traditional metal fasteners that can be damaged in corrosive environments. When needed, CPVC models have a considerably higher temperature rating (180 degrees F) compared to PVC models, with chemical resistance equal to or better than PVC. 800/603-7867; www.blacoh.com.
CST Covers
Beck, Harold & Sons
accurately and consistently track the demand signal, allowing users to fully utilize a control system’s capabilities, decreasing process variability, improving product quality and reducing operational costs. The linear and rotary valve actuators feature a 100 percent continuous-duty motor that won’t burn out. 215/968-4600; www.haroldbeck.com.
BECK electric actuators from Beck, Harold & Sons can quickly,
The Proseries-M M-2 peristaltic metering pump from BlueWhite Industries has many features seen in more expensive pump models designed for large municipalities, but at a smaller price tag. The gentle squeezing action of its valveless design results in near continuous injection of chemical for efficient water and wastewater treatment. Standard control features include an easy-to-use intelligent control systems design, permitting connection to SCADA systems and other remote controllers, for chemical dosing control via either 4-20 mA signal, highspeed digital pulse input or a slow pulse for batching type applications. 714/893-8529; www.blue-white. com.
Blue-White Industries
Clear-span aluminum domes from CST Covers provide cover to water and wastewater storage tanks located above and in-ground. Superior corrosion resistance provides an ideal solution for tough outdoor water challenges and corrosive wastewater environments. The lightweight structures offer great design flexibility, eliminate downtime with easy, fast installation and provide excellent odor control. Structurally durable yet lightweight, they meet site-specific load requirements while accommodating process equipment either underneath or above the covers. Custom domes are available up to 1,000 feet in diameter for most new and existing tanks. 913/621-3700; www.cstcovers.com.
CUES Inc.
Burkert Fluid Control Systems
cut-off function that allows setting a limit below which the measurement value is set to zero, with consequences on the display, the totalizers and out-
The insertion EMF Type 83045 flowmeter from Burkert Fluid Control Systems offers a low-flow
The CUES Digital Universal Camera (DUC) is a high resolution, digital CCTV, side-scanning camera designed for rapid and detailed condition assessment of a water or wastewater system. Inspect and assess 5,000 feet or more per day, increasing revenue while reducing expenses. The system produces a high-resolution digital video scan of internal pipe conditions in 6- to 60- inch pipe, and a flat unfolded view of the pipe to facilitate rapid assignment of observations. An expanded flat unfolded view of the pipe is provided for measurement purposes. This low-maintenance camera has no moving parts and is driven through the pipe without the need to stop or pan and tilt. 800/3277791; www.cuesinc.com. (continued)
wsomag.com August 2013
25
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
The TAC II SCADA System from Data Flow Systems features user-friendly H M I soft ware, no - cost SCADA software licenses, a plug-and-play design, ease of integration, durability in harsh environmental conditions and a three-year lightning warranty. The system provides a true obsolescence-proof solution, in which all new products maintain a downward compatibility with all older versions, allowing a utility to maximize their investment in SCADA over the long term. 321/259-5009; www. dataflowsys.com.
DN Tanks specializes in the design and construction of AWWA D110 prestressed concrete tanks used for potable water, wastewater, chilled water and other liquids. With over 2,500 tanks ranging in capacity from 40,000 gallons to 40 million gallons, they offer expanded construction capacity, unmatched technical expertise and proficiency in multiple types of proven tank designs to provide customized liquid storage solutions. Tanks are designed to meet varying project requirements with the ability to withstand seismic activity, extreme climates and severe site conditions. 800/826-8306; www.dntanks.com.
Data Flow Systems
61 certified hollow and water-filled plastic ball covers for bird control for municipalities, industrial wastewater plants, recyclable containers, rentals and curtains. 910/245-2241; www.eccllc.us. The ePIPE Process provides a cost-effective alternative to communication and customer pipe replacement for lead remediation in piping systems. It has the ability to line service pipe from the water main right up to the internal tap by blowing an epoxy resin in both directions from an adaptor at the outside stop tap. Only one excavation is needed, and the maximum amount of time the pipes are off supply is three hours. 714/564-7600; www.epipeinfo.com.
Defender filter covers from Environetics prevent algae growth, contain odor and maintain operating temperatures. Opaque covers block UV light, prohibiting algae growth to keep filters clean. A mechanical attachment system provides a positive seal for effective odor containment. A low-profile design minimizes internal volume, reducing odor treatment requirements. Covers isolate thermal air masses to maintain operating temperatures and eliminate freezing. Optional insulation system is available. Modular construction enables rapid installation. 815/838-8331; www.environeticsinc.com.
ePIPE
rosion and UV. After installation, the cover requires little to no maintenance. The company includes complete drawings and comprehensive engineering in a submittal package. The system adheres to the ASCE standard. 888/593-3552; www.fibfab.com. The Experior wastewater pumping system from Flygt – a Xylem Brand, offers energy savings in a package that is simple to install and easy to operate. Its Adaptive N-technology allows the impeller to move axially upward when necessary to permit bulky materials or tough debris to pass through smoothly, reducing stress on the shaft, seals and bearings. It is available with efficient motors that have been optimized for wastewater pumping applications, including some models featuring LSPM design. SmartRun intelligent controls enable it to be pre-programmed and pre-set, optimizing energy use and reducing energy consumption. 704/409-9700; www.flygtus.com. The Signet 4630 free-chlorine analyzer system from GF Piping Systems is designed to measure free chlorine in applications with stable pH, temperature and chlorine levels. Designed with amperometric-based sensing technology, it incorporates a clear flow cell, flow regulator, sensors, filter and rotameter in one compact unit for use in water distribution, ground and surface water, boiler feed water, graywater dechlorination, food and beverage, RO membrane protection and swimming pools. It is EPA 334.0 compliant and has reagent-free measuring, a built-in flow regulator, a panel that includes 100–240 VAC power supply, two 4–20 mA outputs, two mechanical relays and optional automatic pH/temperature compensation. 800/854-4090; www.gfpiping.com. The G460 multi-sensor atmospheric monitor from GfG Instrumentation features a concussionproof boot, along with a highly dust- and waterresistant housing. It has completely automatic calibration, one-button operation, top-mounted display, interchangeable battery packs, a highly configurable smart sensor design and data logging and event logging are standard. Options include dual-range infrared combustible gas sensor, motorized pump operable in diffusion or sample draw mode and up to seven channels of detection. 800/959-0329; www.gfg-inc.com.
Flygt – a Xylem Brand
DN Tanks
Environetics
GF Piping Systems
The eddy current variablespeed drive system from DSI Dynamatic consists of a constantspeed AC induction motor and an electromagnetic clutch, governed by a small, simple controller. Systems are available with simple yet versatile digital control options for simplified pump-drive system programming. Existing eddy current clutches can be remanufactured to factorynew condition, or retrofitted with new controls for increased monitoring capabilities. 800/548-2169; www.dynamatic.com. The Series 2100 MEGAFLANGE restrained flange adapter from EBAA Iron is a
DSI Dynamatic
FCI - Fluid Components International
The ST100 flowmeter from FCI - Fluid Components International features a wide choice
EBAA Iron
field-adaptable wedge-style restrained flanging system. It has a restraint ring and a gasket ring to give the maximum amount of flexibility during and after installation. It can be used on AWWA C900 and C905 PVC Pipe, IPS O.D. (Class) PVC Pipe, Ductile Iron Pipe, Steel Pipe and HDPE Pipe. It is available in 3- to 48-inch sizes. 800/433-1716; www.ebaa.com.
of communication options, with 4-20 mA analog, frequency/pulse, alarm relays and fully approved digital communications: HART, Foundation Fieldbus, Modbus and Profibus. It combines flow-sensing performance with feature- and function-rich electronics. It includes plug-in card replacement that can be changed out by technicians in the field to adapt to a plant’s changing network communication needs. 800/854-1993; www. fluidcomponents.com.
GfG Instrumentation
Fiberglass Fabricators
ECC, LLC
Floating ball covers from ECC, LLC are designed for use
in municipal drinking water applications. They are NSF
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Composi-Cover from Fiberglass Fabricators is a flat odor-control cover system that’s an alternative to aluminum covers. It is easy to install, and works equally well with rectangular and round tanks, as well as functioning as an algae/ weir cover system. In addition, long unsupported spans can be accommodated. The system includes large, lightweight access hatches and a variety of penetration options. It offers resistance to chemicals, cor-
Gorman-Rupp Pumps
Designed to deliver all the benefits of our sound-attenuated silent pumps, the ReliaPrime emergency bypass station from Gorman-Rupp Pumps
26
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
operates on natural gas, making it quiet, efficient and environmentally friendly. It features a 6-inch Super T Series pump capable of passing a 3-inch spherical solid, and offers a sound-proof lightweight aluminum enclosure with lockable door panels that can be removed for maintenance of the pump or engine. It is a complete backup package, ready for hook-up in emergencies and power outages, primary pump repair and additional pumping capacity. 419/755-1011; www.grpumps.com. The 0.02-10NTU MicroTOL online turbidimeter from HF Scientific is ideal for applications such as drinking water where a measurement range greater than 10NTU is not required. Calibration points are at 0.02, 1.0 and 10NTU. Models are available for Turbidity Method 180.1 and ISO7027 and with or without ultrasonic autoclean. 888/203-7248; www.hfscientific.com.
HF Scientific
JUMO Process Control displays
Hobas Pipe USA
Halogen Valve
The Hexacon Model III control system from Halogen Valve has an optional programmable relay interface module and SCADA informational output to provide active and timely notifications. The optional second battery provides for quicker and more reliable valve closures. The microprocessor system applies 30 ft-lb of torque for test or 50 ft-lb for emergency valve closures for up to six cylinder and ton container valves. All fire codes recognize and approve its automatic-closing fail-safe shutoff valve system in lieu of a scrubber. The SCADA option provides actuator closure status and error codes to quickly analyze problems. 877/476-4222; www.halogenvalve.com.
Centrifugally cast, fiberglass-reinforced, polymer mortar pipe from Hobas Pipe USA is inherently corrosion resistant and lasts 100 years or more, providing a very low life cycle cost. Key applications are sanitary and storm sewers, corrosive environments and potable water. It features leakfree, push-together joints that reduce installation time and costs. Benefits include superior hydraulics, lightweight, high strength and long maintenance-free service life. Installation methods include open cut, sliplining, jacking, microtunneling, two-pass tunnel, casing carrier and above-ground. Sizes range from 18 to 126 inches for both pressure and gravity applications. 800/856-7473; www.hobaspipe.com.
and processes sensor signals for pH or redox value, electrolytic conductivity, resistance of ultrapure water, temperature, flow rate, disinfecting measurement parameters, and free chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone, hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid. A 5.5-inch color touch screen displays parameters to operate and configure the device. Single and double relay cards, semiconductor switches and PhotoMOS relays are available as switching outputs. The integrated paperless recorder features four analog and three binary signals, which can be recorded in two groups and displayed as a graph on the screen. 315/437-5866; www.jumousa.com.
Keller America
Harmsco Filtration Products
exceed the three-log (99.9 percent) removal requirement described in the LT2 ESWTR Toolbox Guidance Manual 8.4.1. for cyst-sized particles. They are ideal to control Cryptosporidium, Giardia cysts and other harmful microorganisms to help ensure safe drinking water. To verify performance, Pace/IBR independent testing facilities were selected to conduct challenge tests. This defines the maximum challenge particulate based on detection limit and acceptable Cryptosporidium surrogate — 2 microns in these tests. The terminal pressure drop was determined to be 30 psi. They were tested via single pass protocol per the EPA at three separate points. 800/327-3248; www.harmsco.com.
LT2 cartridges and housings from Harmsco Filtration Products
The Utility chainsaw from ICS – PowerGrit addresses operator safety with grinding technology which eliminates rotational kickback and offers improved operator positioning when cutting pipe. Utilized by public, private water and wastewater departments worldwide, it is designed to cut a variety of materials from ductile iron to plastic pipe with far less excavation. The ability to cut up to 24-inch pipe without changing position reduces the difficulty of the job. 800/797-4748; www.powergrit.com.
ICS - PowerGrit
The LevelRat non-fouling level transmitter from Keller America features a Kynar diaphragm that combines the non-stick properties of Teflon with superior resistance to puncture and abrasion. The result is a small, non-fouling level transmitter fit for use in even the worst environments, without the need for bulky protective cages. It includes guaranteed lightning protection standard on all 4-20 mA units. 877/2535537; www.kelleramerica.com.
Intelligent Flushing Systems (IFS) from The Kupferle Foundry Company incorporate a chlo-
The Kupferle Foundry Company
International Paint-Devoe Coatings
Hellan Strainer Company
for all filtration applications. They capture the debris on the outside of the screen. The screen is then rotated against a scraper blade or brush to remove all debris. No disassembly is required during the 15-second cleaning cycle. All strainers are manufactured to ISO-9001 and meet all international codes (i.e., ASME, CE/PED, Lloyds, MIL, etc.). 888/4435526; www.hellanstrainer.com.
Fluid strainers from the Hellan Strainer Company are offered in a variety of materials and sizes
potable water tank lining system designed for low VOC compliance. The 100 percent solids, highbuild system features a fast cure, 2:1 mixing ratio and single coat application capability, even in temperatures as low as 35 degrees F. It carries an NSF/ANSI 61 certification for potable water use and cures to a hard, high-gloss finish. It is applied with a plural airless sprayer directly to the water tank’s carbon or stainless steel interior. 440/2342900; www.international-pc.com.
Bar-Rust 234P from International Paint-Devoe Coatings is a solvent-free epoxy, low-temperature
rine analyzer and programmable logic controller into the design. They allow users to program minimum and desired chlorine residual levels that can be automatically maintained while only flushing the exact amount of water necessary to achieve these programmed parameters. They use an amperometric analyzer (no reagents required), and capture all initial and ending chlorine residual levels per sampling sequence, as well as time of day and flush duration. Data is easily downloaded onto a formatted micro-SD card, and can be downloaded into preformatted spreadsheet templates for analysis. 800/231-3990; www. hydrants.com.
JUMO Process Control
The AQUIS touch S modular multichannel measuring instrument for liquid analysis from
Lucity Mobile for Android-based tablets is a mobile app that delivers CMMS workflows, complete with personalized dashboards and views. Features include support of the company’s Web asset and maintenance management modules, modification of live data using custom forms, utilization of existing ArcGIS for server map services and creation of requests, work orders and inspections from the map. 800/492-2468; www. lucity.com. (continued)
wsomag.com August 2013
Lucity Inc.
27
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
Ludeca
VIBCONNECT RF from Ludeca
is a wireless condition monitoring system for plant machinery. Simply install a sensor unit consisting of a radio module and two combined sensors for vibration and temperature at the machines. The sensor unit monitors machine vibration, bearing condition and temperature and transmits the relevant data to a bridge where it is evaluated. Each bridge caters to as many as 50 sensor units located within the large radio range of the system. It not only monitors the condition of roller bearings and other rotating components, but also detects damage caused by cavitation, enabling the detection of damage to machine components at an early stage. 305/591-8935; www.ludeca.com. The MAGDOS LP from LutzJESCO America is a solenoid actuated diaphragm pump with a wide capacity range for accurate dosing. Features include a capacity range 0.13 to 3.96 gph, up to 232 psig, batch dosing with both interval and timer functions, an easylogic menu with graphical display and ecosettings to optimize energy and chemical usage. Its dosing rate can be adjusted by changing the stroke frequency manually or by using a 4-20 mA signal. 800/554-2762; www.jescoamerica.com.
The PWM100 water mixer from PAX Water Technologies features a selfinstall design, allowing the unit to be easily lowered through the tank hatch. It can be used to eliminate thermal stratification, reduce residual loss, lower disinfection byproducts and prevent ice formation. It uses a biomimetic nozzle that enables a similar vortex flow pattern inside storage tanks. It is able to self-right on the floor of the tank, even on a sloped surface, and has the advantages of being compact and easy to install and retrieve. The mixer is made of 316 stainless steel, is NSF/ANSI 61 certified and comes with a three-year warranty. 866/729-6493; www. paxwater.com. The IntelliBoost variablespeed constant-pressure booster system from Pentair/Aurora is specifically tailored to freshwater applications in high rises, office buildings, hospitals, hotels, and other commercial, industrial and municipal locations. This system offers a combination of the company’s variable-frequency drive for each pump, and a programmable logic controller (PLC) with a proportional integral derivative (PID) loop to stage up to four pumps based on pressure and flow needs of the building. Pumps are the company’s PVM multistage and end suction pumps. 630/859-7000; www.aurorapump.com. The PT-IQ surge protection device from Phoenix Contact offers multi-stage remote monitoring,
PAX Water Technologies
Rockwell Automation
Lutz-JESCO America
Pentair/Aurora
available with embedded EtherNet/IP, giving utilities access to production information throughout the enterprise. Plant engineers can access more detailed data allowing them to predict potential problems and prevent equipment failures, resulting in higher asset availability, improved productivity and reduced maintenance costs. Leveraging a single, standard network simplifies communication and provides users with the flexibility to control, configure and collect data from any point in the system. 414/382-2000; www.rockwellautomation.com/industries/water.
Allen-Bradley NEMA and IEC CENTERLINE Motor Control Centers (MCCs) from Rockwell Automation are
Rosemount Analytical
Phoenix Contact
MPC Containment
Collapsible storage bladders from MPC Containment are available in sizes ranging from 250 to 210,000 gallons and larger. They can be used for potable, gray and black water. They are fabricated using military-grade materials and NSF certified potable water-grade materials. All flexible bladders are available in custom designs and sizes, and include fittings as required. 800/621-0146; www. mpccontainment.com.
shelters that safely house equipment, chemicals, controls and workers. Standard sizes are 8 feet tall, 4 to 16 feet wide and up to 42 feet long. Features include structural foam-core fiberglass walls (2 to 4 inches thick), a weatherproof watertight structure, insulation value up to R24, chemical and corrosion resistance, a roof structure rated up to 100 psf and field or factory assembly. 800/348-9843; www.orenco.com.
Pre-fabricated fiberglass shelters from Orenco Systems are strong, lightweight, super-insulated
Orenco Systems
ideal for SCADA systems typical in water/wastewater systems. It provides proactive functional monitoring for signal interface surge protection devices. The system informs the user if a plug replacement is needed long before the components fail due to overload. This can prevent unnecessary service costs, while ensuring system availability and signal quality. 800/322-3225; www.phoenixcontact.com.
The 56 four-wire advanced liquid analyzer from Rosemount Analytical integrates tools, tips and troubleshooting to solve problems on site. Its help screens allow users to clear faults and warnings with detailed instructions and troubleshooting in multiple languages. The data and event logger downloads process data and alarm conditions via a USB 2.0 data port. A high-resolution full-color screen allows users to view process measurements and data trend graphs. It features PID and time-proportional capabilities, and HART and Profibus DP digital communications. It is compatible with a Smart Wireless THUM Adaptor. 800/854-8257; www.rosemount analytical.com.
Schreiber
Raven Lining Systems
The Fuzzy Filter from Schreiber is a compressible media filter for water and wastewater treatment systems. Operating in an upflow or downflow design, it achieves an exceptionally high rate of solids removal through the use of synthetic fiber spheres. With loading rates of 40+ gpm/sq. ft., the filter requires 20 percent of the space for sand filters. Applications include tertiary wastewater, pre-filtration to RO systems, water reuse (Title 22), CSO and many industrial process applications. 205/6557466; www.schreiberwater.com.
Raven Lining Systems are 100 percent solids, ultra high-build epoxies used to protect against corrosion in new construction and to rebuild deteriorating infrastructures. They are moisture tolerant and environmentally friendly, providing continual support to those looking for longterm protection and infrastructure renewal. 800/ 324-2810; www.ravenlining.com.
Dura-Plate 301, a solvent-free, surface and humidity tolerant twopack modified epoxy from SherwinWilliams Co., can be applied over damp steel surfaces without dew point restrictions in treatment facilities with pipe galleries. It protects sweating pipes from corrosion, and also eliminates odor associated with coatings that contain high levels of solvent. It is suitable for marginal surface preparation, which prevents damage to equipment such as treatment
Sherwin-Williams Co.
28
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
pumps and motors that can be affected by abrasive blasting. 800/524-5979; www.sherwin-williams. com/protective. The OSEC B-Pak system from Siemens Water Technologies is a fully automated, pre-packaged proof, and features waterproof probe attachment points that also accept standard (non-waterproof) BNC probes. They have a “soft-grip” surface to help prevent accidental drops, making them ideal for field use. Other features include a backlit LCD display, 99-memory review, min/max/ave, internal clock and calendar, auto-ranging and ATC. Models are available to measure dissolved oxygen, pH, mV, ORP, conductivity, TDS and temperature. 480/3480278; www.sperdirect.com. forcement webbies/web stiffeners are required on this design. Field construction is accomplished utilizing a synchronized, hydraulic screw jack process, which keeps field crews on the ground. This field construction process receives the highest industry ratings for quality control and safety in the field. Tanks are available in sizes up to 8 million gallons. 620/4233010; www.tankconnection.com. The AquaPro multi-input process analyzer from Thermo Fisher Scientific is an intelligent, flexible analysis platform for a wide range of water and wastewater treatment applications. Displaying the status of up to four measurement parameters simultaneously, a complete picture of process status can be displayed on a single instrument due to the analyzer’s multichannel capability, reducing the number of meters required, as well as installation and maintenance time. Its user-friendly interface and easy-to-use menus in seven languages enable simple, intuitive operation. Its plug-and-play architecture simplifies the addition of new features and parameters, allowing you to configure the exact analyzer for your needs. 800/225-1480; www.thermoscientific.com/ processwater. Models 5PA5 (500-pound capacity) and 5PA10 (1,000-pound capacity) Ensign Series davit cranes from Thern Inc. were designed for the water/wastewater industry. They feature a hook height and reach suitable to wastewater applications, along with a new boom adjustment system and reduced rotational effort, which is ideally suited for servicing pumps and mixers. 800/843-7648; www.thern.com. The Pur-IX system from Tonka Water provides an ion exchange solution for potable water systems, and incorporates a series of ion exchange vessels, which are continuously cycled through water treatment and regeneration modes with a multi-port valve. The system provides cost-effective results for hardness removal, and treating nitrates, organics, color, uranium, sulfates and other compounds. Benefits include reduced brine usage and waste volumes, a simple design, continuous regeneration and compact footprint. 763/559-2837; www.tonkawater. com.
VTScada Version 11 from Trihedral Engineering Limited features open connectivity that supports
Siemens Water Technologies
on-site hypochlorite system designed for fast and economical installation, safe operation and easy maintenance. It is now available in capacities from 65 to 260 lb/day, as well as higher capacity units up to 1,500 pounds of equivalent chlorine per day. It generates a 0.8 percent sodium hypochlorite solution through the electrolysis of brine, consuming only water, salt and electricity. By producing hypochlorite on site and on demand, it eliminates concerns associated with transportation and storage of liquefied chlorine gas or commercial sodium hypochlorite solutions, and makes it ideal for any application requiring chlorination. 866/926-8420; www.water.siemens.com. The ZS Strainer from Singer Valve is designed to protect con-
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Strongwell
Singer Valve
trol valves and pipelines from foreign matter such as twigs, leaves and rocks that get caught in the flow and can cause blocks or equipment failure. It has a Z-plate design that provides a smooth laminar flow, which reduces downstream disturbance, making it ideal for locations ahead of automatic control valves. The corrosion-resistant 316 stainless steel screen allows for a large flow area and is easily removed. There are two body taps that allow for differential pressure measurement. It is available in 3-, 4-, 6- and 8-inch pipes sizes, 150-pound or 300-pound flanged. 604/594-5404; www.singervalve.com. The AyrJet Series of high-speed turbo blowers from Spencer Turbine Company provide energyefficient water and wastewater treatment aeration, with flows to 9,000 cfm and pressures up to 16 psig. They feature magnetic bearing technology, with best-in-industry wire-to-air efficiencies. This technology offers high thrust load capability and lower starting torque than air-foil bearings. Built-in monitoring and managing of the shaft position provides inherent fail-safe protection. It has a programmable logic controller, operator interface terminal, and flow-based, pressure-based or level-based control. Systems are prewired and pretested with built-in inlet filtration, oil-free air delivery and a sound-reducing enclosure. 800/232-4321; www. spencerturbine.com. The AquaShock waterproof and shockproof water-quality meter from Sper Scientific is rechargeable, and floats if dropped in water. It is IP67 water-
The fiberglass (FRP) COMPOSOLITE building panel system from Strongwell is a strong, lightweight, corrosion-resistant and easy-to-install alternative to traditional corrugated baffle wall systems. The design provides the ability to increase column spacing. For retrofits, panels can be mounted to existing columns or attached to H-beams or concrete walls for durability and cost effectiveness. It can be used in conjunction with EXTREN structural shapes to form an all-FRP composite system (except for the stainless steel fasteners). 276/645-8000; www. strongwell.com.
The ABS Turbocompressor HST 20 from Sulzer Pumps is a
Sulzer Pumps
Spencer Turbine Company
direct-drive high-speed turbocompressor with built-in inlet and outlet air silencers (less than 70 dBA). It features wire-to-air efficiency (advanced permanent magnet motors and digitally controlled magnetic bearings), an intuitive human-machine interface (HMI), advanced magnetic bearings and bearing control coupled with a self-diagnostic control system which optimizes performance and overall lower operating cost. 503/205-3600; www.sulzer.com.
Thern Inc.
Swan Analytical USA
monitor chlorine residuals accurately and reliably, with the capability to control the process. They can monitor sample flow, reagent status, validation of results and parameter value for remote monitoring. An optional integrated cleaning module reduces manpower to maintain the analyzers, reducing bio-fouling and scaling. 847/229-1290; www.swan-analytical-usa.com.
Codes II Series analyzers from Swan Analytical USA continuously
Tonka Water
Tank Connection Affiliate Group
Sper Scientific
RTP Bolted Tanks from Tank Connection Affiliate Group combine bolted and field-welded tank
construction in the RTP (rolled, tapered panel) tank design. Bolted RTP construction features exact manufacturing tolerances with sidewall thickness up to 1/2-inch plate. No external rein-
Trihedral Engineering Limited
(continued)
wsomag.com August 2013
29
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
all major PLCs or RTUs, and can replace polling with Master PLCs. One file installs all the components, and its server architecture offers no-compromise load balancing and failover using fewer computers. Application version control permits instant recovery from unexpected effects of configuration. The new lift station optimization features coordinate collections operations to reduce energy costs, increase response time and reduce surges. 800/4632783; www.trihedral.com. The Ultradome roof from the Ultraflote Corporation is a fully triangulated, spherical, space-frame structure designed to be self-supporting from its periphery with primary horizontal thrust contained by an integral tension ring. The framework is covered with attractive non-corrugated aluminum panels. It is virtually maintenance-free, as the aluminum alloys utilized are weather resistant and do not require coating. 713/461-2100; www.ultraflote.com. on fluorescent technology. It consists of an optical device complete of fluorescent material, a dissolved oxygen and temperature-measuring circuit, two-wire 4-20 mA analog output, RS 485 digital output and nozzle for autoclean by external pressure air. The probe can be connected to a PLC or data logger without using amplifiers or other devices, and can be connected to any controller to power the probe. Applications include water quality monitoring, municipal and water treatment and aquaculture. 800/522-7920; www. vl-pc.com.
USA Tank
Ultraflote Corporation
mance, reliability and ease of installation. Their flat seam, fieldassembled design eliminates leaky flange connections and lap gaskets in liquid tank applications. Using the latest sealant to replace all strip gaskets dramatically reduces the possibility of bolted panel seam leaks. Tanks are erected from ground level with a jacking system, improving safety at the construction site. 866/700-2500; www. usatanksales.com. The OD8325 optical dissolved oxygen probe from Van London – pHoenix Co. is a submersible probe designed to measure dissolved oxygen based
Flat panel bolted tanks from USA Tank offer outstanding perfor-
Vogelsang
Van London – pHoenix Co.
“
What makes it all work is the people. I am really proud of our team. We look for responsibility and a good work ethic. We can teach wastewater operation or lab technique, but we can’t teach character. Each person brings that with them the first day.”
James Pendleton, Plant Superintendent Harpeth Valley Utilities District Wastewater Treatment Plant, Nashville, Tenn.
percent of the parts that make up a typical rotary lobe pump wet-end. This means real cost-savings in terms of spare parts cost, as well as associated labor. It also features an advanced flow-path design that improves flow and solids handling. The integrated flange design allows a flange to be used in a 90-degree or gooseneck arrangement, keeping the pump flooded to maintain prime and extended dry running. The flange arrangement is also very narrow. It delivers pulsation-free flow, low shear and high solids handling. 800/984-9400; www. vogelsangusa.com.
IQ Series pumps from Vogelsang eliminate 50
WEG Electric Corp.
to maximize performance and energy savings. It features an optimized cooling system, large and accessible terminal box, a bearing seal system, low vibration levels and a 1.25 service factor. 800/275-4934; www.weg.net/us.
The W22 electric motor from WEG Electric Corp. was designed
Weidmuller
People.
30
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
The greatest natural resource.
tpomag.com
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE
feature NEMA 4X outdoorrated stainless steel or plastic enclosures with either WiFi or radio frequency transmitters/ receivers. The WiFi solution features a Weidmuller wireless Ethernet (WiFi) 2.4 Ghz modem, which can function as an access point, bridge, client or router. The radio frequency solution can transmit and receive two digital and one analog signal over a range of several miles. The two preassembled plastic enclosures each house a matched transmitter and receiver. They are pre-installed with a power supply, circuit protection, surge protection, terminal blocks, ground blocks, antenna, antenna connection cables and network and power connections. 800/849-9343; www.weidmuller.com. wso
Pre-configured wireless enclosures from Weidmuller
NEWS
PSG names marketing, development directors
Pump Solutions Group appointed Doug Cumpston director of global segment marketing, and named Russell Sitka director of business development, Americas. Cumpston will be responsible for the development and execution of PSG’s global energy market strategy. Sitka will be responsible for the coordination and execution of PSG’s strategy for the regional vertical segments, including strategic program and business plan development.
INDUSTRY
Dow, Haier sign trademark agreement
Dow Water & Process Solutions, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Co., signed the Haier Group as a trademark licensee partner with the FILMTEC reverse osmosis branding program to help enhance the quality of residential water for consumers in China. Haier will use DW&PS’s technology in its residential water purification system and filtration products, as well as marketing materials.
WILO director of engineering/sales manager passes away
Joseph Melton, director of engineering/national sales manager-water management for WILO USA passed away in May. He was 53.
Sauereisen names research manager, office staff
Sauereisen promoted Greg Maloney to research manager, overseeing the company’s C. Fred Sauereisen Laboratory. It also promoted several members of the office staff. Kim Galley was named finance administrator and Vicki Abell was promoted to billing, credit and collections administrator. Pam Semgo joined the accounting department as financial assistant to the controller and Patti Kenzie joined the company as executive assistant and human resource generalist.
Hyde Marine names distributor for water management systems
Hyde Marine, a wholly owned subsidiary of Calgon Carbon Corp., named W&O Supply its exclusive sales distributor in the U.S. and Canada for Hyde Guardian ballast water treatment systems. With 16 stocking locations in the U.S. and Canada, two in Europe and one in South America, W&O Supply serves all segments of the maritime industry, including upstream oil and gas rigs.
Greg Maloney
Kim Galley
TOMCO2 Equipment changes name to TOMCO2 Systems
TOMCO2 Equipment Co. changed its name to TOMCO2 Systems. The name change is accompanied by a new logo, brand identity and website, www.tomcosystems.com.
Vicki Abell Patti Kenzie
Gorman-Rupp receives export award
The Gorman-Rupp Co. received the President’s “E” Award for Exports from U.S. Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank. A total of 57 companies received the award this year. It is the highest recognition a U.S. entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports. wso
FreeWave celebrates grand opening of new headquarters
FreeWave Technologies celebrated the grand opening of its new corporate headquarters in Boulder, Colo. The 45,000-square-foot facility — 80 percent larger than its previous building — includes increased manufacturing space and product testing center.
ARCADIS’s Wijsman joins Water Education Foundation board
Peter Wijsman, water management leader for ARCADIS engineering and consulting, was elected to the Water Education Foundation’s Board of Directors. He is a 2012 member of the foundation’s Water Leaders Program and joins four other newly elected board members.
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wsomag.com August 2013
31
CAse stuDIes:
By CRAIg MANDlI
DIsINFeCtION
Peristaltic pump improves fluoride injection accuracy
Problem
Pulsating-type diaphragm metering pumps were injecting fluoride at the Jones Ferry Road Water Treatment Plant in North Carolina. The fluoride treatment system at the 20 mgd plant requires one primary pump and one backup pump controlled by 4-20 mA and monitored by a SCADA system. The injection rate is 63 ml/min. Operations supervisor Dusty Martin, with the Orange Water and Sewer Authority, had trouble maintaining accurate and consistent fluoride residuals using the diaphragm pumps, which also were affected intermittently by air pockets that entered the system through the day tank.
Solution
Martin installed a Flex-Pro peristaltic pump from Blue-White Industries. The pump easily hooked into the SCADA system; continuous monitoring confirms that the exact amount of chemical is being injected and residual levels are more consistent.
Result: The peristaltic pumps have been in operation for more than six years with very low maintenance. “I highly recommend a peristaltic pump for fluoride injection,” says Martin. “It has proven very reliable and accurate for many chemical injection applications associated with water treatment.” 714/893-8529; www.blue-white.com.
UV disinfection system installed on an abbreviated schedule
Problem
To meet strict deadlines to implement California Department of Public Health and U.S. EPA LT2 rules for drinking water disinfection, the San Francisco Public Utility Commission (SFPUC) needed to accelerate design, construction and installation of the Tesla Water Treatment Facility, which draws unfiltered water from the Hetch-Hetchy reservoir in northern California.
Solution
The SFPUC used a collaborative design-build construction model and installed a newly designed uV disinfection system engineered by Calgon Carbon Corporation, consisting of 12 Sentinel 48 Chevron UV reactors. Each reactor has nine 20 kW lamps oriented in a chevron formation for effective UV dosing with the least power consumption. The system was designed to function without human supervision except for periodic calibration.
Result: The project brought the Tesla Facility to full compliance with all state and federal public health mandates in about half the time typically required for similar design-bid-build projects, and came in under budget. The plant is the largest of its kind in California, treating 315 mgd and serving more than 2.5 million people. 800/422-7266; www.calgoncarbon.com.
Test confirms effectiveness of PAA disinfectant
Problem
A water treatment plant in Steubenville, Ohio, needed a cost-effective water disinfection method that would not generate chlorinated byproducts.
Solution
In a little more than a month, solvay Chemicals conducted independent plant-scale trials using Proxitane WW-12 peracetic acid (PAA). PAA is a faster-acting disinfectant than chlorine-based chemicals, does not generate harmful DBPs even if overdosed and can be economically retrofitted or work in series with an existing disinfection system. The plant was operating at 5 to 8 mgd with a capacity of 13.5 mgd.
Result: PAA dosage never exceeded 1.5 ppm, and the residual averaged 0.4 ppm but did not exceed 1 ppm. PAA feed was flow-paced, CBOD remained
constant and pathogen control was always within the permit limits. The test was a success. 800/765-8292; www.solvaychemicals.us.
32
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
New chlorinator improves efficiency at award-winning plant
Problem
The Village of Montpelier, Ohio, was updating its water treatment facility and wanted to replace the gas chlorinator equipment. The village originally used a gas chlorinator that needed continual work on its heads, would leak or stick often and needed replacement components. The staff lacked time to babysit the chlorine tank when it was about to go empty.
Solution
The village chose the Regal gas Chlorinator from Chlorinators Incorporated. When one tank goes empty, it automatically switches to the standby tank and maintains a constant feed rate. When used with Regal SmartValves, the system is flow proportional, allowing the flow to be adjusted from 1,400 gpm in summer to 1,000 gpm in winter.
Result: The system helped the village eliminate downtime, save money and reduce labor. Montpelier has won the gold medal at the annual International Water Tasting Event in Berkeley Springs, W.V., three times. 772/288-4854; www.regalchlorinators.com.
Ozone disinfection and pretreatment solves taste and odor issues
Problem
The City of Bécancour, Quebec, Canada, needed a replacement for its older air-based ozone unit. While the unit was still operational, the city struggled with removing color and total organic carbon (TOC) and reducing disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in finished water.
Solution
Pinnacle Ozone solutions provided a complete ozone treatment system. The Pinnacle Peak Series ozone generator system provides ozone to both the pretreatment and disinfection process steps at the plant via a single integrated system. Working with one provider simplified design and installation; the company handled zone generation, oxygen supply, dual ozone injection skids and complete process controls. Other benefits included a significantly reduced footprint, quieter operation and lower maintenance.
Result: By employing Pinnacle’s Ozone-On-Demand controls, the plant maintains constantly high ozone concentrations of 10 percent across the
full range of operating conditions. When combined with the ozone generators, this significantly reduces total power and operating costs. 321/205-1717; www.pinnacleozone.com.
Ozone system clears up taste issues
Problem
The water reaching faucets in Waco, Texas, had such foul taste and odor that residents considered it undrinkable. The problem originated from high nutrient loadings in runoff from dairy farms in the watershed above Lake Waco, the city’s raw water source. The contaminants triggered explosive algae blooms and pathogen spikes. Costly chemical treatment added to the process chains failed to suppress the taint.
Solution
A $55 million process upgrade designed by CH2M Hill and The Wallace Group resolved the problem by adding advanced pretreatment clarification, complemented by a 90 mgd PDO1000 ozone disinfection system from WeDeCO – a Xylem Brand. The dual-purpose ozone system provides primary disinfection without harmful chemical byproducts, ahead of mandatory dose of chlorination at release to the distribution system.
Result: The ozone system oxidizes any residual nutrients and delivers maximum disinfection. The taste and odor in the water are gone, along
with the complaints. 704/409-9700; www.xyleminc.com. (Continued on page 35)
wsomag.com August 2013
33
wiNNiNg thEm ovEr
improvements that Pay their way
A California town encourages improvements that reduce water and energy demand by making the necessary up-front investments — recovered through bill surcharges
By PEtE LittErski
I
n the Town of Windsor, water conservation has been a challenge for decades, but in 2012 this small Northern California community hit on a remedy that already has won national recognition. Launched in August 2012, the Windsor Efficiency PAYS program helps pre-qualified residents make upgrades that improve water and energy efficiency in their homes. They pay a surcharge on their water bills after the upgrades until the costs of their improvements are repaid. Paul Piazza, water conservation program coordinator, says that even with the surcharges in place, residents should see an immediate reduction in their bills. When
improvements are paid off, the surcharges will end and the savings will be even greater.
Everyone wins
“The innovation the PAYS program brings is that it’s attractive to everyone, even customers who don’t participate,” says Piazza. “The participants ultimately pay for the full program, but they are saving money, too. It actually benefits everybody, because even the non-participants benefit from the lower cost of maintaining capacity in the future.”
“
Water-efficient landscaping is a part of the Town of Windsor’s efforts to limit water consumption.
the innovation the PAys program brings is that it’s attractive to everyone, even customers who don’t participate.”
Reducing demand is important for Windsor because it is nearing capacity during peak demand months. The town created the program with financial assistance from the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority and the U.S. Department of Energy Better Buildings Program, but it uses its own reserves as the seed capital for the home improvements. In January, Windsor Efficiency PAYS was one of 12 projects recognized by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Alliance for Water Efficiency for programs that save both energy and water. Of 450 programs nationwide, five were deemed Exemplary Programs, and Windsor was one
PAuL PiAzzA
of seven recognized as Programs of Promise.
Not like rebates
Windsor Efficiency PAYS differs from traditional rebate programs in several ways. First, participants must qualify. “We have to qualify them based on their potential savings,” Piazza says. “We have to be sure that their savings will pay for the upgrades.” In most rebate programs, water customers simply have to prove that they installed
The efficiency program’s basic level includes installing water-saving toilets, showerheads and faucet aerators.
34
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
CAse stuDIes:
DIsINFeCtION
Problem
(Continued from page 33)
Leak detection equipment yields savings
With 75 miles of pipeline installed before 1950 and the unbilled water rate at 34 percent in 2010, operations manager Richard McDaniel of the Rockdale County Water Resource in Conyers, Ga., saw a need to monitor the aging water mains and valves. The department’s budget offered limited leeway.
Solution
In 2011, after research and competitive bidding, McDaniel purchased 370 Permalog+ acoustic leak noise loggers, a Patroller II drive-by data collection device, a triCorr touch real-time leak noise correlator, a soundsens “i” advanced correlating logger system and an Xmic ground microphone from Fluid Conservation systems. The products work together to analyze leak noise from water lines, transmit the data to mobile collection units, and pinpoint leaks to minimize repair time and cost. McDaniel and his team also completed extensive product training to ensure proper operation.
Result: Within the first year, Rockdale County Water found more than 50 leaks responsible
for losses of 248,000 gpd. At a cost of $1 per 1,000 gallons of water, the program has already saved customers more than $90,000 per year. The agency plans to continue expanding Permalog+ coverage of its distribution network. 800/531-5465; www.fluidconservation.com. wso
It’s your magazine. tell your story.
efficient fixtures or appliances. The town has set a goal of qualifying 2,000 customers in the first year and an overall goal of enrolling half of the 8,000 residential customers. “At that point we’ll probably be at our saturation point of customers who can qualify,” Piazza says. Participants enter the program at the basic level, which covers the up-front costs of installing watersaving showerheads, toilets and aerators. The fixtures that qualify exceed the efficiency standards that govern the Windsor rebate program. Once the equipment is installed, or if the home’s existing fixtures already meet program standards, owners can qualify for “basic plus measures” that help with the installation of drought-resistant landscaping, high-efficiency washing machines and compact fluorescent lights. A third step involves “co-pay measures,” requiring partial up-front investment by customers for highefficiency refrigerators, on demand hot-water recirculation pumps and high-efficiency clothes dryers. At every step, the town reviews applications to ensure that the savings will exceed the bill surcharges. If a customer moves from a house or apartment before the upgrades are paid for, that person’s obligation ends; the new resident gets the remaining savings and makes the remaining surcharge payments.
WSO welcomes news about your water system for future articles.
Send your ideas to [email protected]
room to grow
Piazza says the program may expand: “There is the potential to roll this into our commercial side, not so much based on indoor usage, but on landscape.” Water customers who don’t want to take part in or can’t qualify for the PAYS program have other ways to save water and money. Under the Water Smart Home Program residents can have a water conservation representative perform an on-site assessment. Toilets, faucets and showerheads are checked for leaks and tested for water consumption. Where appropriate, the town provides free lowflow replacement showerheads and
faucet aerators. Rebates are available for replacing 3.5-gallon-perflush toilets. Irrigation systems are inspected for leaks and are given a system performance check. Based on the results, the utility team creates a site-specific irrigation schedule for spring, summer and fall and provides water-saving recommendations for tuning up the system. A Water Efficient Landscapes (WEL) program offers rebates for upgrading to water-saving sprinkler technology or for removing turf grass. Commercial and business water users also can save water and money: • The Town of Windsor and the Sonoma County Business Environmental Alliance partner to offer commercial, industrial and institutional users free water-use assessments conducted by an independent contractor, who provides a voluntary action plan. • The town offers free landscape water-use surveys. • Large users can get rebates up
to $150 per toilet for replacing 3.5-gallon-per-flush toilets with units that use 1.28 gallons per flush or less. • The Water Efficient Landscapes Rebate Program provides up to $650 for commercial mixed-use meter accounts or $2,500 for dedicated irrigation meter accounts when customers remove turf or upgrade with new water-saving irrigation equipment. • The Water Efficient Technologies Rebate program can provide up to $25,000 for process and equipment changes that save at least 50,000 gallons per year. wso
WSO welcomes stories
about your public information and education efforts for future “Winning them Over” articles. Send your suggestions to [email protected] or call 877/953-3301.
wsomag.com August 2013
35
Tech TAlk
When Will It Be Your Turn?
Almost every organization has an emergency sooner or later. The best way to make sure you survive it intact is to plan for the worst — today.
BY STeve FrAnk, APr
S
omeone wise once said nothing ever goes wrong — until it does. The softer side The captain of the cruise ship Carnival Triumph probably thought Figuring out the operating emergencies to plan for and creating plans nothing would go wrong with his 102,000-ton ship when he got for them is relatively straightforward. One approach would be to think, underway from Galveston, Texas on Feb. 7 for a four-day cruise to “What’s the worst thing that could happen to us? What is the likelihood Cozumel, Mexico. of that happening?” Write it down, and then do the same thing for several Inspection reports by the U.S. Coast Guard on the condition of backother potentially disastrous events. up generators and lifeboats raised few red flags. The same goes for the With the event identification done, begin to think outside the fencesanitation inspection report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and line to flesh out the plan. What happens if you have a chlorine leak? That Prevention. Yet, something went wrong, and the 4,200 passengers and kind of event affects people both within and outside the plant. Your abilcrew became poster children for what happens when disaster strikes. ity to disinfect is likely compromised, and your employees’ and neighSome took it in stride. Others sued. bors’ health may be jeopardized. A fuel line ruptured, crippling the cruise ship. The ruptured line Panic may set in among your neighbors. The media will descend upon caused an engine room fire, and that caused a complete loss of power. Propulsion was risis management experts say there are only two types of organizations: lost. Toilets wouldn’t flush. Elevators and air conditioning didn’t work. Food service Those that have had a crisis, and those that will. Planning for what to do was severely restricted. The ship had to be in an emergency doesn’t mean you are planning for things to go wrong. towed to Mobile, Ala.
c
It makes you a winner.
Are you ready?
What about our utilities? Are we prepared to deal with a complete loss of power? Or a former employee who comes with a gun and methodically shuts down treatment and alarm systems? Or a major main break that causes a giant sinkhole? An emergency you are unprepared for can ruin your day and your career. Being prepared can make you look brilliant. The basics aren’t that hard. Some states require utilities to have emergency plans on hand. Colorado, for example, requires plants to submit an overall facility operating plan. If a facility doesn’t have an overall operating plan, it must submit a discussion or outline of the emergency response program used at the facility. That submission must include: • A description of alternate power sources • A discussion of alarm systems installed at the facility, including any remote transmission of alarms • A description of the chain of command in emergencies • Any other information needed for emergency response The facility also must submit a copy or description of its staffing plan. The plan must include the number of operators and their certification levels, plus operating personnel coverage during weekdays, weekends and holidays. you. Emergency response agencies, firefighters, hazardous materials handlers and police will overrun your facility, and you will be one among many agencies involved in the situation. Questions from the media will come thick and fast. Confusion will reign. Facilities can prepare for the non-technical requirements of handling an emergency by thinking beyond the control room. At the management level, these preparations include: • List everyone who would be recalled to help deal with an emergency. Include physical address, desk phone, cellphone, home phone, remote location phone (such as a getaway cabin) and email. • Develop an incident command model for emergencies. The Incident Command System is a good model for which there is much support from the federal government. You can find basic information about it at http://www.fema.gov/incident-command-system#item1. • Spell out in writing who has the authority to activate the emergency response plan. • Develop a plan to notify next-of-kin of employees who have been hurt or killed. Make sure you notify the family first. Do not let someone else do it.
36
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
• Sign a WARN (Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network) agreement so you can borrow people and equipment from other utilities in an emergency. • Make sure someone on your recall list has enough spending authority to rent equipment you might need (like power generators) or hire emergency repair crews.
happy endings?
All 155 passengers and crew survived when US Airways Flight 1549 ditched, without power, in the Hudson River in January 2009. They lived because Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger had flown thousands of hours and had practiced all types of emergencies — including dead-stick water landings — in simulators. Sullenberger had seconds to decide whether to try for an emergency landing at Teterboro in New Jersey or in the river. He did not have time to pull out the aircraft operating manual and go through long lists of operating characteristics to choose a course of action. He knew. He knew because he had practiced, and 155 people survived because he had. Crisis management experts say there are only two types of organizations: Those that have had a crisis, and those that will. Planning for what to do in an emergency doesn’t mean you are planning for things to go wrong. It makes you a winner. Sun Tzu, in his book, The Art of War, said the general who plans the most wins the battle. That’s what winners do. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steve Frank is retired as public information officer for the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District in Denver, Colo. He now owns SDF Communications in Arvada and is a communications consultant for water and wastewater utilities. He can be reached at [email protected] or 303-957-7459. wso
handling the press
The next several items will help you plan to deal with the media. Depending on the seriousness of the emergency, you could have zero to hundreds of media people on hand, all demanding your immediate attention. • Identify and appoint in writing an emergency spokesperson or public information officer (PIO), even if you don’t normally have one. The PIO must not be the person who will lead the operational side of the recovery effort. • Designate a back-up for the emergency PIO — people get sick and go on vacation. • Get media training for the PIO and backup, plus the top two operational officials who might serve as incident managers. • Spell out in writing who the PIO must get approval from to release information. • Spell out in writing who will contact government officials. • Compile a phone, cellphone, email and fax list of news media in your town and in nearby large cities. The media can help you notify stakeholders about what to do to avoid danger when lives are at risk. • Decide where your media holding area will be. You will need chairs and tables, phones, electricity, Wi-Fi access and a place to hold press briefings. • Write a one-page fact sheet about your utility. Include the headquarters location, the area it serves, how many people are served, what the annual budget is, how many employees, amount of water treated daily, how many miles of distribution lines, the last major upgrade, history and other basics. This is much easier to do when there is no emergency at hand. • Conduct a tabletop exercise with operators to talk through something like a complete loss of electrical power or other emergency. Include the communication component and local emergency management officials in the exercise. Practice is extremely important. That’s when it’s OK to make a mistake and learn from it.
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Where To BegIn?
There are many good sources of help for getting started with an emergency plan and receiving guidance throughout the process. The U.S. EPA has published “Emergency Response Plan Guidance for Small and Medium Community Water Systems to Comply with the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Act of 2002.” Visit http://www. epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/pubs/small_medium_ERP_guidance 040704.pdf. The EPA also has published a large-system planning document found at http://www.epa.gov/watersecurity/pubs/erp-long-outline.pdf. The National Environmental Training Center for Small Communities has published “Emergency Response Planning Resources for Small Water and Wastewater Utilities.” Visit http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/pdf/ emergency/training/TRBLGN25.pdf.
wsomag.com August 2013
37
Worth Noting
EDUCATION
AWWA
The American Water Works Association is offering these courses: • Sept. 11 – Well Rehabilitation and Asset Management Webinar • Sept. 12 – Design and Maintenance of Stormwater Infiltration Practices, Milwaukee • Sept. 16 - Oct. 6 – AWWA High-Tech Operator Course 1, online • Sept. 16 - Oct. 19 – AWWA Water Treatment Operator Level 2, online • Sept. 16 - Oct. 19 AWWA Water Treatment Operator Level 3, online • Sept. 16 - Oct. 19 – AWWA Water Treatment Operator Level 1, online • Sept. 23-25 – S1302 Financial Management, San Antonio, Texas, online • Sept. 25 – Introduction to Wastewater Treatment, Milwaukee Visit www.awwa.org.
WSO invites your national, state or local association to post notices and news items in the Worth Noting column. Send contributions to [email protected].
Michigan
The Michigan Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Sept. 5 – Advanced Cross Connection Seminar, Lansing • Sept. 23-25 – Basic Math & Hydraulics Short Course, Higgins Lake • Sept. 23-25 – Distribution System Short Course, Higgins Lake Visit www.mi-water.org.
New York
The New York Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Aug. 21 – GIS and Facilities Management, Melville • Sept. 10 – Activated Carbon For Water Treatment, Springville • Sept. 10 – Use of Permanganate & Corrosion Control Chemicals, Troy • Sept. 10 – Use of Permanganate & Corrosion Control Chemicals, Canastota • Sept. 11 – Basic Chemistry For Water Treatment, Ogdensburg • Sept. 11 – Activated Carbon For Water Treatment, Binghampton • Sept. 11 – Fundamentals of Hydraulics, Woodbury • Sept. 24 – Top Ops Boot Camp, Troy • Sept. 25 – Media and Publis Relations, Utica • Sept. 25 – Basic Laboratory Skills, Troy Visit www.nysawwa.org.
Arkansas
The Arkansas Rural Water Association is offering these courses: • Aug. 13-15 – Backflow Repair • Aug. 20-22 – Advanced Distribution, Bono • Aug. 27 – Basic Math, Lonoke • Aug. 28 – Applied Math, Lonoke • Aug. 29 – ADH Compliance, Lonoke • Sept. 10-12 – Basic Treatment, Nashville • Sept. 24-26 – Basic Distribution, West Fork Visit www.arkansasruralwater.org.
North Carolina
The North Carolina Section of AWWA and WEA is offering these courses: • Aug. 12-16 – Western Collection & Distribution School, Morganton • Aug. 29 – Improving Operator Effectiveness Through Automation, Huntersville • Sept. 9-11 – Advanced Utility Management Institute, Durham • Sept. 16-19 – Eastern Maintenance Technologist School & Exam, Raleigh Visit www.ncsafewater.org.
California
The California-Nevada Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Aug. 19-23 – Cross Connection Course, Rancho Cucamonga • Sept. 4-5 – Water Use Efficiency Grade I Workshop, Rancho Cucamonga • Sept. 6 – Backflow Refresher, Rancho Cucamonga • Sept. 9-13 – Backflow Tester Course, Rancho Cucamonga • Sept. 13 – Backflow Refresher, West Sacramento Visit www.ca-nv-awwa.org.
Ohio
The Ohio Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Sept. 12 – Hands-On Collection Workshop, Seneca County • Sept. 19 – Hands-On Collection Workshop, Zanesville • Sept. 25-26 – Plant Operations & Laboratory Analysts Workshop, Grove City Visit www.ohiowea.org.
Colorado
The Rocky Mountain Section of AWWA is offering a PWO Seminar Aug. 22 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Visit www.rmwea.org.
Florida
The Florida Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Aug. 15 – Nitrate and Nitrate Testing, online • Sept. 19 – Phosphate Testing, online Visit www.fsawwa.org.
Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Environmental Training Center is offering these courses: • Aug. 12-13 – C Water Operator, Redlands Community College • Aug. 19-20 – D Water Operator Visit www.rscoetc.wordpress.com.
Illinois
The Illinois Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Aug. 14 – Water Quality: Phosphates, Ammonia, Algae, Filter Cleaning, Macomb • Aug. 29 – Measurement of ATP: A New Tool for Measuring & Managing Water, online • Sept. 5 – Industrial Network Hacking Awareness & Prevention, Rockford • Sept. 19 - Nov. 14 – Water Distribution System Operation & Maintenance 8-week Class, Westmont • Sept. 24 – Collecting, Documenting, & Evaluating Well & Well Pump Test Data, Romeoville • Sept. 25-26 – High Tech Operator Course 1, Lombard Visit www.isawwa.org.
Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Rural Water Association is offering these courses: • Aug. 15 – Traffic Control and High Visibility Clothing, Ashwaubenon • Sept. 12 – Personal Protective Equipment, Plover • Sept. 17 – Personal Protective Equipment, North Fond du Lac Visit www.wrwa.org. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Continuing Education is offering a Design and Maintenance of Stormwater Infiltration Practices course Sept. 12 in Milwaukee. Visit www4.uwm.edu. wso We also feature a “People/Awards” listing which recognizes members of your team. Please send notices of achievements to [email protected].
38
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
EVENTS
Aug. 16
Texas Water Utilities Association Mid-Year Board Meeting, Hyatt Regency Austin. Visit www.twua.org.
Aug. 25-28
American Public Works Association 2013 Congress and Expo, McCormick Place, Chicago. Visit www.apwa.net/congress.
Sept. 8-11
Rocky Mountain Section, American Water Works Association, and Rocky Mountain Water Environment Association 2013 Joint Annual Conference, Keystone, Colo. Visit www.rmwea.org.
Sept. 9-12
Virginia AWWA Section 2013 Annual Conference, Richmond. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 10-13
Michigan AWWA Section 2013 Annual Conference, Grand Rapids. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 11-13
Intermountain Section AWWA Section Conference, Sun Valley, Idaho. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 15-18
28th Annual WateReuse Symposium, Denver, Colo. Visit www. watereuse.org/symposium28.
Sept. 15-18
2013 DSS/Emergency Preparedness and Security Conf., Itasca, Ill. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 15-19
Arkansas Rural Water Association Annual Technical Conference, Hot Springs Convention Center. Visit www.arkansasruralwater.org.
Sept. 18-20
Wisconsin Water Association Annual Conference, Kalahari Resort, Wisconsin Dells. Visit www.wiawwa.org.
Sept. 22-25
AWWA World Congress 2013, Las Vegas, Nev. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 23-25
Northwest Membrane Operator Association First Annual Symposium, “Getting the Best from Your Membrane Treatment Plant,” Vancouver, Wash. Visit www.nwmoa.com.
Sept. 30-Oct. 3
California-Nevada Section AWWA Annual Fall Conference, Sacramento Convention Center/Hyatt Regency, Sacramento, Calif. Visit www. ca-nv-awwa.org.
Dedicated to Municipal Wastewater Professionals
Now there’s a magazine written solely for professionals who manage and operate municipal wastewater treatment facilities: Treatment Plant Operator.™
Get your FREE subscription today at tpomag.com
wsomag.com August 2013
39
BRIGHT IDEAS
Small Scale SCADA
Cloud-based technology provides sophisticated yet affordable system monitoring and control for a small California water company
By PETER SAGuES
H
ow can a small water company set up a SCADA system that provides and stores information to support intelligent decisions and control the water system without breaking the budget? I faced that question two and a half years ago when asked to take over as facilities manager of Gill Creek Mutual Water Company, serving about 86 homes near Geyserville, Calif., when the current managers retired. Having served as a volunteer assistant manager and on the board of directors, I knew the company faced some challenges but had some positive qualities. On one hand, maintenance and repairs ate up 32 to 45 percent of the budget, our electricity costs were high because we were unable to sync with our utility’s time-of-day rate schedule, and we often depended on customers to tell us when we had a problem such as no water or water overflowing a tank. On the other hand, we had ample water storage capacity, good-quality groundwater, and a good relationship with regulators and customers. We needed a way to monitor the system and control the equipment. A traditional SCADA system would have cost $100,000 to set up, and more to maintain and administer — clearly beyond our budget. I called my brother Paul at XiO, specializing in cloud-based automation. He said his company could collect information about our company, store it in the cloud, and use it to make decisions to help control our pumping, ultimately saving us money. While most of the cost of traditional SCADA is in hardware and software, a cloud-based system is stored on servers shared with other users, and the costs are also shared. Today, we have a cloud-based control system that runs all our equipment and tells me more about our fairly complex water company than I could have imagined. Our total SCADA system has cost less than $25,000.
Overview of the Gill Creek water system.
Each morning when I check our system from a laptop, a smartphone or an iPad, I see that the pumps filled our tanks before electric rates went up at 8:30 a.m. If our system uses more water than expected during the day, the system decides when to run the pumps to avoid peak rates. Also in place is an alarm system that can email maintenance people to report minor anomalies or phone me at any hour if immediate action is needed.
Getting started: communication
We needed to link our three locations: the wells, the pumphouse with contact tank and the hilltop tank reservoir. For years we had used five dedicated phone lines to communicate on/off information between the pumps and tanks. Floats in the tanks directed the pumps to start and stop. One phone line was hooked to an auto-dialer that was less than reliable in sending accurate alarms. The usual replacement for a phone line is to use radios that work with the SCADA system and use serial modems, which means extra costs with every hardware or software change. Paul recommended a fairly new technology — reliable and low-cost IP radios, which are used to provide Internet access in rural areas. These smart 900 MHz radios establish a local area network (LAN), but we needed line-of-sight. My first job was to establish radio contact between the pumps and wells. After using GPS to identify four possible transmitter/receiver locations, we plugged the data into Google Earth and found that we had lineof-sight down a canyon if we could locate one of the pumphouse radios on a hill above the pumphouse. We could then run a cable 150 feet to the pumphouse, which would contain most of our control equipment. We bolted the radios to 1 1/2-inch galvanized pipe and secured them with guy wires. (If we had been confident that the radio network would perform as well as it finally did, we would have used telescoping towers to make maintenance easier for the two radios that stand 30 feet above the ground.) The wells were in direct line-of-sight from the pumphouse, so that hookup was easy.
System monitoring
Phase one was to monitor the system without changing the controls to see what was happening daily. We installed pressure transducers to measure the water level in the upper tank, the intermediate surge (contact) tank and the two wells. The well transducers hang from stainless steel cables two feet above the submersible pumps, but the tank transducers are at the bottom, outside the tanks, connected to the tanks by narrow rodent-resistant tubing.
SCADA display showing a normal hypochlorite level.
40
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
The water system’s upper tank.
pump, causing the well pumps to cycle frequently while the lift pump was running. The well pumps seemed to fight each other, and the resulting flow rate was barely higher than if the faster well pump had run alone. We found that one well pump could do the job without cycling, saving significant energy and wear on both pumps. For long pump runs, we could turn on the second well pump to finish the cycle without shutting down the lift pump. Since all of our pumps started at random times during the day depending on float height, we often paid the highest electric rates. In summer, about half our energy cost came from pumping about 30 percent of the water. The sodium hypochlorite mix level dropped slowly even when the well pumps were not running. A couple of bad check valves created a vacuum in the pipeline from the wells when water drained back into the well. The Gill Creek cloud-based SCADA system home page. That sucked chlorine through the metering pump(s) and allowed an extra gallon or so of disinfectant to be drawn into the well pipe each day. This was easily rectified and did not cause a hazard, but we would not have The transducer, in a PVC housing (Figure 2), sends the signal via a known about it without the controls. cable to our module in a watertight box (a field-installable unit, or FIU) By constantly monitoring the electricity used by each pump, we found fastened to the radio tower. The transducers measure the depth of water that the newer well pump cost us about 50 percent more per 1,000 gallons above the sensor, and the FIU converts that signal to feet and inches. We than the older pump. We also know that one of our lift pumps is much can measure changes of less than 1/8 inch over the 15-foot tank height. less efficient than we thought. Since we had 110 VAC power at the upper tank, we just plugged in, but Several times per month, a flaw in the old startup routine would since the module and radio together use less than 10 watts, we could have abruptly stop the lift pumps before the slow-closing Bermad valve shut used a solar supply. down. The resulting “hammer” subjected the pipes to damage, and the We also installed electronic pulse generators on our McCrometer alternate lift pump often failed to start automatically after the other flowmeters at the wells and at the output of our lift pumps, and tied them pump stopped, causing the system to run out of water. into the nearby FIUs. Our last monitoring station was in the chlorination If one of the lift pumps failed room. We rebuilt a free chlorine hile most of the cost of traditional SCADA is in to start, the lift pump would shut monitor (Hach CL-17) and plugged down and the entire system would it into the FIU in the pump house, hardware and software, a cloud-based system lock up until an operator went on and also began reading the level of is stored on servers shared with other users, and the site to reset the pumps. During sodium hypochlorite in a 40-galcosts are also shared … Our total SCADA system has that time, the main tank was lon mix drum using a noncontact heading to empty. gauge. cost less than $25,000. Then we hooked up the system Cloud system startup to the Internet using a cellular modem that plugged directly into the SoftWe had found a number of areas needing fairly simple fixes. Now it I/O module. There is only one control component inside the FIU. We can was time to turn the system over to the new controls. The goal is to pronow watch our system from any laptop, iPad or smartphone. vide uninterrupted service to the community, so we maintained the abilWhat we learned from monitoring surprised us: ity to run all pumps manually if necessary. Our wells were in good condition after 40 years. The well-level senWe connected the well pumps so that either could run separately or sors told us that even after the pumps ran for several hours, the water both could run together to keep the intermediate (contact) tank supplied level dropped only 16 feet, leaving at least 66 feet of water over the pumps. with water for the lift pumps. This independent operation caused a bit of Recovery after pumping took only minutes. a problem: Because the flow rate varies greatly depending upon which For years, the floats in our 84,000-gallon upper tank were only allowpump (or pumps) are running, the amount of sodium hypochlorite ing 5,000 gallons of outflow before the pumps ran to refill the tank — the needed varies similarly. In addition, the only operational flowmeters were result of an error in how the floats were set. nearly a mile from the pumphouse at the wells. Both well pumps typically ran together to keep up with the 30 hp lift
W
wsomag.com August 2013
41
We were saved by the LAN, which makes the combined flow rates of the two wells readily available at the pumphouse. Within seconds of a well pump starting, the signal from the McCrometer flowmeters at the wells and a flow switch in the disinfection room allow the local Soft-I/O module to calculate how much sodium hypochlorite the metering pump(s) should inject into the pipe to the intermediate (contact) tank. A Hach CL-17 downstream of the intermediate tank tells us the free chlorine level as water is pumped to the main reservoir up the hill. We set up the 30 hp lift pumps to follow certain priorities: 1. Keep the tanks full regardless of electrical costs during high-firedanger times. 2. Pump water when electrical rates are lowest, if practical. 3. If one lift pump fails to start, or stops during its normal run, trigger an alarm so that the other pump automatically starts and keeps the tanks full. Alarms are also sent: • If the level of available sodium hypochlorite is getting low • If the chlorine analyzer shows a high or low free chlorine reading • If water levels are either higher or lower than a setpoint in any tank • If any pump fails to start or maintain flow • If the cloud servers lose contact with one of the sites
the drum before untreated water was pumped into the system. Since the cloud-based monitoring system has been active, we have had no out-ofwater events. I have become accustomed to picking up my smartphone or going to my desk and in a minute knowing that all is well on the system. Every event the SCADA system has recorded in the past year is stored in the cloud and is available, without taking up space on a local computer.
B
y taking advantage of off-peak electricity, we reduced our electric bill by about 25 percent. Several times we detected system leaks very quickly, resulting in a tight system in which we billed about 99 percent of the water pumped.
Results
By taking advantage of off-peak electricity, we reduced our electric bill by about 25 percent. Some savings came from running the more efficient pump preferentially. Several times we detected system leaks very quickly, resulting in a tight system in which we billed about 99 percent of the water pumped. More than once, we detected when an operator forgot to fill the sodium hypochlorite tank. We were able to see the outage graphically and refill
The bottom line is that the cloud-based SCADA system helps us anticipate problems rather than react, and thus our maintenance and repair costs have dropped dramatically. Looking at our energy savings and the reduction in emergency service calls, I can say we have made our small water district a better organization. It has certainly made my life easier! A link to a cloud-based SCADA system is at http://my.softWSO welcomes stories io.com/demo. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Peter Sagues is facilities manager of Gill Creek Mutual Water Co. in Geyserville, Calif. wso
about your plant and system innovations for future “Bright Ideas” articles. Send your suggestions to [email protected] or call 877/953-3301.
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Managing Our Most Valuable Resource
January/February 2012
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
TM
BRIGHT IDEAS:
Automated meter reading in Davie County, N.C.
Page 36
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE:
Plant upgrades in Rockville, Md.
Page 30
GreaT!
STORY: Ted J. RulSeh PHOTOGRAPHY: John BoRge
TasTes
Water plant supervisor Kris Knutson adjusts an ozone gas feed valve. ozonation has helped Moorhead Public Service correct recurring odor issues caused by source water variation. (gas flowmeter by erDCo engineering Corporation, valve by Modentic industrial Corp.)
Technology and teamwork help Moorhead Public Service deliver consistently high-quality water from a highly variable source in Minnesota’s Red River
TECH TALK:
Keys to success with wireless SCADA
Page 38
Troy Hall Water Division manager Moorhead, Minn.
T
Tastes Great!
MOORHEAD PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERS HIGH-QUALITY WATER FROM VARIABLE SOURCES
Page 10
Quality leaders
PLANT
he Red River is best known for periodic floods that afflict North Dakota, most notably around Grand Forks. Much farther south, in Moorhead, Minn., the river is known for something else, though mainly to the staff at the water treatment plant. “Up here, it’s not a big river,” says treatment plant operator Dan Haman. “Local events can have a large impact on it. A rain event can often wash interesting water into the river, especially if the weather has been dry for a while.” Years ago, that led to complaints from customers about odor and bad taste in the water coming from the tap. That no longer happens. In 1995, Moorhead Public Service added ozonation to its treatment process, and it proved to be a reliable cure. In fact, for the past two years, Moorhead’s water has been voted the best tasting in the state in a competition held by the Minnesota section of the American Water Works Association. Troy Hall, Water Division manager, credits the treatment technology, along with a talented operations team, with keeping the process on track. “When we look at the SCADA and see our water-quality trends, we want to see flatlines — everything just humming along,” says Hall. “Through teamwork, that’s what we’ve accomplished.”
Variable source
What the Moorhead team calls the North Treatment Plant (10 mgd capacity) was built in 1995. The old 6 mgd treatment plant is now rarely used: The staff operates it periodically just to make sure it remains functional and available for emergencies. When the plant operates, it treats well water only. The new plant, with 10 full-time and two part-time staff members, was designed specifically to deal with variable source water in the Red River. The utility also draws well water from the Buffalo Aquifer, but the river provides about 85 percent of the source water on an annual basis. “There’s a reason it’s called the Red River,” says Nate Halbakken, lead treatment plant operator. Which is to say it’s not what one would call
POSTERS
Starting At
The MPS TeAM
Staff members at the Moorhead Public Service water treatment plant are: • Troy Hall, Water Division manager, 19 years of service, Class A license • Kris Knutson, water plant supervisor, six years, Class A • Nate Halbakken, lead water treatment plant operator, nine years, Class A • Jason Yonke, lead water treatment plant operator, 14 years, Class A • Gena Dahl, water plant chemist, four years • Dan Haman, water plant operator, six years, Class C • Daryl Brahos, water plant operator, four years, Class C • Christopher Capecchi, water plant operator, one year • Christopher Knutson, water plant operator, one year, Class D • Alan Neer, water plant operator, four years, Class A • Leslee Storlie, part-time water plant operator, one year • Kevin Young, part-time water plant operator, one year
“
When we look at the SCAdA and see our water-quality trends, we want to see flatlines — everything just humming along. Through teamwork, that’s what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
TRoy hAll
Water treatment plant operator Dan Haman adjusts gas flow on ozone generator from WeDeCo, a division of Xylem.
Hall cites SCADA work as an example of the team’s cooperation. “For the past decade, we have done all our SCADA work internally,” he says. “It’s not a perfect SCADA, but it has been built by people who really care about the end result. When we want to make a change in how a process works, we all work together. “I’ve done some SCADA work in the office. Kris and Dan have done screen development for various purposes. It has evolved almost entirely inhouse. We also select and install our own instrumentation.”
Problem solvers
Teamwork has helped the Moorhead staff resolve a variety of process issues. Several years ago, pH variability was a constant challenge. Working together, staff members made the correction by installing pH probes, making plumbing changes, and doing SCADA programming. In another instance, rising non-carbonate hardness in the Red River was taking a toll on the soda ash feed pumps. A former operator located a peristaltic pump model (Watson-Marlow) that appeared better suited to the task. Operators, an instrument technician and electricians from the utility’s electrical side worked together to test and install the new pumps. “In a few months, we went from having to service the pumps every week to having almost no problems,” says Haman. Another improvement involved installing a meter in the intake line to sample Red River water for conductivity as a way to predict total hardness in the river in real time. The team did the job, including data analysis and SCADA programming, entirely in-house, installing a used instrument purchased on the Internet for a few hundred dollars. Future plans include installing instrumentation at the river pumping station, about three miles (two hours of in-pipe travel time) from the plant. “I’m excited about that,” says Haman. “We’ll be able to see changes in the water before it gets to the plant and so deal with them more effectively.” Hall calls it a privilege to lead a staff with many and diverse talents. “The strengths of our people make it all work,” he says. “We try our best every day to use the strengths of the people we have.” The results show up daily in the water glasses of Moorhead residents. wso
$
Part-time water treatment plant operator leslee Storlie uses a Thermix stirrer from Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis in a lab testing protocol. Members of the MPS Water Division team are, back, from left, water plant staff members Dan Haman, Kris Knutson, Nate Halbakken, Troy Hall, Jason Yonke, Chris Knutson, Alan Neer, Chris Capecchi and Daryl Brahos; front row, distribution crew members Jared Heller, Chris Perlichek, Matt Andvik, Phil Shequen and Matt Mehl.
Moorhead (Minn.) Public Service
FouNDeD: | 1896 PoPulATioN ServeD: | 42,000 TerriTorY: | Cities CAPACiTY: | 16
SYSTeM STorAge: | 7.9 SourCe WATer: | Red TreATMeNT ProCeSS: iNFrASTruCTure:
KeY CHAlleNge: | Source ANNuAl BuDgeT: | $4.5
of Moorhead and Dilworth, Oakport Township mgd million gallons River (85%), Buffalo Aquifer (15%) Lime/soda ash softening, ozonation, dual media filtration 190 miles of water mains, three water towers, two ground storage tanks, two reservoirs on plant sites water variability million (operations)
activated carbon were fed at the river pumping station, but at times that wasn’t enough. When taste and odor problems arose, complaint calls came in bunches.
|
Reliable process
The MWH engineering firm (then known as Montgomery Watson) designed the new treatment plant. The Moorhead team has steadily improved on the design with instrumentation and updates to the SCADA system, originally supplied by Instrument Control Systems (ICS). One river pump station and two well pump stations deliver raw water directly into the plant. The waters mix in an influent chamber, and the flow then enters two 5.5 mgd softening basins (Infilco Degremont). Typically, only one basin operates at a time, and when both operate, they work in parallel. Water in the basins is fed with lime and soda ash, along with ferric sulfate as a coagulant and polymer for flocculation. Ammonia is also added in the softening stage for bromate control in the downstream ozonation process. The WEDECO ozonation/recarbonation chamber (Xylem) has six cells fed with variable amounts of ozone and carbon dioxide, depending on raw water conditions. Residual ozone is sampled at various points in the chamber. Before final filtration, fluoride is added, along with sodium hexametaphosphate for heavy metal sequestration and corrosion control. The
plant’s four dual-media filter cells each hold two feet of anthracite coal atop 12 inches of sand. The filtered water goes to the clear well, where chlorine is fed to combine with ammonia and form chloramines for disinfectant residual. The water is then delivered to the reservoirs and water towers (7.9 million gallons total system storage).
“
|
ozone does it
WeBSiTe: | www.mpsutility.com
clean. The Red is subject to wide variations in organic matter and hardness, related to weather and the nature of the watershed, Hall observes. Normal flows range from about 3,000 to 5,500 cubic feet per second. The main feeder streams include the Otter Tail River, with generally high water quality; the Bois de Sioux River, with very poor water quality; and the Wild Rice River. “Every river system that feeds the Red is variable, depending on how much rain we’re getting at the time,” says Hall. At the old treatment plant, which used lime and soda ash softening and dual-media filtration, the wide source water variations overwhelmed the process. At the time, the source water included about 60 percent river and 40 percent well water. Potassium permanganate and sometimes
Hall notes that ozonation is KRIS KnuTSon the key to odor and taste control. “We ozonate at very high pH [at times 11 or higher] so that we benefit from some advanced oxidation,” he says. “Ozone has been a really big improvement since it came online in 1995. It helps break down the organic material. Sometimes we feed CO2 with the ozone as the pH is dropping down close to that of the product water. That helps with taste and odor, too.” But it wasn’t technology alone that conquered the variability of Red River water. The plant staff’s diligence had a lot to do with it. “Since we started this plant, we have probably doubled or tripled the amount of online instrumentation,” says Hall. “Our SCADA gives us a lot of information about water quality and what’s happening in the process, and we’re constantly trying to improve that.” The system’s programmable logic controllers and other control hardware are from Allen-Bradley (Rockwell Automation), and the SCADA software is from IntelliSys Inc. Online instrumentation in the treatment plant and water system includes:
We don’t like to keep secrets between positions. We expect all our operators to be very familiar with the SCAdA. As a supervisor, I try to involve the operators so they can help me out with data analysis, maintenance tasks, or whatever happens to come up.”
Water from Moorhead, Minn., won the first two “Best in glass” taste competitions held by the state section of the American Water Works Association at its annual conference in September in Duluth. The event includes a vendor show where water samples from communities that enter the competition are subjected to a taste test and a popular vote among the attendees. The field is narrowed to the top three vote-getters, which go to a second round of tasting by a panel of three from Minnesota section members and a celebrity judge. “in both 2009 and 2010, we won both the popular and the panel vote,” says Troy Hall, Water Division manager for Moorhead Public Service. “The official winner is the sample selected by the panel of judges.” Another honor awaits: The plant is to be featured during 2012 on an episode of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” program, showing the process of cleaning the softening basins. Says Hall, “it has been a fun year.”
Water Division manager Troy Hall
“
The strengths of our people make it all work. We try our best every day to use the strengths of the people we have.”
TRoy hAll
The SCADA is programmed with the U.S. EPA ozone contact time (CT) requirements for disinfection. The ozone analyzers feed data directly into the SCADA, which calculates the actual CT value in real time. “In operations, we adjust the ozone, pH or whatever parameter is necessary to make sure the actual plant CT value is above the EPA requirements,” says Haman. “Once we meet the disinfection requirement, 99 percent of the time the odor and taste issues are taken care of.”
MoRe InFo:
Emerson Process Management
800/854-8257 www.raihome.com 800/553-0550 www.erdco.com 800/227-4224 www.hach.com
35
OI Analytical
800/653-1711 www.oico.com
(See ad page 29)
ERDCO Engineering Corporation
Rockwell Automation
Hach Company
414/382-2000 www.rockwellautomation.com
• Three total chlorine analyzers from Wallace & Tiernan (Siemens Water Technologies Corp.) • Monochloramine/ammonia analyzer, five pH monitors, and eight turbidimeters from Hach Company • Two pH controllers (CO2 auto control), four ozone analyzers and two conductivity meters from Rosemount Analytical (Emerson Process Management) • Organic online analyzer from s::can Measuring Systems Benchtop lab equipment includes a turbidimeter and spectrophotometer from Hach Company, total organic carbon analyzer from OI Analytical, an IC chromatograph from Dionex, now sold as Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis, and an Orion pH meter from Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis. The team tests raw water for hardness and alkalinity every four hours and tests the finished water every eight hours. The ozone analyzers test the water in the ozone contact chamber every 20 seconds. Ozone dosage is adjusted manually based on monitoring for ozone residual. “We have to adjust the ozone feed rate as water quality changes — on a good day, just a couple of times; on a bad day, once an hour or more,” says Haman.
As a team
The staff’s success derives in part from the team atmosphere its leaders try to create. “There’s a lot of overlap in the way we do things — a lot of cross-training,” notes Kris Knutson, water plant supervisor. “We don’t like to keep secrets between positions. We expect all our operators to be very familiar with the SCADA. As a supervisor, I try to involve the operators so they can help me out with data analysis, maintenance tasks, or whatever happens to come up.” Halbakken adds, “We communicate with each other. If one of us sees a problem, we alert the others. Everybody is always looking to keep the best product going out of the plant at all times. If that means someone has to be called at three in the morning to deal with a problem, everybody’s open to that. Everyone’s willing to help out.” Notes Haman, “We try to work to each other’s strengths and shore up our weaknesses. For example, Nate is better at plumbing than I am, so I’ll give him plumbing jobs. In turn, he can give me data to analyze to find out when is the best time to order lime. We each have our little projects and our specialties.”
s::can Measuring Systems
888/296-8250 www.s-can.us
ICS Healy-Ruff
763/559-0568 www.icshealyruff.com
Siemens Water Technologies Corp.
866/926-8420 www.water.siemens.com
Infilco Degremont, Inc.
804/756-7600 www.degremont-technologies.com
Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis
800/225-1480 www.thermoscientific.com/water
Extra! Extra!
Featured in An Article?
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IntelliSys, Inc.
800/347-9977 www.intellisyssoftware.com
Watson-Marlow Pumps Group
800/282-8823 www.wmpg.com
Modentic Industrial Corp.
www.modentic.com.tw
Xylem
MWH Global
303/533-1900 www.mwhglobal.com
704/409-9700 www.xyleminc.com
Reprinted with permission from WSO™ / Month 0000 / © 2012, COLE Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, WI 54562 / 800-257-7222 / www.wsomag.com
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BRIGHT IDEAS:
Automated meter reading in Davie County, N.C.
Page 36
Water plant supervisor Kris Knutson adjusts an ozone gas feed valve. ozonation has helped Moorhead Public Service correct recurring odor issues caused by source water variation. (gas flowmeter by erDCo engineering Corporation, valve by Modentic industrial Corp.)
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE:
Plant upgrades in Rockville, Md.
Page 30
TECH TALK:
Keys to success with wireless SCADA
Page 38
Troy Hall Water Division manager Moorhead, Minn.
Tastes Great!
MOORHEAD PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERS HIGH-QUALITY WATER FROM VARIABLE SOURCES
Page 10
GREAT! GREA
STORY: TED J. RULSEH PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN BORGE
TASTES
Technology and teamwork help Moorhead Public Service deliver consistently high-quality water from a highly variable source in Minnesota’s Red River
T
“
When we look at the SCADA and see our water-quality trends, we want to see flatlines — everything just humming along. Through teamwork, that’s what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
TROY HALL
QUALITY LEADERS
PLANT
he Red River is best known for periodic floods that afflict North Dakota, most notably around Grand Forks. Much farther south, in Moorhead, Minn., the river is known for something else, though mainly to the staff at the water treatment plant. “Up here, it’s not a big river,” says treatment plant operator Dan Haman. “Local events can have a large impact on it. A rain event can often wash interesting water into the river, especially if the weather has been dry for a while.” Years ago, that led to complaints from customers about odor and bad taste in the water coming from the tap. That no longer happens. In 1995, Moorhead Public Service added ozonation to its treatment process, and it proved to be a reliable cure. In fact, for the past two years, Moorhead’s water has been voted the best tasting in the state in a competition held by the Minnesota section of the American Water Works Association. Troy Hall, Water Division manager, credits the treatment technology, along with a talented operations team, with keeping the process on track. “When we look at the SCADA and see our water-quality trends, we want to see flatlines — everything just humming along,” says Hall. “Through teamwork, that’s what we’ve accomplished.”
THE MPS TEAM
Staff members at the Moorhead Public Service water treatment plant are: • Troy Hall, Water Division manager, 19 years of service, Class A license • Kris Knutson, water plant supervisor, six years, Class A • Nate Halbakken, lead water treatment plant operator, nine years, Class A • Jason Yonke, Y Yonke, lead water treatment p reatment lant o reatment p lant perator, 14 years, 14 y 14 years, Class A Jason Yonke, lead water treatment plant operator, 14 years, Class A • Gena Dahl, water plant c lant hemist, four y lant c our years our y years Gena Dahl, water plant chemist, four years • Dan Haman, water plant o lant perator, six y lant o ix years, ix y years, Class C Dan Haman, water plant operator, six years, Class C • Daryl Brahos, water plant o lant perator, four y lant o our years, our y years, Class C Daryl Brahos, water plant operator, four years, Class C • Christopher C Christopher apecchi, water plant o lant perator, one year lant o y year Christopher Capecchi, water plant operator, one year • Christopher Christopher K nutson, water Christopher Knutson, water plant operator, one year, Class D • Alan Neer, water plant o lant peralant o Alan Neer, water plant opera tor, four years, Class A • Leslee Storlie, part-time water Leslee Storlie, part-time water plant operator, one year • Kevin Young, Y Young, part-time water Kevin Young, part-time water plant operator, one year
Hall cites SCADA work as an example of the team’s cooperation. “For the past decade, we have done all our SCADA work internally,” he says. “It’s not a perfect SCADA, but it has been built by people who really care about the end result. When we want to make a change in how a process works, we all work together. “I’ve done some SCADA work in the office. Kris and Dan have done screen development for various purposes. It has evolved almost entirely inhouse. We also select and install our own instrumentation.”
Problem solvers
Teamwork has helped the Moorhead staff resolve a variety of process issues. Several years ago, pH variability was a constant challenge. Work Working together, staff members made the correction by installing pH probes, making plumbing changes, and doing SCADA programming. In another instance, rising non-carbonate hardness in the Red River was taking a toll on the soda ash feed pumps. A former operator located a peristaltic pump model (Watson-Marlow) that appeared better suited to the task. Operators, an instrument technician and electricians from the utility’s electrical side worked together to test and install the new pumps. “In a few months, we went from having to service the pumps every week to having almost no problems,” says Haman. Another improvement involved installing a meter in the intake line to hardsample Red River water for conductivity as a way to predict total hard analyness in the river in real time. The team did the job, including data analy sis and SCADA programming, entirely in-house, installing a used instrument purchased on the Internet for a few hundred dollars. Future plans include installing instrumentation at the river pumping station, about three miles (two hours of in-pipe travel time) from the plant. “I’m excited about that,” says Haman. “We’ll be able to see changes in the water before it gets to the plant and so deal with them more effectively.” Hall calls it a privilege to lead a staff with many and diverse talents. “The strengths of our people make it all work,” he says. “We try our best every day to use the strengths of the people we have.” The results show up daily in the water glasses of Moorhead residents. wso
Variable source
What the Moorhead team calls the North Treatment Plant (10 mgd capacity) was built in 1995. The old 6 mgd treatment plant is now rarely used: The staff operates it periodically just to make sure it remains functional and available for emergencies. When the plant operates, it treats well water only. The new plant, with 10 full-time and two part-time staff members, Water treatment plant operator Dan Haman adjusts gas flow on ozone generator from was designed specifically to deal with variable source water in the Red WEDECO, division of Xylem. River. The utility also draws well water froma the Buffalo Aquifer, but the river provides about 85 percent of the source water on an annual basis. “There’s a reason it’s called the Red River,” says Nate Halbakken, lead treatment plant operator. Which is to say it’s not what one would call
LASER REPRINTS
Starting At
and features with
Water Division manager Troy Hall
Moorhead (Minn.) Public Service
FOUNDED: | 1896 POPULATION SERVED: | 42,000 TERRITORY: | Cities CAPACITY: | 16
Members of the MPS Water Division team are, back, from left, water plant staff members Dan Haman, Kris Knutson, Nate Halbakken, Troy Hall, Jason Yonke, Chris Knutson, Alan Neer, Chris Capecchi and Daryl Brahos; front row, distribution crew members Jared Heller, Chris Perlichek, Matt Andvik, Phil Shequen and Matt Mehl.
“ “
Water from Moorhead, Minn., won the first two “Best in Glass” taste competitions held by the state section of the American Water
The strengths of our people make it all work. We try our best every day to use the strengths of the people we have.”
TROY HALL
of Moorhead and Dilworth, Oakport Township mgd million gallons SOURCE WATER: | Red River (85%), Buffalo Aquifer (15%) TREATMENT PROCESS: Lime/soda ash softening, ozonation, dual media filtration INFRASTRUCTURE: 190 miles of water mains, three water towers, two ground storage tanks, two reservoirs on plant sites KEY CHALLENGE: | Source water variability ANNUAL BUDGET: | $4.5 million (operations) WEBSITE: | www.mpsutility.com
SYSTEM STORAGE: | 7.9
activated carbon were fed at the river pumping station, but at times that wasn’t enough. When taste and odor problems arose, complaint calls came in bunches.
|
Reliable process
The MWH engineering firm (then known as Montgomery Watson) designed the new treatment plant. The Moorhead team has steadily improved on the design with instrumentation and updates to the SCADA system, originally supplied by Instrument Control Systems (ICS). One river pump station and two well pump stations deliver raw water Part-time water treatment plant directly into the plant. The waters mix in an influent chamber, and the operator Leslee Storlie uses a Thermix stirrer from Thermo Scientific flow then enters two 5.5 mgd softening basins (Infilco Degremont). Typi– Water Analysis in a lab testing cally, only one basin operates at a time, and when both operate, they work protocol. in parallel. Water in the basins is fed with lime and soda ash, along with ferric plant’s four dual-media filter cells sulfate as a coagulant and polymer for flocculation. Ammonia is also each hold two feet of anthracite ozoadded in the softening stage for bromate control in the downstream ozo coal atop 12 inches of sand. The nation process. filtered water goes to the clear well, The WEDECO ozonation/recarbonation chamber (Xylem) has six where chlorine is fed to combine cells fed with variable amounts of ozone and carbon dioxide, depending with ammonia and form chloraon raw water conditions. Residual ozone is sampled at various points in mines for disinfectant residual. The the chamber. water is then delivered to the reshexametaBefore final filtration, fluoride is added, along with sodium hexameta ervoirs and water towers (7.9 milphosphate for heavy metal sequestration and corrosion control. The lion gallons total system storage).
|
The SCADA is programmed with the U.S. EPA ozone contact time (CT) requirements for disinfection. The ozone analyzers feed data directly into the SCADA, which calculates the actual CT value in real time. “In operations, we adjust the ozone, pH or whatever parameter is necessary to make sure the actual plant CT value is above the EPA requirements,” says Haman. “Once we meet the disinfection requirement, 99 percent of the time the odor and taste issues are taken care of.”
MORE INFO:
Emerson Process Management
800/854-8257 www.raihome.com 800/553-0550 www.erdco.com 800/227-4224 www.hach.com
OI Analytical
800/653-1711 www.oico.com
(See ad page 29)
ERDCO Engineering Corporation
Rockwell Automation
Hach Company
414/382-2000 www.rockwellautomation.com
As a team
s::can Measuring Systems
888/296-8250
clean. The Red is subject to wide variations in organic matter and hardness, related to weather and the nature of the watershed, Hall observes. Normal flows range from about 3,000 to 5,500 cubic feet per second. The main feeder streams include the Otter Tail River, with generally high water quality; the Bois de Sioux River, with very poor water quality; and the Wild Rice River. “Every river system that feeds the Red is variable, depending on how much rain we’re getting at the time,” says Hall. At the old treatment plant, which used lime and soda ash softening and dual-media filtration, the wide source water variations overwhelmed the process. At the time, the source water included about 60 percent river and 40 percent well water. Potassium permanganate and sometimes
Ozone does it
Hall notes that ozonation is KRIS KNUTSON the key to odor and taste control. “We ozonate at very high pH [at times 11 or higher] so that we benefit from some advanced oxidation,” he says. “Ozone has been a really big improvement since it came online in 1995. It helps break down the organic material. Sometimes we feed CO2 with the ozone as the pH is dropping down close to that of the product water. That helps with taste and odor, too.” But it wasn’t technology alone that conquered the variability of Red River water. The plant staff’s diligence had a lot to do with it. “Since we started this plant, we have probably doubled or tripled the amount of online instrumentation,” says Hall. “Our SCADA gives us a lot of information about water quality and what’s happening in the process, and we’re constantly trying to improve that.” The system’s programmable logic controllers and other control hardware are from Allen-Bradley (Rockwell Automation), and the SCADA software is from IntelliSys Inc. Online instrumentation in the treatment plant and water system includes:
We don’t like to keep secrets between positions. We expect all our operators to be very familiar with the SCADA. As a supervisor, I try to involve the operators so they can help me out with data analysis, maintenance tasks, or whatever happens to come up.”
The staff’s success derives in part from the team atmosphere its leadwww.s-can.us Works Association at its annual conference in September in Duluth. ICS Healy-Ruff ers try to create. “There’s a lot of overlap in the way we do things — a lot The event includes a vendor show where water samples from 763/559-0568 Siemens Water Technologies Corp. of cross-training,” notes Kris Knutson, water plant supervisor. “We don’t communities that enter the competition are subjected to a taste test www.icshealyruff.com 866/926-8420 like to keep secrets between positions. We expect all our operators to be www.water.siemens.com and a popular vote among the attendees. The field is narrowed to Infilco Degremont, Inc. very familiar with the SCADA. As a supervisor, I try to involve the operthe top three vote-getters, which go to a second round of tasting by a 804/756-7600 Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis ators so they can help me out with data analysis, maintenance tasks, or panel of three from Minnesota section members and a celebrity judge. www.degremont-technologies.com 800/225-1480 whatever happens to come up.” www.thermoscientific.com/water “In both 2009 and 2010, we won both the popular and the panel Halbakken adds, “We communicate with each other. If one of us sees IntelliSys, Inc. vote,” says Troy Hall, Water Division manager for Moorhead Public Service. 800/347-9977 Watson-Marlow Pumps Group a problem, we alert the others. Everybody is always looking to keep the “The official winner is the sample selected by the panel of judges.” www.intellisyssoftware.com 800/282-8823 best product going out of the plant at all times. If that means someone has www.wmpg.com Another honor awaits: The plant is to be featured during 2012 on to be called at three in the morning to deal with a problem, everybody’s Modentic Industrial Corp. an episode of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” program, showing www.modentic.com.tw Xylem open to that. Everyone’s willing to help out.” the process of cleaning the softening basins. Says Hall, “It has been 704/409-9700 Notes Haman, “We try to work to each other’s strengths and shore up MWH Global www.xyleminc.com a fun year.” our weaknesses. For example, Nate is better at plumbing than I am, so I’ll 303/533-1900 give him plumbing jobs. In turn, he can give me data to analyze to find www.mwhglobal.com out when is the best time to order lime. We each have our little projects rom Wallace Wallace & Tiernan (Siemens W (Siemens and our specialties.” • Three total chlorine analyzers from Reprinted with permission from WSO™ / January 2012 / © 2012, COLE Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, WI 54562 / 800-257-7222 / www.wsomag.com Water Technologies Corp.) nalyzer, five pH monitors, and and eight eight • Monochloramine/ammonia analyzer, urbidimeters from Hach Company turbidimeters • Two pH controllers (CO2 auto control), four ozone analyzers and two conductivity meters from Rosemount Analytical (Emerson Process Management) • Organic online analyzer from s::can Measuring Systems s::can Measuring Systems Benchtop lab equipment includes a turbidimeter and spectrophotometer from Hach Company, total organic carbon analyzer from OI Analytical, an IC chromatograph from Dionex, now sold as Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis, and an Orion pH meter from Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis. The team tests raw water for hardness and alkalinity every four hours and tests the finished water every eight hours. The ozone analyzers test the water in the ozone contact chamber every 20 seconds. Ozone dosage is adjusted manually based on monitoring for ozone residual. “We have to adjust the ozone feed rate as water quality changes — on a good day, just a couple of times; on a bad day, once an hour or more,” says Haman.
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
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SCADA for small water systems
Page 40
Players’ Coach
SCOTT BAILEY KEEPS THE MONTICELLO PLANT HUMMING WITH A HANDS-ON MANAGEMENT STYLE
Page 8
Scott Bailey Plant Supervisor Monticello, Ill.
TECHNOLOGY DEEP DIVE:
Analytics from Badger Meter
Page 16
TECH TALK:
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Page 36
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Contents
August 2013
QUALITY LEADERS
Plant: Never Satisfied
Page 12
A new ultrafiltration system resolved many issues for the team in Homer, Alaska, but that doesn’t keep them from working diligently to continue getting better.
BY JIM FORCE
Plant: Quick-Change Artists
Page 18
The team at a 120 mgd plant in Tampa relies on a rapid settling process, experience, and automation to produce consistent results from variable raw water sources.
BY TED J. RULSEH
ON THE COVER: It takes a special touch — and a strong leader — to keep a 120-year-old water plant ticking. That’s what Scott Bailey has done for more than 25 years in Monticello, Ill. (Photography by Bradley Leeb)
Operator: Players’ Coach
BY JACK POWELL
Page 8
Scott Bailey keeps the vintage Monticello Water Plant in top form thanks to experience, skills and a hands-on management style.
ON TAP Page 6
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW Page 24
BRIGHT IDEAS Page 40
Getting It Done
Maybe it’s time to revisit a couple of wellestablished but still innovative ways to build and improve water utility facilities.
BY TED J. RULSEH, EDITOR
New Technology Slated for WEFTEC 2013
BY CRAIG MANDLI
Small Scale SCADA
Cloud-based technology provides sophisticated yet affordable system monitoring and control for a small California water company.
BY PETER SAGUES
INDUSTRY NEWS Page 31 CASE STUDIES Page 32
EDITOR’S CHOICE Page 7
Find other useful and timely information at www.wsomag.com
LETTERS Page 7 TECHNOLOGY DEEP DIVE Page 16
Disinfection
BY CRAIG MANDLI
Coming Next Issue: September 2013
FOCUS: Energy Management and Power Generation / WEFTEC Show Issue
U U Quality Leaders – Plant: Energy and water savings in Chelmsford, Mass. U U Quality Leaders – Plant: LEED certification in Champaign County, Ill. U U Quality Leaders – Operator: Leslie Gryder, Lynchburg, Va. U U Tech Talk: A better disinfectant U U Winning Them Over: Water conservation education in Fort Collins, Colo. U U Technology Deep Dive: AquaDAF high-rate clarifier from Infilco Degremont U U Sustainable Practice: Power savings in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
WINNING THEM OVER Page 34
Improvements that Pay Their Way
Turning Data Into Action
Advanced Metering Analytics help utilities use hourly interval information from metering systems to detect issues that need addressing.
BY TED J. RULSEH
A California town encourages improvements that reduce water and energy demand by making the necessary up-front investments — recovered through bill surcharges.
BY PETE LITTERSKI
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE Page 22
TECH TALK Page 36
Creating a Culture
When Will It Be Your Turn?
Portland Water Bureau reduces costs and greenhouse gas emissions through electrical efficiencies and a smart fleet-management program.
BY LISA BALCERAK
Almost every organization has an emergency sooner or later. The best way to make sure you survive it intact is to plan for the worst — today.
BY STEVE FRANK, APR
WORTH NOTING Page 38 Education; Events
ON TAP
By TeD j. rulSeh, eDITOr
Getting It Done
Maybe it’s time to revisit a couple of well established but still innovative ways to build and improve water utility facilities
T
ry to remember a time when it was harder to locate funds to improve water system facilities (or for that matter any public infrastructure). Equipment and buildings are aging. Things are falling into disrepair. Downtime is a worry. Updates to newer and more efficient technology would improve service right away and save money in the long run, but that would require an up-front investment — and where will the money come from? Especially when the decision-makers and customers have little appetite for a rate increase in a still-troubled economy. The answer may be simpler than it seems, and it doesn’t involve some new-fangled, exotic financial instrument. Sometimes it’s easy to overlook a proven solution that has been around for years. In fact, the one I’m about to describe is so well proven and so low risk that I’m amazed more public- and private-sector entities don’t use it.
No leap of faith
It’s called performance contracting, or in the parlance of the federal government, which uses it extensively, energy-saving performance contracts (ESPCs). Across the nation, this tool has been used to improve efficiency at military bases, upgrade schools and city halls, renovate hospitals and, yes, reinvigorate water utility operations. Water utilities have used it to upgrade aging pumps, replace water meters, install automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering
the capital to finance a package of improvements that have been analyzed up front and projected — based on solid information — to deliver a specific level of savings. Those savings are then guaranteed by contract over a defined term, typically 15 to 20 years. Ideally, the annual savings exceed the amount of the annual payment on the improvements, so the utility sees somewhat lower costs right off the bat. At the end of the contract term, the utility reaps all the annual savings. During the contract term, the actual savings are tracked. If the amount of savings in a given year exceeds the guaranteed amount, the utility pockets the excess. If the savings fall short of the guarantee, the energy service company has to write the utility a check to make up the difference.
Time to take a look?
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It’s hard to imagine any other way to make wholesale improvements with the bare minimum of risk (next to none) and without laying money on the table up front. The old adage — if it sounds too good to be true, then it is — may not apply in this case. Any number of highly qualified and reputable energy service companies can complete performance contracts. In today’s fiscal times, this certainly looks like a financial tool worth exploring carefully. t’s hard to imagine any other way to make wholesale improvements And speaking of innovative approaches, this with the bare minimum of risk (next to none) and without laying money issue of Water System Operator profiles a water on the table up front. The old adage — if it sounds too good to be true, plant in Tampa, Fla., that was constructed under then it is — may not apply in this case. a design-build-operate (DBO) contract. DBO is a departure from the traditional bid-to-spec approach that offers advantages for many projects. infrastructure (AMI) systems, install leak detection systems and more — and in the bargain improve energy efficiency in the administration building, with high-efficiency lighting, better comfort controls, new windows What do you think? and thicker insulation. To my less-than-expert eye, it seems the best feature of DBO is that it Best of all, performance contracting lets a utility take on a big bundle forces the chosen contractor to think not just about holding down the cost of projects all at once (instead of nibbling away at things year by year), of construction, but about holding down the total lifetime cost of ownerand do it without investing any of its own capital. So what’s the catch? Try ship. That means a facility built under DBO is likely to include not the as I might, I can’t find one. lowest-priced equipment and components but those that will be the most reliable and the least costly to operate in the long run. This, too, looks like an avenue worth investigating in times of fiscal stress. Simple concept Do you have experience with performance contracting or DBO? If The concept behind performance contracting is simple. Efficiency you have tried them, what was the outcome? If you haven’t, why not? improvements pay for themselves over time. So why not go ahead and make We would like your thoughts. Send me a note at [email protected]. I the improvements and let the savings themselves make the annual payments? promise to respond, and we’ll include the comments in a future issue. wso In a typical performance contract, an energy service company provides
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
editor’s choice
Letters
IncentIves to conserve
I read your article about water conservation in the June 2013 edition of Water System Operator [On Tap: The Conservation Paradox]. I found it quite interesting in light of the way municipalities have handled water rates over the past years. I work for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and have seen decline in water demand, and yet the costs have gone up for the customers. Although there is no immediate remedy to this, I do believe there are ways to entice the customers around the country to help in water conservation. With the ever-increasing cost of chemicals used in water treatment plants, and the increasing cost of electricity and staffing, the term “water conservation” is the only viable and necessary practice. Lowering water rates, as we all know, just will not happen. People will continue to reduce their water consumption, and the rates will continue to rise due to lower product demand, as we have seen in the past. Here is my idea: Municipalities have many residential/family perks — such as swimming pools, indoor hockey rinks, recreational centers, parks, and sometimes the occasional trip to an amusement park or casino. All of these the residents must pay for using. My family does not partake of these because we can get them all cheaper elsewhere. But if cities would offer freebies to families that met a water conservation budget, I think this would help in water conservation and might also help bring future business and revenues to municipalities by showing what can be offered. Free memberships or a free day at the pool — there are many possibilities. Cities won’t go broke offering such things, and they just might help attract new residents. I understand that cities are a big business, but in order to make residents and customers happy, incentives to reward conservation sound like a good business practice. It can show that a city cares in many ways. Timothy S. Aggas Senior Operator Lake Huron Water Treatment Plant Detroit, Mich.
Find other useful and timely information at www.wsomag.com
ater System Operator aims to bring stories that help you and your plant perform better. Now we do more of the same on the WSO website. There you’ll find stories that appear only online — and that are current, because they’re not subject to the lead times involved in the print magazine. Here are a few online exclusives recommended by the WSO editorial team:
W
Xylem expands range of Medium-Pressure UV Water treatment solutions
Xylem has expanded its range of medium-pressure UV water treatment solutions with the launch of two additions to the WEDECO Quadron series, suitable for drinking water disinfection and also for fish farming, swimming pool and wastewater reuse. The Quadron series is validated according to the U.S. EPA UV Disinfection Guidance Manual. It can be uniquely tailored to meet the requirements of individual water or wastewater treatment facilities.
Louisville Water Kicks off Pumping station restoration and Water Works Museum
A project to restore the interior of a National Historic Landmark in Louisville, Ky., began this year. The Louisville Water Company kicked off a restoration project at its original pumping station. The project will renovate and restore the interior of pumping station No. 1, built between 1858 and 1860 as part of the city’s original Water Works. The site also features the city’s iconic water tower, also a National Historic Landmark.
Program offers Multi-Faceted Learning With training Laboratory
Mike Smith’s enthusiasm for the Water Quality Management program at Red Rocks Community College is contagious. And his pride in the curriculum he’s helped build is clearly justified. The college, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Lakewood, Colo., has one of the most extensive water quality management programs in the United States with an enclosed mobile laboratory used for coursework and as an emergency response unit in the event of a water-borne disease outbreak. “There’s really no other institution with anywhere near the offerings we have,” says Smith, department chair, program coordinator and lead faculty member.
Virginia Water department earns 2012 excellence in Water treatment Plant Performance Award
The City of Manassas Public Works and Utilities department received the 2012 Excellence in Water Treatment Plant Performance award from the Virginia Department of Health Office of Drinking Water. The awards were recently presented in Roanoke, Va. “The City of Manassas is dedicated to maintain quality water for our citizens,” said Mike Moon, director of the city public works and utilities department. “We’re honored to be recognized for our water treatment performance.” Three levels of performance are honored: gold, silver and bronze. Manassas earned the silver designation. wso
Check out all these stories at www.wsomag.com/ec/2013/August
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Savored by municipal wastewater professionals everywhere.
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wsomag.com August 2013
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PLAYERS’
coAcH
STORY: Jack Powell PHOTOGRAPHY: Bradley leeB
Scott Bailey keeps the vintage Monticello water Plant in top form thanks to experience, skills and a hands-on management style
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more valuable. “Originally, my associate degree was to have been in construction technology, but I needed a few classes during the day, which I couldn’t take because I was working, so I ended up changing my major and getting a degree in general studies,” he says. “I also took a set of management courses at Parkland and earned a certificate. That has been a big help in my supervisory duties.” when I first started here, I felt like everybody else: you just Bailey’s determination paid off at the water plant, turn on your tap and the water is there. The fact is, you learn built in 1892. He shows pictures from the early 1900s something new every day, and I love that part of the job.” and points out that until a major renovation in 1935, the facility’s water softeners were steam-powered. The ScoTT BaIley oldest well, still in use, was built in 1915. Other renoSeeking advancement vations took place in 1958 and 1976. Nonetheless, “Our water meets all After high school in Monticello, Bailey went to Lincoln Land Comfederal and state standards; we haven’t had a violation in years and years.” munity College in Springfield for the water classes he needed to get his license. Then he attended Parkland Community College in Champaign. challenges and rewards Bailey decided to shoot for a degree, which he felt would make him Bailey, and a pair of operators, maintain two US Filter pressure filters
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
t takes a special touch — and a strong leader — to keep a 120-year-old water plant ticking. That’s what Scott Bailey has been bringing for more than 25 years. Now plant supervisor for the Monticello (Ill.) Water Plant, Bailey started as a laborer with the city Public Works Department in 1987. He has forged a career built on learning all he can about the water business, developing his expertise and motivating the operators who work for him. Indeed, Bailey has proved himself a savvy manager and an innovator at the 1 mgd facility, with 2,460 service connections in this city of 5,300, an hour east of Springfield between Champaign and Decatur. After learning that the plant supervisor would retire in five years, Bailey kept his eyes on the prize. He took courses at two community colleges, eventually earning an associate degree and a certificate in management. He also attended AWWA seminars. In three years, he earned his Class A Surface Water license, and he became water supervisor in 1996. “When I first started here, I felt like everybody else: you just turn on your tap and the water is there,” Bailey says with a smile. “The fact is, you learn something new every day, and I love that part of the job.”
Scott Bailey, Monticello (Ill.) water department
Position: | Water ExPEriEncE: | 26
Plant Supervisor, Monticello Water Plant years cErtifications: | Class A Surface Water License Education: | Associate degree, Parkland Community College MEMbErshiPs: IAWWA Small System Committee, Illinois Rural Water Association, Water Operators Association, City of Monticello Safety Committee Goals: Continue to maintain the plant in the most cost-effective way possible
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scott bailey loves his job as water plant supervisor: he says he learns something new every day. he’s shown with Matt utley, water operator, who is cleaning the post plate of the multi-port valve on the plant’s ion-exchange softener (siemens).
Quality leaders
OPERATOR
scott bailey believes in leading by example.
waTer PlanT SuPervISor 101
What does it take to be a successful water plant supervisor? scott bailey says it starts with listening and responding. “You have to be sensitive to what people in the community want. clean water, sure, but they want to keep their rates low. so you have to prioritize maintenance projects and stick to your budget. that means sometimes you’ll only replace one or two hydrants a year or two or three blocks of water main.” another key to success is leading by example. “When we have a water leak, my guys aren’t the only ones in the hole,” he says. “i’ll get in with them. We take turns on fixing water main breaks. the guys are good, and you have to show that you support them.” responsiveness is another requirement. says bailey, “Whenever we have a leak, we try to get there as quickly as possible. i’ve had people complain about their dirty water and give us holy heck on the phone, but then they praised us because we responded so fast. You have to take care of things right away.” scott bailey, with water operators tom bates, left, and Matt utley.
(Siemens) for iron and arsenic removal and four ion-exchange water softeners (Siemens). The plant averages 500,000 to 600,000 gpd. Treated water goes into a 750,000-gallon clearwell. The city also has two water towers that hold a combined 650,000 gallons. “A typical day at the plant starts with taking readings,” Bailey says. “We have a SCADA system where we get readings on our pumps and meters. We check the plant inside and out, then come back and do our testing at the lab. We also do maintenance inside the plant and keep the infrastructure in shape.” His biggest challenge came in 2006 when the U.S. EPA reduced the arsenic limit in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10. From the time he heard talk about the new regulations, he began doing pilot studies, experimenting with treatments and chemical combinations that finally yielded the 10 ppb level. But Bailey wanted to do even better. “We used a lot of chemicals, and I was able to eliminate some of them through trial and error,” he says. “We had a chemical engineer who wanted to treat the water with chemicals, so we started out using copper sulfate, hydrogen peroxide, ferrous chloride, chlorine bleach and a SUPERFLOC A-1894RS polymer (Kemira).
“We reached 10 ppb, so I started changing the formula and eliminating one chemical at a time, doing some testing and sending samples into the lab. Just by accident we upped the polymer until we finally got the arsenic level to 6 ppb. What really worked best was using bleach at the well and then adding the polymer right before the water went to the filters.” Beyond the positive health impact, there was an economic benefit to the arsenic removal, according to Floyd Allsop, city manager and Bailey’s boss for 18 years. Allsop feared that the new regulations and the accompanying increase in chemicals would force the city to raise water rates in a tough economic climate. “Scott worked with engineers and others, experimented, tested and came up with a relatively low-cost way to reduce the amount of chemicals we use and still cut arsenic levels to below EPA standards,” Allsop says. “As a result, we’ve been able to hold rates steady. In fact, we haven’t had a rate increase in more than five years, and that’s a real credit to Scott and his team.”
earning honors
Such devotion drew notice in 2012, when Bailey was named Operator of the Year by the Illinois Potable Water Supply Operators Association (IPWSOA). His quarter-century of service includes being a member of the Iowa AWWA section and serving on its Small System Committee, being a member of the Illinois Rural Water Association, and serving on the City of Monticello’s Safety Committee. Bailey joined three finalists on stage at last September’s IPWSOA annual conference in Springfield. “Then I looked around, saw I was the only one left, and thought ‘Oh, that’s me,’” he says. He earned the award in the Groundwater Division after a rigorous selection process that included extensive review of plant performance, interviews and a plant tour by IPWSOA committee members. In typical fashion, Bailey credited just about everybody but himself: his two Class A operators, Tom Bates and Matt Utley; and the city Public Works employees.
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
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If Scott were a coach, he’d be a players’ coach. He’ll always say, ‘can you do this?’ rather than ‘Go do it.’ That’s his style. He’d never ask us to do anything he wouldn’t do. He’s 100 percent hands-on, which is great in a supervisor.”
ToM BaTeS
scott bailey’s Monticello team members look on him as a coach, mentor and father figure and appreciate his hands-on approach to supervision.
Allsop observes, “With Scott as water supervisor, I don’t have to worry about ensuring that our water meets state and federal standards. He takes quality water personally, so I know that whether he’s at the plant or on vacation, he’s monitoring it and keeping in close contact with the other operators. It’s a good feeling to be able to trust someone to do the right thing.” The Water Department has received a Fluoride Award from the state Department of Public Health for seven consecutive years for maintaining the proper fluoride levels all 12 months. Again, Allsop credits Bailey and his team. “This is an older facility, which Scott has been able to maintain and upgrade when the need arises,” he says. “Scott and I have a budget for maintaining the plant and the infrastructure. This includes replacing undersized or old water mains or changing out three or four fire hydrants every year. That can be expensive, since we often have to replace fittings and valves. We’re able to do this cost-effectively because of Scott’s knowledge and experience. He has lots of good ideas, and he isn’t afraid to try new and innovative approaches and work with others.” Those who work for Bailey share Allsop’s assessment. Bates, a 17-year veteran, says, “If Scott were a coach, he’d be a players’ coach. He’s been there and done that, so you have confidence he knows what he’s talking about. Scott will always say, ‘Can you do this?’ rather than ‘Go do it.’ That’s his style. He’d never ask us to do anything he wouldn’t do. When we have a leak or main break, he’ll go down in the hole and work with us to fi x it. He’s 100 percent hands-on, which is great in a supervisor.” Utley, who has been at the Monticello plant for five years, considers Bailey “a mentor and father figure. When I started here, I had my Class D [distribution] license, and Scott encouraged me to better myself and
get my Class A license. I’ve really enjoyed working for him. He knows so much about water and the plant and what it takes to be a good operator.” Toni Sommers, a water department billing clerk, adds her two cents: “Scott’s a great guy to know and work with. He’s one of a kind — very cooperative and always willing to help. He gives tours for high school kids, and they really enjoy hearing him talk about the water plant.”
Job that never ends
While grateful for the praise, Bailey remains focused on his work, which includes a program to replace three or four blocks of water main per year. Last year, he and the Public Works staff put in a mile of new water main. He also considers which hydrants to replace, taking that seriously because hydrant prices have gone from $900 to more than $2,000 in the last several years. Bailey also serves as water operator at three small water treatment plants about 10 miles from Monticello: the Village of Cisco (serving 300), the Village of Deland (300), and White Heath Water Works (600) residents. He does the work on Saturdays, making sure the plants are More InFo: running the way they should. Kemira Bailey insists it’s all part of the 800/533-5990 job. “People often take water for www.kemira.com (See ad page 43) granted,” he says. “It’s nice when we go on a job and someone says, Siemens Water Technologies Corp. 866/926-8420 ‘That’s a lot of work; thanks for getwww.water.siemens.com ting our water back.’ I’m proud to be part of the plant’s success.” wso
wsomag.com August 2013
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NEVER
A new ultrafiltration system resolved many issues for the team in Homer, Alaska, but that doesn’t keep them from working diligently to continue getting better
STORY: Jim Force PHOTOGRAPHY: m. Scott moon
SATISFIED
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erfectionists. That’s the conclusion you draw after a conversation with the treatment crew at the 2 mgd Bridge Creek Water Treatment Plant in Homer, Alaska. Superintendent Todd Cook and his staff strive to improve constantly as they deliver drinking water to 1,500 customers in this community on the Kenai Peninsula, 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. The plant includes the largest ultrafiltration membrane installation for drinking water in the state, but the Homer operators don’t let such advanced technology keep them from tweaking plant processes and adjusting chemistry. They’re on the alert against organics, iron and manganese, disinfection byproducts and more, and they have even made adjustments to the membranes and the control systems to give them better results. “We don’t get bored around here,” Cook says.
Bridge creek Water treatment Plant, Homer, Alaska
Built: | 1970s
Step up to membranes
For many years, the Bridge Creek plant used pressure sand filters, but frequently had to deal with filter blinding. Filter backwashing required a high volume of water, reducing the amount of finished water for customers to only 40 to 60 percent. The ZeeWeed ultrafiltration units (GE Water & Process Technologies) are the highlight of a major plant upgrade completed in 2009. Raw water comes from the 35-acre Bridge Creek Reservoir, a few hundred yards from the plant. Byron Jackson multi-stage turbine pumps (Flowserve Corp.) bring the water uphill to the plant, where it passes through strainers (S.P. Kinney Engineers) and then is mixed with recycled water decanted from the filter backwash water ponds.
(membrane plant started 2009) mgd Service area: | City of Homer, plus users in two neighboring communities connectionS: | 1,500 Source water: | Bridge Creek Reservoir treatment proceSSeS: | Rapid mix and flocculation, ultrafiltration infraStructure: 43 miles of distribution lines, 22 pressure-reducing stations, 5 water storage tanks SyStem Storage: | 2.1 million gallons annual Budget: | $1.9 million weBSite: | www.cityofhomer-ak.gov
treatment capacity: | 2
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Alum is injected in a rapid-mix tank to promote development of pinfloc in the flocculation basin, which is equipped with three impellers. “We don’t want a bigger floc, because that could blind the membranes,” explains Jerry Lawver, lead operator. After the floc basin, the water is gravity-fed to the membranes. The membrane train consists of five cassettes, each with 48 modules. The cassettes can hold 64 modules, a feature that will make it easy to expand. Each module contains thousands of vertically strung membrane fibers, with millions of microscopic pores in each strand. Water is filtered by
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Joe young, operator iii, checks the pH, alkalinity, turbidity and chlorine levels of a water sample to verify the accuracy of online instruments.
Quality leaders
PLANT
applying a slight vacuum to the end of each fiber, drawing the water through the pores and into the fibers themselves. The filtered water is dosed with orthophosphate for corrosion control and adjusted for pH with caustic soda. Chlorine for disinfection is generated onsite in a Miox system, which creates sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen gas through electrolysis of salt. While on-site generation is becoming more common due to the risks of transporting chlorine over the road, Homer uses the technique mainly because shipping chlorine to the plant would be difficult. “There are few roads, or no roads, up here,” Cook says. “Liquid chlorine would have to come by boat and would be classified as a hazardous material.” The filtered, chlorinated water flows to a 1-million-gallon clearwell, then downhill to the city distribution system, which consists of just over 43 miles of pipe and 22 pressure-reducing stations. A small portion of the finished water is provided to private haulers who deliver it to customers in two neighboring communities. Besides Lawver, Cook’s staff consists of Joe Young and Dave Welty, operators, and Paul McBride and Bob Kosiorek, maintenance technicians. They follow a standard membrane cleaning protocol. The filter modules are regularly back-pulsed with an air scour feature and backwashed by reversing the flow. In a maintenance clean, the membranes soak for 15 minutes in a solution of chlorine or citric acid. A full recovery clean involves soaking in a chlorine solution for six hours. Filter backwash water passes to two backwash water ponds in series. As solids settle, clear water decants from the first pond to the second. From the second, water is returned to the plant inlet, where it is mixed with raw water. The water recovery rate is 92 percent, meaning that only 8 percent of the water being processed does not end up going to customers — that’s a huge improvement over the old setup.
Keeping it running
While the upgrade to membranes has resolved the issue of filter blinding and low water recovery rates, the Homer team continuously seeks to improve treatment operations and water quality. Iron and manganese can cause problems. Cook and his crew have found that the membranes remove most of the iron, but only about half of the manganese. “We used to get black water complaints, and the clear tubing on our chlorine meters would turn black,” Cook says. By experimenting with increases in the orthophosphate and caustic soda injection rates, the Homer staff brought the manganese issue under control. “We upped the phosphate addition from 0.2 to 2 ppm and are now back to 1 ppm,” explains Cook. The relatively low pH of the source water, driven even lower by We don’t get bored the alum dosing, can also contribute to lead and copper issues and around here.” disinfection byproducts (DPBs), todd cooK so the Homer staff works carefully to increase pH and maintain it at 7.5 to 8.0. The operators have taken several other measures to minimize DPBs. “We have only 1,500 connections, and over 43 miles of water distribution lines,” Cook say. “That’s a lot of standing water in the system.”
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todd cook, treatment superintendent, checks the pH of an acid cleaning in a filter train.
Winning PerFormerS
it’s cause for celebration when an operator at a water treatment plant wins a prestigious state award; it’s an even bigger deal when two operators are so honored. at the Bridge creek water treatment plant, Joe young and Jerry lawver received the alaska rural water association operator of the year award in 2011 and 2012. they’re both invaluable to the success of the Bridge creek operation, says treatment plant superintendent todd cook. “Joe has a mechanical background,” cook says. “He’s sharp, and our go-to guy for Scada issues. Jerry’s been here since 1991 and brings a lot of experience to the table. He became our lead operator in 2011.” young started with the city of Homer in 2007 as a treatment plant mechanic and has applied himself to learning the treatment techniques of both the water and wastewater plants. “not only does he do an outstanding job operating the plant, but his knowledge of computers and the Scada systems is invaluable,” says cook. “He is willing to tackle any challenge that may arise, and i have found nothing that he can’t figure out given the time and resources.” lawver has 26 years’ experience in water and wastewater, 21 with Homer. as lead operator, he is responsible for operating alaska’s largest drinking water ultrafiltration plant. “Jerry has been very helpful in passing his knowledge on by training new operators on the system,” says cook. “He has probably forgotten more about this plant than most operators will ever know. He is always trying to optimize the operation to run the system as efficiently as possible.” the alaska rwa presents its operator awards — based on outstanding performance and professionalism — at its annual training conference each fall.
The utility recently added variable-frequency drives on its pumps and motors as a way to keep water moving throughout the system. Before, the pumps ran on a fill-and-draw basis; in winter it took six to eight hours to fill the storage tank, and then the system would shut down for 16 to 18 hours. “With the VFDs, the pumps are running at a slower pace and the water keeps moving in the system,” says Cook. “We’ve seen some reduction in DBPs, and our power consumption is more efficient.” The staff also pays close attention to organics. Influent TOCs come in at about 4 parts per million and leave the membrane system at 2 ppm or less. The operators rely on UV transmittance testing to track TOCs in the raw and finished water, enabling them to better adjust the plant’s alum addition rates. “We use hand-held UVT meters from Real Tech so we don’t have to send samples out for analysis,” says Cook. “There’s a direct correlation between TOCs and UV transmittance. The higher the UV transmittance through the water, the better organic kill we’re getting. So if our UV transmittance is in a certain range, we know our TOCs are in a certain range, and can adjust our alum dosage rates accordingly. We don’t want to overfeed or underfeed alum.” On the other hand, turbidity is not an issue. “Our source water is very low in turbidity,” says Cook. “The turbidity in our finished water is 0.02 NTU, rock solid. The filters pretty much do what the manufacturer says they’ll do. They’re awesome from that standpoint.” That wasn’t always the case in the old days; Lawver remembers the staff used to “backwash and hope the turbidity would come down, then backwash and hope the turbidity would come down.” When summertime temperatures reach into the 60s and 70s, the reservoir can experience
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Jerry lawver, lead operator, takes a routine coliform water sample from a homeowner’s tap.
algae and diatoms. “You can see them in the vial, and they used to blind off the old sand pressure filters. Slime would build up. But they don’t blind off the membranes.”
Final analysis
Nearly five years into the $11 million upgrade, Cook and his staff are pleased with the results but nowhere near ready to slack off on fine-tuning. “Our membranes have been pretty bullet proof so far,” Lawver says. “They’re making good water.”
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our membranes have been pretty bullet proof so far. they’re making good water.”
todd cook and his team at the Bridge creek water treatment plant treat source water that comes from a mountainside above Homer, alaska.
more inFo:
Flowserve Corp.
972/443-6500 www.flowserve.com
Jerry LAWver
The biggest issue has been with programming, Cook says. One of the original issues was with the chemical pumps used for membrane cleaning. “We were locked out from adjusting the length of time that they would run,” says Lawver. “Run times were too short, especially with the sodium bisulfite — the chemical used for neutralizing chlorine.” After a chemical clean, he says, the rinse water would have a chlorine residual as high as 2.0 mg/L. The rinse water is discharged to the backwash ponds, which concentrate the organics removed by the filters. “The combination of high organics and chlorine created DBPs in the pond,” Cook says. “Tests of the decant water proved DBPs were being formed on site. The operators contacted GE/Zenon to have their programmers remove the locks so the operators could adjust the chemical pumps as needed. It’s under control now. All the chlorine is neutralized before it is sent to the decant pond, and we have seen the DBPs drop off.”
Cook concludes that with advanced technology and a new SCADA system sometimes the engineers and programmers haven’t seen eye-to-eye. “It took awhile in some cases, but the operators got things worked out,” he says. That’s typical — Alaskans are known for self-reliance and are not ashamed to brag about it. At the bottom of Cook’s email signature, he quotes “Star Wars” Jedi master Yoda: “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” At Homer, they “do.” wso
GE Water & Process Technologies
866/439-2837 www.gewater.com
Miox Corp
800/646-9426 www.miox.com
Real Tech, Inc.
877/779-2888 www.realtech.ca
S.P. Kinney Engineers, Inc.
800/356-1118 www.spkinney.com
wsomag.com August 2013
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Technology Deep DIve
Turning Data Into Action
Advanced Metering Analytics help utilities use hourly interval information from metering systems to detect issues that need addressing
By TeD J. Rulseh
dvanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with fixed network communication has given water utilities an abundance of data — typically hourly information on customers’ water usage. The challenge has been turning that data into information that can guide performance-enhancing actions. Meeting that challenge is the aim of Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) from Badger Meter. The technology combines the company’s ORION SE two-way or GALAXY one-way fixed network AMI solutions, its secure analytics-based ReadCenter software, and its family of meters and encoders. Essentially, the system takes in the hourly AMI data, identifies conditions that require attention, and alerts appropriate personnel to take action — all automatically. Morrice Blackwell, marketing manager for software solutions with Badger Meter, talked about the technology and its applications in an interview with Water System Operator.
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those meters were to malfunction or slow down mechanically, the utility would lose significant revenue. One of the analytics we run for customers is for average consumption. We allow them to set up the analytics to alert them when a large customer’s metered usage falls a certain percentage below that customer’s average consumption.
wso: In simple terms, how does the analytics process work? Blackwell: First we define the system exceptions the customer cares about. Next we define the accounts to monitor for those exceptions — say, commercial meters over 2 inches. We then define who at the utility should be alerted when that exception occurs, and how they should be alerted — such as by email or SMS text. We also define how often they should be alerted — the first time the exception happens? Every time it happens? And finally, we define what action they want the person to take upon receiving the alert. wso: So, how might this process play out if monitoring for under-consumption? Blackwell: Suppose we set the analytics to flag consumption down by 25 percent from the average on commercial meters 2 inches or larger. When this happens for a given customer, the system would send the meter supervisor or other appropriate party an email saying the account has shown consumption under normal usage, and the action to take is to set up a work order for investigation. wso: What other conditions would a utility want to monitor?
wso: What is the market need this offering is designed to address? Blackwell: It’s part of the evolution of automated meter reading (AMR), which is a very efficient way to get meter information. AMR has been around since the 1980s. The first fixed AMI metering networks for water arrived in 1996 and supplied daily information. Most manufacturers now have gone to hourly information, but until now all that has done is give utilities loads of data without giving them a reason to have it. We saw that having hourly interval data in a water system could be very powerful if it were analyzed and presented in a meaningful way. So
“
Blackwell: They would definitely want to know about our trainers work with utilities to explain how the analytics work and help them set leaks, tampers and reverse flows. up the alerts they care about. A utility has to be smart about deploying the analytics.” Let’s consider leaks. If a conMoRRIce BlAckwell sumer has a leak in the home, the endpoint will notify the we worked with our customers to understand certain conditions they utility that the customer is in a continuous usage state. The system will were concerned about within their water systems. And we developed anathen send an email telling a customer service representative to call the customer. lytics that allow them to take the hourly information and get feedback on Another useful alert is for inactive accounts. This is helpful in states those conditions. like Florida, where for the summer months some residents live elsewhere. wso: What would be an example of a condition this system would flag? Those people like someone to monitor their homes to make sure they don’t get a pipe burst or some leak that goes on while they’re away. The Blackwell: Let’s consider under-usage. In any water utility you have utility can issue a consumption alert, so that if an account in an inactive the 80-20 rule: About 80 percent of users are residential, and about 20 state uses more than some small amount per day, someone is sent out to percent are commercial or industrial users. In many small communities, investigate that. five or six large users may make up a very large share of the revenue. If
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Jacobi Carbons offers the world's broadest line of activated carbons for air, water, and process gas/liquid treatment. Visit us at: www.jacobi.net or stop and see us at WEFTEC booth #4387 in Chicago!
wso: How would notifications work for tampers or reverse flows? Blackwell: If a wire is cut, the endpoint knows there has been a short in the line, and then broadcasts to the utility that it is in a tamper condition. It could be that someone is trying to steal water, or it could be that the wire was damaged by accident. Reverse flow could occur because of poor piping condition. Or you could have an industrial user operating at a pressure that overcomes the normal water pressure in the system. The AMA system would let the utility know, and someone would be alerted to take action right away. wso: Are there any alerts to possibly notify someone about a malfunction in the metering equipment itself? Blackwell: Yes. Endpoints that have been out in the field for a long time will send an alert if they go into a low-battery condition. The system will also provide notification of encoder errors or programming changes that may or may not have been performed by authorized personnel. In addition, utilities may want to know when a particular meter reaches a certain amount of total consumption, as this may trigger them to perform maintenance on that meter. They may say for example that when a 2-inch turbo meter reaches 500,000 gallons, it is time to do a repair or maintenance on it. It’s easy to set up an analytical alarm that sends notifications for those conditions. wso: How do you ensure that customers are ready to use the analytics optimally? Blackwell: Our trainers work with utilities to explain how the analytics work and help them set up the alerts they care about. Every utility is a little different. A utility has to be smart about deploying the analytics. If they set them wrong, they could be overwhelmed with alerts. But if they set the alerts correctly and inform the right people to act on them, the analytics can be quite useful.
wso: What other attributes does the analytics system have? Blackwell: The hourly data is very useful for settling billing disputes. Traditionally, when a customer disputes a bill, the utility would go out and test the meter and explain how the meter works, and that’s a lot of time and effort. But when you have proof of how much water the customer used on an hourly basis, it’s much easier to reach a resolution. The customer may look at the data and say, “Oh, that’s right, my aunt and her three kids were here for a week and they took two showers a day.” Another benefit is for network management. When a utility installs a fixed network for the first time, there can be a bit of consternation about whether all the endpoints are calling in, and whether all the data collectors are online and functioning. We provide a system dashboard with easy-to-understand graphs that show the endpoints and the data collectors and the status they’re in. wso: How has this system been received in the marketplace so far? Blackwell: We have several customers using it, and they are seeing the value of the analytics. One utility has an area in town with about 10 large hotels. They used to send someone out every day to monitor those meters, because if one of them were to go down, they could lose hundreds or thousands of dollars per day. With our system in place, they no longer have to send someone out, and no one even has to run reports to check. You tell the system what you’re concerned about, and you don’t have to take any action unless the system tells you to. It’s a system that enables proactive management. It provides vital information utilities need, when they need it, and in the format of their choice, all to improve decision-making. And because it’s web-based, it’s easy to administer and deploy. wso
wsomag.com August 2013
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QUICK-CHANGE
ARTISTS
STORY: TED J. RULSEH PHOTOGRAPHY: CHip WEinER
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
The team at a 120 mgd plant in Tampa relies on a rapid settling process, experience, and automation to produce consistent results from variable raw water sources.
s big as it is, the 120 mgd Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant is just part of the supply network for Tampa Bay Water, a wholesale utility serving three counties and three cities on the Gulf side of Florida. The plant’s operating team has to cope with changeable raw-water quality, and with changes in volume dictated by Tampa Bay Water’s comprehensive strategy for supplying 2.4 million residents in its member jurisdictions. The plant draws raw water from four sources: The 15.5-billion-gallon C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir, the Alafia River, and two pools in the Tampa Bypass Canal. Helping to keep the finished water Michael Kuhn, area manager supply consistent in quality is a at the Tampa Bay Water rapid sedimentation process aided Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant, stands near by the addition of microsand in the filter pipe gallery. the settling basins. The team also relies on extensive automation to meet the Enhanced Treated Water standards in the plant’s operating contract. Veolia Water built the plant in 2002, expanded it in 2010, and operates it under a 20-year agreement, according to Mike Kuhn, P.E., Veolia area manager.
A
same treatment processes and additional solids handling capacity — to its current 120 mgd capacity. The upgrade also added two 1,250 kW emergency generators (Caterpillar) able to power the plant at the 66 mgd rate. At the heart of the facility is the Actiflo high-rate clarifier process from Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies. In this process, water is flocculated with ferric sulfate, microsand and polymer. The microsand enhances formation of robust flocs and acts as ballast, significantly reducing settling time. “We achieved significant capital savings because the Actiflo process generally has a footprint about one-fifteenth the size of a conventional settling process with similar capacity,” says Kuhn. Water enters the plant from a combination of its four sources as dictated by Tampa Bay Water and fills two raw-water tanks with 12.5 million gallons total capacity. “In the pipe on the way to Actiflo, we inject sulfuric acid for pH adjustment to 4.0 to 4.5, which is optimum for the enhanced coagulation process. In the Actiflo basin, we can trim the pH with acid if we need to by way of a lower-capacity injection point.” In the basin, ferric sulfate coagulant is added rather than alum. “Our source water tends to be higher in color and TOC more so than suspended materials,” says Kuhn. “We need to remove precursors for disinfection byproducts (DBPs), which means we need to knock down the TOC in the Actiflo. Our jar testing showed that ferric was much more effective at TOC removal than alum. “We also have stipulation in our contract to produce a sludge that can be beneficially used. All the sludge we produce goes to Vigiron, our vendor, who uses it to make proprietary iron micronutrients, and potting soil materials. Their products are used by golf courses, sod producers, citrus orchards,
Critical need
Tampa Bay Water was formed in 1998 to provide single-source water-supply responsibility for its member governments. At the time, groundwater was the only source of drinking water, and heavy withdrawals were affecting lakes and wetlands. As part of an alternate supply plan, the agency built the reservoir, a seawater desalination plant and the surface water plant to supplement its wellfields. Water from all these sources is now wheeled around the service territory, the mix of sources depending on cost, seasonal availability and other factors. The surface water plant, designed by the CDM Smith engineering firm, was built with a 66 mgd capacity and expanded in 2010 — with new trains of the
Tampa Bay (Fla.) Water Regional Surface Water Treatment plant
BuilT: | 2002
Quality leaders
PLANT
(expanded 2010) mgd SeRvice aRea: Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco counties; cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, New Port Richey cuSToMeRS SeRved: | 2.4 million SouRce WaTeRS: C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir, Alafia River, Tampa Bypass Canal TReaTMenT PRoceSS: | Rapid sedimentation, ozone, biological filtration annual BudgeT: | $9.9 million (operations) WeBSiTe: | www.tampabaywater.org
TReaTMenT caPaciTy: | 120
|
|
wsomag.com August 2013
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John conyers, shift lead, at the plant control console.
tree farms and other farming applications. They are also incorporated in fertilizer mixes sold by fertilizer manufacturers at consumer outlets.” The sludge is dewatered to about 18 percent solids on six belt presses, four J-Belt units (Siemens) and two Alfa Laval / Ashbrook Simon-Hartley units.
On downstream
After the Actiflo process, the water enters a basin where the pH is adjusted to about 5.5 by addition of lime (with caustic soda as a backup). The water is then fed into ozone contactors equipped with Fuji ozone generators for primary disinfection. “We need tight pH control in the ozone contactors to avoid formation of bromate,” Kuhn reports. Another pH adjustment to 7.3 follows. The flow then passes to biological downflow filters with a top 4-foot layer of granular activated carbon (top-off material supplied by PICA, a Jacobi Carbons Company), a 6-inch layer of sand, and Leopold underdrains. “The filters have two purposes,” says Kuhn. “The first is traditional straining to remove turbidity caused by lime addition. The second is chemical
and biological action. TOCs remaining after the Actiflo process are fractured by the ozone treatment. At that point you create the opportunity for organics that can be combined with chlorine downstream to form DBPs. “Instead, we allow the bugs that live on the activated carbon to eat those organics. The bugs are very happy in the warm climate of Florida. They’ve stayed healthy since we began operating the filters back in 2002. We have not seen any decline in the microbe populations or in the effectiveness of the treatment.” Filtered water passes through a set of clearwells and then into a 2-million-gallon covered chlorine contact chamber, where pH is adjusted with caustic soda and sodium hypochlorite is added for chlorine residual. From there, Tampa Bay Water adds ammonia to form chloramines, and the water then enters a set of three 7.5-million-gallon finished water storage tanks for delivery to the water company’s network.
Dealing with variation
The plant’s 29-member operation, maintenance and lab team deals
EnHanCED WaTER TREaTmEnT
under its agreement with Tampa Bay Water, Surface Water Treatment Plant operator veolia Water must maintain extremely high standards of finished water quality. The contract requirement of enhanced Treated Water means some compliance parameters
are stricter than those of the Florida department of environmental Protection. For example: Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) must be below 0.05 mg/l (maximum-average) rather than 0.08 mg/l. Haloacetic acids (Haa5) must be below 0.05 mg/l (maximumaverage) rather than 0.06 mg/l. color must be 5 pcu (maximum-average) with a maximum of 15 pcu, rather than always below 15 pcu. odor must be 2 Ton (maximum-average) and
always less then 3 Ton, rather than always below 3 Ton. iron must be 0.15 mg/l (maximumaverage) rather than always below 0.3 mg/l. Turbidity for individual filters must be 0.2 nTu or less 95 percent of the time, and for the combined filters 0.1 nTu or less 95 percent of the time, never exceeding 0.25 nTu. This is stricter than the deP requirement of less than or equal to 0.3 nTu 95 percent of the time, and never exceeding 1.0 nTu.
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
“
We have what is likely the most automated surface water plant in the U.S., but operators still have to use the art of operation for any given water that’s coming in to achieve maximum efficiency in the chemical use.”
mikE kUHn
The team at the Tampa Bay Water Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant includes, from left, Tom Keyes, John conyers, david Mccormick, Scott Stuhr, Tom Romaelle, Barry agines, Patrick canada, Bruce doan, cedrick McBride, Phil leon, Terry Kingery, Melanie lasch, lloyd Rogers, Pam london-exner, Mike Knowles, Ken Beyea and Jack Thornburg.
THiS iS Tampa BaY WaTER
Tampa Bay Water supplies wholesale drinking water for 2.4 million residents in the Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas and the cities of Tampa, new Port Richey and St. Petersburg. The agency is a non-profit regional utility, funded through sale of water to member governments. The members share in the cost of developing new supplies, share voting rights equitably among the three counties and pay the same wholesale water rates. Tampa Bay Water policies are established by a nine-member board of directors that includes two elected commissioners from each member county and one elected representative from each member city. Tampa Bay Water meets the region’s drinking water needs with a diverse, flexible supply network, state-of-the-art water quality monitoring, and careful protection of the natural environment. it is the only water utility in the united States that combines three sources of water: groundwater, surface water and desalinated seawater. all told, the agency operates eight treatment facilities, five pumping stations and more than 200 miles of large-diameter piping that carries water to 16 delivery points in the member jurisdiction. daily flow varies from 140 million to 250 million gallons. The supply network includes the 15.5-billion-gallon c.W. Bill young Reservoir, 120 mgd permitted capacity of groundwater from wells, the 25 mgd Tampa Bay Seawater desalination Plant and the 120 mgd Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant. Team members at the surface water plant are: Jack Thornburgh, project manager; Phyllis lanier, administrative assistant; Melanie lasch, special projects manager; Tom exner, controls and computer systems senior associate; Pam london-exner, lab manager; Scott Stuhr and greg laffen, lab technicians; Ken enlow, assistant project manager; Barry agines, Patrick Brand, John conyers, clyde crews, Ryan Harless, Paul lorenz, Phil leon, david Mccormick and Tom Romaelle, o&M technicians; Ken Beyea, chemicals lead operator; James Sheridan, solids lead operator; Scott Self and cedric McBride, utility workers; Terry Kingery, maintenance manager; Mike Knowles and lloyd Rogers, instrumentation/electrical; Peter Sallas, Tom Keyes, Bruce doan and Patrick canada, maintenance technicians; and eugene lounders, reservoir technician.
often with changes in source water quality and quantity. Depending on Tampa Bay Water’s needs, the plant may produce 50 million to 80 million gallons on a given day, and from a different mix of sources. Seasonal events affect the water composition. “In winter we see water that looks much like groundwater,” says Kuhn. “The TOC is lower, but it has higher hardness. In summer, we see more color and more organics in the water, especially after a rain. Suppose we’re treating mostly Alafia River water and we just had a big rain and a whole lot of organics wash into our basins. That’s a tremendous difference in a short time in what the water looks like. “That’s another argument for Actiflo. We need to react quickly to chemistry changes and quantity changes. Actiflo gets us there. It has a very short detention time, we can make chemical adjustments very quickly, and we can bring more basins online in a short time — generally a couple of hours. It’s a very resilient process.” The primary process adjustment is in the ferric sulfate dosing, which relates mainly to the raw water TOC. Operators stay abreast by analyzing process control samples 24 hours a day. In addition, Tampa Bay Water keeps the plant apprised of changes in volume and the mix of sources, generally a week or so in advance. “We have enough history to know in general what will happen if they switch to a certain balance of sources at certain times of year, or if there has been a rain recently,” says Kuhn. “We have what is likely the most automated surface water plant in the U.S., but operators still have to use the art of operation for any given water that’s coming in to achieve maximum efficiency in the chemical use. “For example, right at the operating console we have a chart that tells us the general target ferric dose for a given TOC in the raw water. Our operators, using the process control lab, then can really nail down what the best dose is for that particular water.” Operators enter the correct dose into the plant SCADA system (Intouch/Wonderware), and the chemical feed system (designed by CDM Smith) feeds that dose. The plant is monitored around the clock by a lead operator at one of three control panels in the operations room. A second operator makes
(Continued on page 23)
wsomag.com August 2013
21
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE
Mount Hood and Bull Run Lake are in the uppermost part of the Bull Run Watershed.
Creating a Culture
Portland Water Bureau reduces costs and greenhouse gas emissions through electrical efficiencies and a smart fleet management program
By LISA BALCERAk
WSO welcomes stories
about your green and environmentally progressive initiatives for future “Sustainable Practice” articles. Send your suggestions to [email protected] or call 877/953-3301.
T
he City of Portland is well known for its environmentally minded citizens and government. This sustainable culture extends to the city’s water bureau, which has been steadily reducing use of electricity and vehicle fuel and installing more solar energy arrays. The improvements mean big cost savings and lower greenhouse gas emissions. With a staff of 600, the bureau serves 935,000 people in Portland and 19 wholesale-buying communities in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties. The fiscal year 2012-2013 budget is $219 million. The primary water source is the 102-square mile Bull Run Watershed in the Mount Hood National Forest, federally protected land managed strictly for drinking water and hydropower production. The pristine waters enable Portland to bypass filtration. The water is gravity-fed through 22 miles of pipeline to the city. At the Bull Run Headworks treatment plant, chlorine is added. The water travels five miles to the Lusted Hill treatment plant, allowing time for chlorine absorption. Then ammonia and sodium hydroxide are added to sustain the chlorine level and adjust the pH.
Six reservoirs and 62 storage tanks hold three days’ supply of water; 30 pump stations deliver water to customers. The system delivers an average of 100 mgd. When the watershed has high turbidity or during high water demand, Portland uses a secondary groundwater source of 27 wells that can produce up to 102 mgd.
Energy charter
In February 2010, the bureau adopted an energy management charter that set goals for energy efficiency and renewables. Having all department directors on board was key to setting things in motion. “There was a high level of buy-in from decision makers on energy management,” says Kavita Heyn, sustainability coordinator. “We developed a culture of energy awareness to encourage efficiency, promote renewable projects and establish a baseline to track and evaluate energy use.” Staff from resource protection, engineering and operations came together to identify efficiency improvements (especially at pump stations), seek financial incentives to implement and track projects. Portland has cut energy consumption by using its pumps more effectively. Since 2005, operators have been analyzing pump efficiency in the seven largest pump stations, which offer the greatest potential for energy savings. They use baseline data from the SCADA system to determine how long the pumps run and how much water they move. In stations where there are redundant pumps, the most efficient pumps are used most of the time and are set to fill the tanks during offpeak hours when electricity is least expensive. Besides using information from the SCADA system, operators manually read pump gauges and finetune valves, yielding more efficiency. “Originally our system used altitude valves because the pump stations would pump directly into distribution lines,” says Mia Sabanovic, engineering associate. “Now that we pump into the tanks, the valves have been dialed down, which cuts energy waste. We gained efficiency by doing field inspections.” In the colder months, operators close louver vents and lower thermostat settings in the pump stations. More efficient pump operations saved 1.5 million kWh in 2010.
PhotoS courteSy of Portland Water Bureau
Operations staff members Sara Maier and Joshua Gatov Beck accept an energy incentive check for pump station energy efficiency improvements.
Building efficiencies
In 2010, the bureau updated its 15,000-square-foot meter testing shop
22
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Water Bureau’s Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles. BELOW: Jennifer Deviren, operating engineer, at one of the bureau’s pump stations.
LEFT: One of Portland
(Continued from page 21)
to LEED Gold certification by adding energy- and water-saving features. A water recycling system allows reuse of half the water used for meter testing. A 12.24 kW roofmounted solar photovoltaic array replaces 10 to 25 percent of the building’s utility power and has saved an estimated $3,030 in energy costs. A solar thermal system provides all necessary hot water for half the year. An energy recovery ventilation system captures 75 percent of the heat from exhausted air before it leaves the building. Sensors automatically adjust interior lighting when sunlight is present. The meter shop renovation cost $3.26 million, paid with help from a $30,000 incentive from the Energy Trust of Oregon. The bureau plans to incorporate energy- and water-saving features into two new LEED Gold certified staff buildings under construction. Besides the solar array at the meter station, the bureau has a 9.8 kW roof-mounted array on the groundwater treatment station that has saved an estimated $749 and six tons of CO2 to date. A 267 kW array at the groundwater pump station includes 1,274 Kyocera solar panels that annually produce almost 300,000 kWh. When the groundwater pumps are operating, the array can fulfill 5 percent of the pump station’s energy need. The array was installed under a seven-year agreement with Groundwater Solar, which paid most of the $2.1 million cost in exchange for revenue from power sold to the grid.
“
These ozone generators (Fuji electric) are an integral part of the plant’s primary disinfection process.
it doesn’t make sense to save $1 today on the capital cost of a project if instead you could spend $2 and as a result save $5 on operations over the project life.”
mikE kUHn
rounds and does process w sampling. Maintenance and administrative staff generally work the day shift.
Life cycle savings
Kuhn notes that the facility was created under a design-build-operate (DBO) model that is projected to save Tampa Bay Water some $85 million over a 20-year life cycle. The savings result partly from the Actiflo process and its small footprint, saving significantly on land and construction costs, but also from multiple decisions made with an eye toward the long term. “We looked at this not just as a construction project but as an operating entity,” says Kuhn. “It doesn’t make sense to save $1 today on the capital cost of a project if instead you could spend $2 and as a result save $5 on operations over the project life. A DBO team looks at the full picture because they have skin in the game all the way along. “We’ve got guarantees on this facility. We guarantee power use, chemical use, and the quantities and quality of the water. So we had to be competitive to win the project, and we have to be smart about how we operate it over the long term.” wso
Fleet management
To reduce fuel consumption in its 400 passenger and construction vehicles, the bureau has an extensive fleet management program. A database tracks each vehicle’s fuel use, miles per gallon and total mileage. “We can see if a vehicle is as efficient as it should be and allocate vehicles with lower miles per gallon to staff members who drive fewer miles,” Heyn says. “We also use engine coolant heaters in 40 of our trucks so they don’t idle to warm up on cold winter days.” Most vehicles use a biodiesel blend that emits fewer particulates, reduces engine wear and cuts greenhouse gas emissions. Between 2007 and 2011, the bureau reduced its gasoline and diesel use by 16 percent, saving 7 percent of CO2 emissions annually. Overall, the bureau has built a culture of sustainability by educating staff on the benefits of the efficiency and encouraging participation at every level. “We’ve empowered employees so anyone can share good ideas on how to improve operations,” Sabanovic says. “We share the results of our improvements and include the staff, right down to the operators who installed the pumps. Every operator wants to be the one saving money for the organization.” wso
mORE inFO:
Alfa Laval / Ashbrook Simon-Hartley
800/362-9041 www.alfalaval.us/wastewater
Leopold - a Xylem Brand
704/409-9700 www.fbleopold.com
Caterpillar, Inc.
309/675-1000 www.cat.com
PICA Corp. A Jacobi Carbons, Inc. company
215/546-3900 www.jacobi.net
(See ad page 17)
CDM Smith
617/452-6000 www.cdmsmith.com
Siemens Water Technologies Corp.
866/926-8420 www.water.siemens.com
Fuji Electric Corp. of America
510/440-1060 www.fujielectric.com
Invensys Operations Management
949/727-3200 www.iom.invensys.com
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies North America
312/552-2887 www.veoliawaterna.com
wsomag.com August 2013
23
New Technology Slated for WEFTEC 2013
BY CRAIG MANDLI
mounting flange or adjustable mounting feet, which adapt to various mounting configurations. They feature metallic or nonmetallic latches and molded-in latch keepers and mounting bosses, and a tongue-and-groove seal joint between cover and base. A clear polycarbonate cover is also available for instrumentation applications. Optional adjustable corner panel mounts for supporting an aluminum hinge front panel within the molded-in corner slots provides either flush positioning with the box top or adjustability down in the box 1.5 inches deep. 419/6364217; www.alliedmoulded.com.
Operator10 from AllMax Software features custom dash-
AllMax Software
EFTEC, the Water Environment Federation’s annual technical exhibition and conference, provides wastewater and water professionals from around the world with quality education and training and a vast technology display. This year’s event, Oct. 5-9 in Chicago, showcases the latest products for municipal and industrial water professionals.
W
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
The ACRS line of automatic scraper-strainers from Acme Engineering Products automatically removes solids and large particles using only dirty water for blowdown. The strainers are available in sizes up to a 66-inch body in steel or corrosion resistant metals. These units are ideal for removing large, irregularly shaped solids and contaminants from graywater for recycling in cooling applications, water and wastewater plants and the protection of downstream fine filtration equipment. They are available down to 75 microns to cover a broad range of straining requirements, and can be designed to fit into existing conventional strainer locations. They are available in FRP construction with Monel internals. 518/236-5659; www.acmeprod.com. Division 1 / Zone 1 explosionproof enclosures from Adalet are constructed from stainless steel 316L. Designed for use in highly corrosive areas, they provide ideal construction material for offshore, petrochem, or volatile industrial areas where environmental conditions require additional corrosion protection. Features include a watertight gasket and stainless steel cover bolts, stainless steel hinge kit, mounting panel, removable lifting eye bolts, cover alignment device, cast-on mounting lugs and internal/external ground screws. A flat plate cover allows for additional working area for viewing win-
Acme Engineering Products
dows and operating devices such as pushbuttons, selector switches and pilot lights. 216/267-9000; www.adalet.com. The IVP 250 from Hydra-Stop, a Division of ADS Environmental Services, is a 16-inch, permanent, insertable gate valve offering increased strength, improved performance, and simplified installation and operation. It features a 2-inch-diameter stainless steel valve stem, interchangeable valve gate, thrust washers and double o-ring seal. It is rated for 250 psi working pressure and up to 375 psi test pressure. 800/538-7867; www.hydra-stop.com.
boards that allow for quick review of specific data and shortcuts to frequently accessed areas of the program. Enhancements to dashboards have made them more customizable for an improved user experience. More flexibility has been added to many features, including DataViews, the program’s data entry screens. The eDV Viewer tool, which allows non-users of the software to submit data to the database remotely, has been redesigned, and an auto-update feature has been added to keep users up to date with the newest software developments. 800/670-1867; www.all maxsoftware.com.
ADS Environmental Services
Bolted, stainless steel tanks from American Structures can be utilized for water, wastewater, commercial and municipal storage applications. The use of bolted, stainless steel in the tanks provides sustainability with little or no maintenance. 715/235-4225; www.ameristruc.com. Felt CIPP liners from Applied Felts utilize a single-pass extruded process for coating to ensure that no pinholes are present. Additional tests are conducted to monitor coating uniformity, mass and weight distribution. Each roll is sampled and destructively tested, including density at various pressures, tensile strength, and coating distribution. During production, the liners are continually checked to ensure they satisfy specifications. Finally, a sample is cut from each finished liner for testing across more criteria to make sure the circumference, density, length, coating integrity and weld strengths meet requirements. 276/656-1904; www.appliedfelts.com.
American Structures
Applied Felts
Agru America
Adalet
corrosion prevention solution for the construction and rehabilitation of concrete containment and transmission systems. It features high backpressure and pull-out resistance, and is low maintenance. It eliminates exfiltration and infiltration, protecting the environment. It also has a high chemical and mechanical resistance. 800/373-2478; www.agruamerica.com.
Sure Grip concrete protective liner from Agru America provides an economical and long-term
Aqua-Aerobic Systems
The Aqua MegaDisk cloth media filter from Aqua-Aerobic Systems features 30 percent larger
Allied Moulded Products
POLYLINE polycarbonate enclosures from Allied Moulded Products come standard with multi-
mounting capability, including an out-of-the-box
diameter disks and fewer mechanical components in a fraction of the space. The result is more hydraulic capacity and lower capital and O&M cost. It achieves low-level TSS and NTU, and accommodates high solids and hydraulic loading rates. It
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
also offers low backwash rates, low energy consumption and has a fully automatic PLC control system. This filter is ideal for municipal reuse and phosphorus removal applications with limited land space, or deep bed filter retrofits. 800/940-5008; www.aqua-aerobic.com. The ChemScan mini Mn analyzer from ASA Analytics is designed to assist in process monitoring for manganese removal. Manganese is a natural element present in water. At elevated levels it can adversely affect water taste and color, causing discolored tap water associated with stained clothing, stained bathroom fixtures and clogged ice makers. The analyzer offers real-time data for process monitoring and cost control. It features a long-life LED light source, large I.D. sample tubing and auto cleaning to reduce maintenance requirements. 800/665-7133; www.asaanalytics.com.
Asahi/America Inc.’s Chem Proline piping systems have been certified by NSF to NSF/ANSI Standard 61-G. Made from PE resin, pipe and fittings possess the greatest resistance to slow crack growth. It is a lower cost alternative to metal, fiberglass reinforced plastic pipe and lined steel pipe. A complete system includes pipe, fittings and valves. Available in pipe sizes up to 12 inches, it is ideally suited for use in water treatment and chemical process applications using a variety of chemicals including sodium hydroxide, sodium hypochlorite, caustic soda and low concentration acids. 800/343-3618; www.asahi-america.com. E-Series ultrasonic meters from Badger Meter are constructed from a lead-free stainless steel and engineered polymer. They capture ultra-low flow measurement and offer a high level of metering accuracy. When used in conjunction with Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) solutions, they provide the ability to convey information that can be helpful in detecting leaks or other alarm conditions, a feature not typically available through traditional mechanical meters. 800/876-3837; www.badgermeter.com.
ASA Analytics
The M2L 3000 mediumvoltage variable-frequency drive from Benshaw is designed for industrial applications, but benefits from Curtiss-Wright’s experience in defense and nuclearrelated technologies, an arena where products must meet the most rigorous standards and where failure is simply not an option. Its topology, a modular multilevel converter (M2LC), is powered by stateof-the-art hardware and software control, and is extremely energy efficient and arc resistant. 412/968-0100; www.benshaw.com.
Benshaw
puts. A digital input can be configured via the menu to reset the totalizer, to go into the HOLD mode, to start a zero-point calibration and to activate a replacement measurement value. It also has an adjustable backlit display and a third color-coded LED to allow viewing the device from a distance. It immediately signals if the device status is good or if a warning or an error is active. 800/325-1405; www.burkert-usa.com.
Caldwell Tanks
The Bilco Company
Asahi/America Inc.
from The Bilco Company provides a permanent means of fall protection for the company’s line of singleand double-leaf floor access doors. It is constructed of lightweight aluminum grating and stainless steel hardware for corrosion resistance. The grating panel has a safety yellow powder coat finish, and the system features a stainless steel hold-open device that secures each panel in the full 90-degree position, maximizing the door’s usable access area. 203/934-6363; www.bilco.com.
Fall Protection Grating
Blacoh Fluid Control
age tanks designed and constructed to meet the requirements of AWWA D110 and ACI 372. They are a proven, low-maintenance choice for a variety of applications, including potable water, municipal and industrial wastewater and thermal energy storage. They combine the reliability of a 125-year track record in liquidcontainment with decades of combined experience in the successful design and construction of prestressed concrete tank structures to provide customized storage solutions for customers. 502/ 964-3361; www.caldwelltanks. com.
Prestressed Concrete Tanks (PCT) from Caldwell Tanks are wire-wrapped, prestressed concrete stor-
Badger Meter
SENTRY Revolution dampeners from Blacoh Fluid Control offer a solution for pulsation dampening in harsh and corrosive applications. These 10-cubic-inch pulsation dampeners are available in both PVC and CPVC for improved chemical compatibility, and feature threaded housings in place of traditional metal fasteners that can be damaged in corrosive environments. When needed, CPVC models have a considerably higher temperature rating (180 degrees F) compared to PVC models, with chemical resistance equal to or better than PVC. 800/603-7867; www.blacoh.com.
CST Covers
Beck, Harold & Sons
accurately and consistently track the demand signal, allowing users to fully utilize a control system’s capabilities, decreasing process variability, improving product quality and reducing operational costs. The linear and rotary valve actuators feature a 100 percent continuous-duty motor that won’t burn out. 215/968-4600; www.haroldbeck.com.
BECK electric actuators from Beck, Harold & Sons can quickly,
The Proseries-M M-2 peristaltic metering pump from BlueWhite Industries has many features seen in more expensive pump models designed for large municipalities, but at a smaller price tag. The gentle squeezing action of its valveless design results in near continuous injection of chemical for efficient water and wastewater treatment. Standard control features include an easy-to-use intelligent control systems design, permitting connection to SCADA systems and other remote controllers, for chemical dosing control via either 4-20 mA signal, highspeed digital pulse input or a slow pulse for batching type applications. 714/893-8529; www.blue-white. com.
Blue-White Industries
Clear-span aluminum domes from CST Covers provide cover to water and wastewater storage tanks located above and in-ground. Superior corrosion resistance provides an ideal solution for tough outdoor water challenges and corrosive wastewater environments. The lightweight structures offer great design flexibility, eliminate downtime with easy, fast installation and provide excellent odor control. Structurally durable yet lightweight, they meet site-specific load requirements while accommodating process equipment either underneath or above the covers. Custom domes are available up to 1,000 feet in diameter for most new and existing tanks. 913/621-3700; www.cstcovers.com.
CUES Inc.
Burkert Fluid Control Systems
cut-off function that allows setting a limit below which the measurement value is set to zero, with consequences on the display, the totalizers and out-
The insertion EMF Type 83045 flowmeter from Burkert Fluid Control Systems offers a low-flow
The CUES Digital Universal Camera (DUC) is a high resolution, digital CCTV, side-scanning camera designed for rapid and detailed condition assessment of a water or wastewater system. Inspect and assess 5,000 feet or more per day, increasing revenue while reducing expenses. The system produces a high-resolution digital video scan of internal pipe conditions in 6- to 60- inch pipe, and a flat unfolded view of the pipe to facilitate rapid assignment of observations. An expanded flat unfolded view of the pipe is provided for measurement purposes. This low-maintenance camera has no moving parts and is driven through the pipe without the need to stop or pan and tilt. 800/3277791; www.cuesinc.com. (continued)
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WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
The TAC II SCADA System from Data Flow Systems features user-friendly H M I soft ware, no - cost SCADA software licenses, a plug-and-play design, ease of integration, durability in harsh environmental conditions and a three-year lightning warranty. The system provides a true obsolescence-proof solution, in which all new products maintain a downward compatibility with all older versions, allowing a utility to maximize their investment in SCADA over the long term. 321/259-5009; www. dataflowsys.com.
DN Tanks specializes in the design and construction of AWWA D110 prestressed concrete tanks used for potable water, wastewater, chilled water and other liquids. With over 2,500 tanks ranging in capacity from 40,000 gallons to 40 million gallons, they offer expanded construction capacity, unmatched technical expertise and proficiency in multiple types of proven tank designs to provide customized liquid storage solutions. Tanks are designed to meet varying project requirements with the ability to withstand seismic activity, extreme climates and severe site conditions. 800/826-8306; www.dntanks.com.
Data Flow Systems
61 certified hollow and water-filled plastic ball covers for bird control for municipalities, industrial wastewater plants, recyclable containers, rentals and curtains. 910/245-2241; www.eccllc.us. The ePIPE Process provides a cost-effective alternative to communication and customer pipe replacement for lead remediation in piping systems. It has the ability to line service pipe from the water main right up to the internal tap by blowing an epoxy resin in both directions from an adaptor at the outside stop tap. Only one excavation is needed, and the maximum amount of time the pipes are off supply is three hours. 714/564-7600; www.epipeinfo.com.
Defender filter covers from Environetics prevent algae growth, contain odor and maintain operating temperatures. Opaque covers block UV light, prohibiting algae growth to keep filters clean. A mechanical attachment system provides a positive seal for effective odor containment. A low-profile design minimizes internal volume, reducing odor treatment requirements. Covers isolate thermal air masses to maintain operating temperatures and eliminate freezing. Optional insulation system is available. Modular construction enables rapid installation. 815/838-8331; www.environeticsinc.com.
ePIPE
rosion and UV. After installation, the cover requires little to no maintenance. The company includes complete drawings and comprehensive engineering in a submittal package. The system adheres to the ASCE standard. 888/593-3552; www.fibfab.com. The Experior wastewater pumping system from Flygt – a Xylem Brand, offers energy savings in a package that is simple to install and easy to operate. Its Adaptive N-technology allows the impeller to move axially upward when necessary to permit bulky materials or tough debris to pass through smoothly, reducing stress on the shaft, seals and bearings. It is available with efficient motors that have been optimized for wastewater pumping applications, including some models featuring LSPM design. SmartRun intelligent controls enable it to be pre-programmed and pre-set, optimizing energy use and reducing energy consumption. 704/409-9700; www.flygtus.com. The Signet 4630 free-chlorine analyzer system from GF Piping Systems is designed to measure free chlorine in applications with stable pH, temperature and chlorine levels. Designed with amperometric-based sensing technology, it incorporates a clear flow cell, flow regulator, sensors, filter and rotameter in one compact unit for use in water distribution, ground and surface water, boiler feed water, graywater dechlorination, food and beverage, RO membrane protection and swimming pools. It is EPA 334.0 compliant and has reagent-free measuring, a built-in flow regulator, a panel that includes 100–240 VAC power supply, two 4–20 mA outputs, two mechanical relays and optional automatic pH/temperature compensation. 800/854-4090; www.gfpiping.com. The G460 multi-sensor atmospheric monitor from GfG Instrumentation features a concussionproof boot, along with a highly dust- and waterresistant housing. It has completely automatic calibration, one-button operation, top-mounted display, interchangeable battery packs, a highly configurable smart sensor design and data logging and event logging are standard. Options include dual-range infrared combustible gas sensor, motorized pump operable in diffusion or sample draw mode and up to seven channels of detection. 800/959-0329; www.gfg-inc.com.
Flygt – a Xylem Brand
DN Tanks
Environetics
GF Piping Systems
The eddy current variablespeed drive system from DSI Dynamatic consists of a constantspeed AC induction motor and an electromagnetic clutch, governed by a small, simple controller. Systems are available with simple yet versatile digital control options for simplified pump-drive system programming. Existing eddy current clutches can be remanufactured to factorynew condition, or retrofitted with new controls for increased monitoring capabilities. 800/548-2169; www.dynamatic.com. The Series 2100 MEGAFLANGE restrained flange adapter from EBAA Iron is a
DSI Dynamatic
FCI - Fluid Components International
The ST100 flowmeter from FCI - Fluid Components International features a wide choice
EBAA Iron
field-adaptable wedge-style restrained flanging system. It has a restraint ring and a gasket ring to give the maximum amount of flexibility during and after installation. It can be used on AWWA C900 and C905 PVC Pipe, IPS O.D. (Class) PVC Pipe, Ductile Iron Pipe, Steel Pipe and HDPE Pipe. It is available in 3- to 48-inch sizes. 800/433-1716; www.ebaa.com.
of communication options, with 4-20 mA analog, frequency/pulse, alarm relays and fully approved digital communications: HART, Foundation Fieldbus, Modbus and Profibus. It combines flow-sensing performance with feature- and function-rich electronics. It includes plug-in card replacement that can be changed out by technicians in the field to adapt to a plant’s changing network communication needs. 800/854-1993; www. fluidcomponents.com.
GfG Instrumentation
Fiberglass Fabricators
ECC, LLC
Floating ball covers from ECC, LLC are designed for use
in municipal drinking water applications. They are NSF
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
Composi-Cover from Fiberglass Fabricators is a flat odor-control cover system that’s an alternative to aluminum covers. It is easy to install, and works equally well with rectangular and round tanks, as well as functioning as an algae/ weir cover system. In addition, long unsupported spans can be accommodated. The system includes large, lightweight access hatches and a variety of penetration options. It offers resistance to chemicals, cor-
Gorman-Rupp Pumps
Designed to deliver all the benefits of our sound-attenuated silent pumps, the ReliaPrime emergency bypass station from Gorman-Rupp Pumps
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WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
operates on natural gas, making it quiet, efficient and environmentally friendly. It features a 6-inch Super T Series pump capable of passing a 3-inch spherical solid, and offers a sound-proof lightweight aluminum enclosure with lockable door panels that can be removed for maintenance of the pump or engine. It is a complete backup package, ready for hook-up in emergencies and power outages, primary pump repair and additional pumping capacity. 419/755-1011; www.grpumps.com. The 0.02-10NTU MicroTOL online turbidimeter from HF Scientific is ideal for applications such as drinking water where a measurement range greater than 10NTU is not required. Calibration points are at 0.02, 1.0 and 10NTU. Models are available for Turbidity Method 180.1 and ISO7027 and with or without ultrasonic autoclean. 888/203-7248; www.hfscientific.com.
HF Scientific
JUMO Process Control displays
Hobas Pipe USA
Halogen Valve
The Hexacon Model III control system from Halogen Valve has an optional programmable relay interface module and SCADA informational output to provide active and timely notifications. The optional second battery provides for quicker and more reliable valve closures. The microprocessor system applies 30 ft-lb of torque for test or 50 ft-lb for emergency valve closures for up to six cylinder and ton container valves. All fire codes recognize and approve its automatic-closing fail-safe shutoff valve system in lieu of a scrubber. The SCADA option provides actuator closure status and error codes to quickly analyze problems. 877/476-4222; www.halogenvalve.com.
Centrifugally cast, fiberglass-reinforced, polymer mortar pipe from Hobas Pipe USA is inherently corrosion resistant and lasts 100 years or more, providing a very low life cycle cost. Key applications are sanitary and storm sewers, corrosive environments and potable water. It features leakfree, push-together joints that reduce installation time and costs. Benefits include superior hydraulics, lightweight, high strength and long maintenance-free service life. Installation methods include open cut, sliplining, jacking, microtunneling, two-pass tunnel, casing carrier and above-ground. Sizes range from 18 to 126 inches for both pressure and gravity applications. 800/856-7473; www.hobaspipe.com.
and processes sensor signals for pH or redox value, electrolytic conductivity, resistance of ultrapure water, temperature, flow rate, disinfecting measurement parameters, and free chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone, hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid. A 5.5-inch color touch screen displays parameters to operate and configure the device. Single and double relay cards, semiconductor switches and PhotoMOS relays are available as switching outputs. The integrated paperless recorder features four analog and three binary signals, which can be recorded in two groups and displayed as a graph on the screen. 315/437-5866; www.jumousa.com.
Keller America
Harmsco Filtration Products
exceed the three-log (99.9 percent) removal requirement described in the LT2 ESWTR Toolbox Guidance Manual 8.4.1. for cyst-sized particles. They are ideal to control Cryptosporidium, Giardia cysts and other harmful microorganisms to help ensure safe drinking water. To verify performance, Pace/IBR independent testing facilities were selected to conduct challenge tests. This defines the maximum challenge particulate based on detection limit and acceptable Cryptosporidium surrogate — 2 microns in these tests. The terminal pressure drop was determined to be 30 psi. They were tested via single pass protocol per the EPA at three separate points. 800/327-3248; www.harmsco.com.
LT2 cartridges and housings from Harmsco Filtration Products
The Utility chainsaw from ICS – PowerGrit addresses operator safety with grinding technology which eliminates rotational kickback and offers improved operator positioning when cutting pipe. Utilized by public, private water and wastewater departments worldwide, it is designed to cut a variety of materials from ductile iron to plastic pipe with far less excavation. The ability to cut up to 24-inch pipe without changing position reduces the difficulty of the job. 800/797-4748; www.powergrit.com.
ICS - PowerGrit
The LevelRat non-fouling level transmitter from Keller America features a Kynar diaphragm that combines the non-stick properties of Teflon with superior resistance to puncture and abrasion. The result is a small, non-fouling level transmitter fit for use in even the worst environments, without the need for bulky protective cages. It includes guaranteed lightning protection standard on all 4-20 mA units. 877/2535537; www.kelleramerica.com.
Intelligent Flushing Systems (IFS) from The Kupferle Foundry Company incorporate a chlo-
The Kupferle Foundry Company
International Paint-Devoe Coatings
Hellan Strainer Company
for all filtration applications. They capture the debris on the outside of the screen. The screen is then rotated against a scraper blade or brush to remove all debris. No disassembly is required during the 15-second cleaning cycle. All strainers are manufactured to ISO-9001 and meet all international codes (i.e., ASME, CE/PED, Lloyds, MIL, etc.). 888/4435526; www.hellanstrainer.com.
Fluid strainers from the Hellan Strainer Company are offered in a variety of materials and sizes
potable water tank lining system designed for low VOC compliance. The 100 percent solids, highbuild system features a fast cure, 2:1 mixing ratio and single coat application capability, even in temperatures as low as 35 degrees F. It carries an NSF/ANSI 61 certification for potable water use and cures to a hard, high-gloss finish. It is applied with a plural airless sprayer directly to the water tank’s carbon or stainless steel interior. 440/2342900; www.international-pc.com.
Bar-Rust 234P from International Paint-Devoe Coatings is a solvent-free epoxy, low-temperature
rine analyzer and programmable logic controller into the design. They allow users to program minimum and desired chlorine residual levels that can be automatically maintained while only flushing the exact amount of water necessary to achieve these programmed parameters. They use an amperometric analyzer (no reagents required), and capture all initial and ending chlorine residual levels per sampling sequence, as well as time of day and flush duration. Data is easily downloaded onto a formatted micro-SD card, and can be downloaded into preformatted spreadsheet templates for analysis. 800/231-3990; www. hydrants.com.
JUMO Process Control
The AQUIS touch S modular multichannel measuring instrument for liquid analysis from
Lucity Mobile for Android-based tablets is a mobile app that delivers CMMS workflows, complete with personalized dashboards and views. Features include support of the company’s Web asset and maintenance management modules, modification of live data using custom forms, utilization of existing ArcGIS for server map services and creation of requests, work orders and inspections from the map. 800/492-2468; www. lucity.com. (continued)
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Lucity Inc.
27
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
Ludeca
VIBCONNECT RF from Ludeca
is a wireless condition monitoring system for plant machinery. Simply install a sensor unit consisting of a radio module and two combined sensors for vibration and temperature at the machines. The sensor unit monitors machine vibration, bearing condition and temperature and transmits the relevant data to a bridge where it is evaluated. Each bridge caters to as many as 50 sensor units located within the large radio range of the system. It not only monitors the condition of roller bearings and other rotating components, but also detects damage caused by cavitation, enabling the detection of damage to machine components at an early stage. 305/591-8935; www.ludeca.com. The MAGDOS LP from LutzJESCO America is a solenoid actuated diaphragm pump with a wide capacity range for accurate dosing. Features include a capacity range 0.13 to 3.96 gph, up to 232 psig, batch dosing with both interval and timer functions, an easylogic menu with graphical display and ecosettings to optimize energy and chemical usage. Its dosing rate can be adjusted by changing the stroke frequency manually or by using a 4-20 mA signal. 800/554-2762; www.jescoamerica.com.
The PWM100 water mixer from PAX Water Technologies features a selfinstall design, allowing the unit to be easily lowered through the tank hatch. It can be used to eliminate thermal stratification, reduce residual loss, lower disinfection byproducts and prevent ice formation. It uses a biomimetic nozzle that enables a similar vortex flow pattern inside storage tanks. It is able to self-right on the floor of the tank, even on a sloped surface, and has the advantages of being compact and easy to install and retrieve. The mixer is made of 316 stainless steel, is NSF/ANSI 61 certified and comes with a three-year warranty. 866/729-6493; www. paxwater.com. The IntelliBoost variablespeed constant-pressure booster system from Pentair/Aurora is specifically tailored to freshwater applications in high rises, office buildings, hospitals, hotels, and other commercial, industrial and municipal locations. This system offers a combination of the company’s variable-frequency drive for each pump, and a programmable logic controller (PLC) with a proportional integral derivative (PID) loop to stage up to four pumps based on pressure and flow needs of the building. Pumps are the company’s PVM multistage and end suction pumps. 630/859-7000; www.aurorapump.com. The PT-IQ surge protection device from Phoenix Contact offers multi-stage remote monitoring,
PAX Water Technologies
Rockwell Automation
Lutz-JESCO America
Pentair/Aurora
available with embedded EtherNet/IP, giving utilities access to production information throughout the enterprise. Plant engineers can access more detailed data allowing them to predict potential problems and prevent equipment failures, resulting in higher asset availability, improved productivity and reduced maintenance costs. Leveraging a single, standard network simplifies communication and provides users with the flexibility to control, configure and collect data from any point in the system. 414/382-2000; www.rockwellautomation.com/industries/water.
Allen-Bradley NEMA and IEC CENTERLINE Motor Control Centers (MCCs) from Rockwell Automation are
Rosemount Analytical
Phoenix Contact
MPC Containment
Collapsible storage bladders from MPC Containment are available in sizes ranging from 250 to 210,000 gallons and larger. They can be used for potable, gray and black water. They are fabricated using military-grade materials and NSF certified potable water-grade materials. All flexible bladders are available in custom designs and sizes, and include fittings as required. 800/621-0146; www. mpccontainment.com.
shelters that safely house equipment, chemicals, controls and workers. Standard sizes are 8 feet tall, 4 to 16 feet wide and up to 42 feet long. Features include structural foam-core fiberglass walls (2 to 4 inches thick), a weatherproof watertight structure, insulation value up to R24, chemical and corrosion resistance, a roof structure rated up to 100 psf and field or factory assembly. 800/348-9843; www.orenco.com.
Pre-fabricated fiberglass shelters from Orenco Systems are strong, lightweight, super-insulated
Orenco Systems
ideal for SCADA systems typical in water/wastewater systems. It provides proactive functional monitoring for signal interface surge protection devices. The system informs the user if a plug replacement is needed long before the components fail due to overload. This can prevent unnecessary service costs, while ensuring system availability and signal quality. 800/322-3225; www.phoenixcontact.com.
The 56 four-wire advanced liquid analyzer from Rosemount Analytical integrates tools, tips and troubleshooting to solve problems on site. Its help screens allow users to clear faults and warnings with detailed instructions and troubleshooting in multiple languages. The data and event logger downloads process data and alarm conditions via a USB 2.0 data port. A high-resolution full-color screen allows users to view process measurements and data trend graphs. It features PID and time-proportional capabilities, and HART and Profibus DP digital communications. It is compatible with a Smart Wireless THUM Adaptor. 800/854-8257; www.rosemount analytical.com.
Schreiber
Raven Lining Systems
The Fuzzy Filter from Schreiber is a compressible media filter for water and wastewater treatment systems. Operating in an upflow or downflow design, it achieves an exceptionally high rate of solids removal through the use of synthetic fiber spheres. With loading rates of 40+ gpm/sq. ft., the filter requires 20 percent of the space for sand filters. Applications include tertiary wastewater, pre-filtration to RO systems, water reuse (Title 22), CSO and many industrial process applications. 205/6557466; www.schreiberwater.com.
Raven Lining Systems are 100 percent solids, ultra high-build epoxies used to protect against corrosion in new construction and to rebuild deteriorating infrastructures. They are moisture tolerant and environmentally friendly, providing continual support to those looking for longterm protection and infrastructure renewal. 800/ 324-2810; www.ravenlining.com.
Dura-Plate 301, a solvent-free, surface and humidity tolerant twopack modified epoxy from SherwinWilliams Co., can be applied over damp steel surfaces without dew point restrictions in treatment facilities with pipe galleries. It protects sweating pipes from corrosion, and also eliminates odor associated with coatings that contain high levels of solvent. It is suitable for marginal surface preparation, which prevents damage to equipment such as treatment
Sherwin-Williams Co.
28
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
pumps and motors that can be affected by abrasive blasting. 800/524-5979; www.sherwin-williams. com/protective. The OSEC B-Pak system from Siemens Water Technologies is a fully automated, pre-packaged proof, and features waterproof probe attachment points that also accept standard (non-waterproof) BNC probes. They have a “soft-grip” surface to help prevent accidental drops, making them ideal for field use. Other features include a backlit LCD display, 99-memory review, min/max/ave, internal clock and calendar, auto-ranging and ATC. Models are available to measure dissolved oxygen, pH, mV, ORP, conductivity, TDS and temperature. 480/3480278; www.sperdirect.com. forcement webbies/web stiffeners are required on this design. Field construction is accomplished utilizing a synchronized, hydraulic screw jack process, which keeps field crews on the ground. This field construction process receives the highest industry ratings for quality control and safety in the field. Tanks are available in sizes up to 8 million gallons. 620/4233010; www.tankconnection.com. The AquaPro multi-input process analyzer from Thermo Fisher Scientific is an intelligent, flexible analysis platform for a wide range of water and wastewater treatment applications. Displaying the status of up to four measurement parameters simultaneously, a complete picture of process status can be displayed on a single instrument due to the analyzer’s multichannel capability, reducing the number of meters required, as well as installation and maintenance time. Its user-friendly interface and easy-to-use menus in seven languages enable simple, intuitive operation. Its plug-and-play architecture simplifies the addition of new features and parameters, allowing you to configure the exact analyzer for your needs. 800/225-1480; www.thermoscientific.com/ processwater. Models 5PA5 (500-pound capacity) and 5PA10 (1,000-pound capacity) Ensign Series davit cranes from Thern Inc. were designed for the water/wastewater industry. They feature a hook height and reach suitable to wastewater applications, along with a new boom adjustment system and reduced rotational effort, which is ideally suited for servicing pumps and mixers. 800/843-7648; www.thern.com. The Pur-IX system from Tonka Water provides an ion exchange solution for potable water systems, and incorporates a series of ion exchange vessels, which are continuously cycled through water treatment and regeneration modes with a multi-port valve. The system provides cost-effective results for hardness removal, and treating nitrates, organics, color, uranium, sulfates and other compounds. Benefits include reduced brine usage and waste volumes, a simple design, continuous regeneration and compact footprint. 763/559-2837; www.tonkawater. com.
VTScada Version 11 from Trihedral Engineering Limited features open connectivity that supports
Siemens Water Technologies
on-site hypochlorite system designed for fast and economical installation, safe operation and easy maintenance. It is now available in capacities from 65 to 260 lb/day, as well as higher capacity units up to 1,500 pounds of equivalent chlorine per day. It generates a 0.8 percent sodium hypochlorite solution through the electrolysis of brine, consuming only water, salt and electricity. By producing hypochlorite on site and on demand, it eliminates concerns associated with transportation and storage of liquefied chlorine gas or commercial sodium hypochlorite solutions, and makes it ideal for any application requiring chlorination. 866/926-8420; www.water.siemens.com. The ZS Strainer from Singer Valve is designed to protect con-
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Strongwell
Singer Valve
trol valves and pipelines from foreign matter such as twigs, leaves and rocks that get caught in the flow and can cause blocks or equipment failure. It has a Z-plate design that provides a smooth laminar flow, which reduces downstream disturbance, making it ideal for locations ahead of automatic control valves. The corrosion-resistant 316 stainless steel screen allows for a large flow area and is easily removed. There are two body taps that allow for differential pressure measurement. It is available in 3-, 4-, 6- and 8-inch pipes sizes, 150-pound or 300-pound flanged. 604/594-5404; www.singervalve.com. The AyrJet Series of high-speed turbo blowers from Spencer Turbine Company provide energyefficient water and wastewater treatment aeration, with flows to 9,000 cfm and pressures up to 16 psig. They feature magnetic bearing technology, with best-in-industry wire-to-air efficiencies. This technology offers high thrust load capability and lower starting torque than air-foil bearings. Built-in monitoring and managing of the shaft position provides inherent fail-safe protection. It has a programmable logic controller, operator interface terminal, and flow-based, pressure-based or level-based control. Systems are prewired and pretested with built-in inlet filtration, oil-free air delivery and a sound-reducing enclosure. 800/232-4321; www. spencerturbine.com. The AquaShock waterproof and shockproof water-quality meter from Sper Scientific is rechargeable, and floats if dropped in water. It is IP67 water-
The fiberglass (FRP) COMPOSOLITE building panel system from Strongwell is a strong, lightweight, corrosion-resistant and easy-to-install alternative to traditional corrugated baffle wall systems. The design provides the ability to increase column spacing. For retrofits, panels can be mounted to existing columns or attached to H-beams or concrete walls for durability and cost effectiveness. It can be used in conjunction with EXTREN structural shapes to form an all-FRP composite system (except for the stainless steel fasteners). 276/645-8000; www. strongwell.com.
The ABS Turbocompressor HST 20 from Sulzer Pumps is a
Sulzer Pumps
Spencer Turbine Company
direct-drive high-speed turbocompressor with built-in inlet and outlet air silencers (less than 70 dBA). It features wire-to-air efficiency (advanced permanent magnet motors and digitally controlled magnetic bearings), an intuitive human-machine interface (HMI), advanced magnetic bearings and bearing control coupled with a self-diagnostic control system which optimizes performance and overall lower operating cost. 503/205-3600; www.sulzer.com.
Thern Inc.
Swan Analytical USA
monitor chlorine residuals accurately and reliably, with the capability to control the process. They can monitor sample flow, reagent status, validation of results and parameter value for remote monitoring. An optional integrated cleaning module reduces manpower to maintain the analyzers, reducing bio-fouling and scaling. 847/229-1290; www.swan-analytical-usa.com.
Codes II Series analyzers from Swan Analytical USA continuously
Tonka Water
Tank Connection Affiliate Group
Sper Scientific
RTP Bolted Tanks from Tank Connection Affiliate Group combine bolted and field-welded tank
construction in the RTP (rolled, tapered panel) tank design. Bolted RTP construction features exact manufacturing tolerances with sidewall thickness up to 1/2-inch plate. No external rein-
Trihedral Engineering Limited
(continued)
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WEFTEC PRODUCT PREVIEW
all major PLCs or RTUs, and can replace polling with Master PLCs. One file installs all the components, and its server architecture offers no-compromise load balancing and failover using fewer computers. Application version control permits instant recovery from unexpected effects of configuration. The new lift station optimization features coordinate collections operations to reduce energy costs, increase response time and reduce surges. 800/4632783; www.trihedral.com. The Ultradome roof from the Ultraflote Corporation is a fully triangulated, spherical, space-frame structure designed to be self-supporting from its periphery with primary horizontal thrust contained by an integral tension ring. The framework is covered with attractive non-corrugated aluminum panels. It is virtually maintenance-free, as the aluminum alloys utilized are weather resistant and do not require coating. 713/461-2100; www.ultraflote.com. on fluorescent technology. It consists of an optical device complete of fluorescent material, a dissolved oxygen and temperature-measuring circuit, two-wire 4-20 mA analog output, RS 485 digital output and nozzle for autoclean by external pressure air. The probe can be connected to a PLC or data logger without using amplifiers or other devices, and can be connected to any controller to power the probe. Applications include water quality monitoring, municipal and water treatment and aquaculture. 800/522-7920; www. vl-pc.com.
USA Tank
Ultraflote Corporation
mance, reliability and ease of installation. Their flat seam, fieldassembled design eliminates leaky flange connections and lap gaskets in liquid tank applications. Using the latest sealant to replace all strip gaskets dramatically reduces the possibility of bolted panel seam leaks. Tanks are erected from ground level with a jacking system, improving safety at the construction site. 866/700-2500; www. usatanksales.com. The OD8325 optical dissolved oxygen probe from Van London – pHoenix Co. is a submersible probe designed to measure dissolved oxygen based
Flat panel bolted tanks from USA Tank offer outstanding perfor-
Vogelsang
Van London – pHoenix Co.
“
What makes it all work is the people. I am really proud of our team. We look for responsibility and a good work ethic. We can teach wastewater operation or lab technique, but we can’t teach character. Each person brings that with them the first day.”
James Pendleton, Plant Superintendent Harpeth Valley Utilities District Wastewater Treatment Plant, Nashville, Tenn.
percent of the parts that make up a typical rotary lobe pump wet-end. This means real cost-savings in terms of spare parts cost, as well as associated labor. It also features an advanced flow-path design that improves flow and solids handling. The integrated flange design allows a flange to be used in a 90-degree or gooseneck arrangement, keeping the pump flooded to maintain prime and extended dry running. The flange arrangement is also very narrow. It delivers pulsation-free flow, low shear and high solids handling. 800/984-9400; www. vogelsangusa.com.
IQ Series pumps from Vogelsang eliminate 50
WEG Electric Corp.
to maximize performance and energy savings. It features an optimized cooling system, large and accessible terminal box, a bearing seal system, low vibration levels and a 1.25 service factor. 800/275-4934; www.weg.net/us.
The W22 electric motor from WEG Electric Corp. was designed
Weidmuller
People.
30
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
The greatest natural resource.
tpomag.com
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE
feature NEMA 4X outdoorrated stainless steel or plastic enclosures with either WiFi or radio frequency transmitters/ receivers. The WiFi solution features a Weidmuller wireless Ethernet (WiFi) 2.4 Ghz modem, which can function as an access point, bridge, client or router. The radio frequency solution can transmit and receive two digital and one analog signal over a range of several miles. The two preassembled plastic enclosures each house a matched transmitter and receiver. They are pre-installed with a power supply, circuit protection, surge protection, terminal blocks, ground blocks, antenna, antenna connection cables and network and power connections. 800/849-9343; www.weidmuller.com. wso
Pre-configured wireless enclosures from Weidmuller
NEWS
PSG names marketing, development directors
Pump Solutions Group appointed Doug Cumpston director of global segment marketing, and named Russell Sitka director of business development, Americas. Cumpston will be responsible for the development and execution of PSG’s global energy market strategy. Sitka will be responsible for the coordination and execution of PSG’s strategy for the regional vertical segments, including strategic program and business plan development.
INDUSTRY
Dow, Haier sign trademark agreement
Dow Water & Process Solutions, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Co., signed the Haier Group as a trademark licensee partner with the FILMTEC reverse osmosis branding program to help enhance the quality of residential water for consumers in China. Haier will use DW&PS’s technology in its residential water purification system and filtration products, as well as marketing materials.
WILO director of engineering/sales manager passes away
Joseph Melton, director of engineering/national sales manager-water management for WILO USA passed away in May. He was 53.
Sauereisen names research manager, office staff
Sauereisen promoted Greg Maloney to research manager, overseeing the company’s C. Fred Sauereisen Laboratory. It also promoted several members of the office staff. Kim Galley was named finance administrator and Vicki Abell was promoted to billing, credit and collections administrator. Pam Semgo joined the accounting department as financial assistant to the controller and Patti Kenzie joined the company as executive assistant and human resource generalist.
Hyde Marine names distributor for water management systems
Hyde Marine, a wholly owned subsidiary of Calgon Carbon Corp., named W&O Supply its exclusive sales distributor in the U.S. and Canada for Hyde Guardian ballast water treatment systems. With 16 stocking locations in the U.S. and Canada, two in Europe and one in South America, W&O Supply serves all segments of the maritime industry, including upstream oil and gas rigs.
Greg Maloney
Kim Galley
TOMCO2 Equipment changes name to TOMCO2 Systems
TOMCO2 Equipment Co. changed its name to TOMCO2 Systems. The name change is accompanied by a new logo, brand identity and website, www.tomcosystems.com.
Vicki Abell Patti Kenzie
Gorman-Rupp receives export award
The Gorman-Rupp Co. received the President’s “E” Award for Exports from U.S. Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank. A total of 57 companies received the award this year. It is the highest recognition a U.S. entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports. wso
FreeWave celebrates grand opening of new headquarters
FreeWave Technologies celebrated the grand opening of its new corporate headquarters in Boulder, Colo. The 45,000-square-foot facility — 80 percent larger than its previous building — includes increased manufacturing space and product testing center.
ARCADIS’s Wijsman joins Water Education Foundation board
Peter Wijsman, water management leader for ARCADIS engineering and consulting, was elected to the Water Education Foundation’s Board of Directors. He is a 2012 member of the foundation’s Water Leaders Program and joins four other newly elected board members.
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wsomag.com August 2013
31
CAse stuDIes:
By CRAIg MANDlI
DIsINFeCtION
Peristaltic pump improves fluoride injection accuracy
Problem
Pulsating-type diaphragm metering pumps were injecting fluoride at the Jones Ferry Road Water Treatment Plant in North Carolina. The fluoride treatment system at the 20 mgd plant requires one primary pump and one backup pump controlled by 4-20 mA and monitored by a SCADA system. The injection rate is 63 ml/min. Operations supervisor Dusty Martin, with the Orange Water and Sewer Authority, had trouble maintaining accurate and consistent fluoride residuals using the diaphragm pumps, which also were affected intermittently by air pockets that entered the system through the day tank.
Solution
Martin installed a Flex-Pro peristaltic pump from Blue-White Industries. The pump easily hooked into the SCADA system; continuous monitoring confirms that the exact amount of chemical is being injected and residual levels are more consistent.
Result: The peristaltic pumps have been in operation for more than six years with very low maintenance. “I highly recommend a peristaltic pump for fluoride injection,” says Martin. “It has proven very reliable and accurate for many chemical injection applications associated with water treatment.” 714/893-8529; www.blue-white.com.
UV disinfection system installed on an abbreviated schedule
Problem
To meet strict deadlines to implement California Department of Public Health and U.S. EPA LT2 rules for drinking water disinfection, the San Francisco Public Utility Commission (SFPUC) needed to accelerate design, construction and installation of the Tesla Water Treatment Facility, which draws unfiltered water from the Hetch-Hetchy reservoir in northern California.
Solution
The SFPUC used a collaborative design-build construction model and installed a newly designed uV disinfection system engineered by Calgon Carbon Corporation, consisting of 12 Sentinel 48 Chevron UV reactors. Each reactor has nine 20 kW lamps oriented in a chevron formation for effective UV dosing with the least power consumption. The system was designed to function without human supervision except for periodic calibration.
Result: The project brought the Tesla Facility to full compliance with all state and federal public health mandates in about half the time typically required for similar design-bid-build projects, and came in under budget. The plant is the largest of its kind in California, treating 315 mgd and serving more than 2.5 million people. 800/422-7266; www.calgoncarbon.com.
Test confirms effectiveness of PAA disinfectant
Problem
A water treatment plant in Steubenville, Ohio, needed a cost-effective water disinfection method that would not generate chlorinated byproducts.
Solution
In a little more than a month, solvay Chemicals conducted independent plant-scale trials using Proxitane WW-12 peracetic acid (PAA). PAA is a faster-acting disinfectant than chlorine-based chemicals, does not generate harmful DBPs even if overdosed and can be economically retrofitted or work in series with an existing disinfection system. The plant was operating at 5 to 8 mgd with a capacity of 13.5 mgd.
Result: PAA dosage never exceeded 1.5 ppm, and the residual averaged 0.4 ppm but did not exceed 1 ppm. PAA feed was flow-paced, CBOD remained
constant and pathogen control was always within the permit limits. The test was a success. 800/765-8292; www.solvaychemicals.us.
32
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
New chlorinator improves efficiency at award-winning plant
Problem
The Village of Montpelier, Ohio, was updating its water treatment facility and wanted to replace the gas chlorinator equipment. The village originally used a gas chlorinator that needed continual work on its heads, would leak or stick often and needed replacement components. The staff lacked time to babysit the chlorine tank when it was about to go empty.
Solution
The village chose the Regal gas Chlorinator from Chlorinators Incorporated. When one tank goes empty, it automatically switches to the standby tank and maintains a constant feed rate. When used with Regal SmartValves, the system is flow proportional, allowing the flow to be adjusted from 1,400 gpm in summer to 1,000 gpm in winter.
Result: The system helped the village eliminate downtime, save money and reduce labor. Montpelier has won the gold medal at the annual International Water Tasting Event in Berkeley Springs, W.V., three times. 772/288-4854; www.regalchlorinators.com.
Ozone disinfection and pretreatment solves taste and odor issues
Problem
The City of Bécancour, Quebec, Canada, needed a replacement for its older air-based ozone unit. While the unit was still operational, the city struggled with removing color and total organic carbon (TOC) and reducing disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in finished water.
Solution
Pinnacle Ozone solutions provided a complete ozone treatment system. The Pinnacle Peak Series ozone generator system provides ozone to both the pretreatment and disinfection process steps at the plant via a single integrated system. Working with one provider simplified design and installation; the company handled zone generation, oxygen supply, dual ozone injection skids and complete process controls. Other benefits included a significantly reduced footprint, quieter operation and lower maintenance.
Result: By employing Pinnacle’s Ozone-On-Demand controls, the plant maintains constantly high ozone concentrations of 10 percent across the
full range of operating conditions. When combined with the ozone generators, this significantly reduces total power and operating costs. 321/205-1717; www.pinnacleozone.com.
Ozone system clears up taste issues
Problem
The water reaching faucets in Waco, Texas, had such foul taste and odor that residents considered it undrinkable. The problem originated from high nutrient loadings in runoff from dairy farms in the watershed above Lake Waco, the city’s raw water source. The contaminants triggered explosive algae blooms and pathogen spikes. Costly chemical treatment added to the process chains failed to suppress the taint.
Solution
A $55 million process upgrade designed by CH2M Hill and The Wallace Group resolved the problem by adding advanced pretreatment clarification, complemented by a 90 mgd PDO1000 ozone disinfection system from WeDeCO – a Xylem Brand. The dual-purpose ozone system provides primary disinfection without harmful chemical byproducts, ahead of mandatory dose of chlorination at release to the distribution system.
Result: The ozone system oxidizes any residual nutrients and delivers maximum disinfection. The taste and odor in the water are gone, along
with the complaints. 704/409-9700; www.xyleminc.com. (Continued on page 35)
wsomag.com August 2013
33
wiNNiNg thEm ovEr
improvements that Pay their way
A California town encourages improvements that reduce water and energy demand by making the necessary up-front investments — recovered through bill surcharges
By PEtE LittErski
I
n the Town of Windsor, water conservation has been a challenge for decades, but in 2012 this small Northern California community hit on a remedy that already has won national recognition. Launched in August 2012, the Windsor Efficiency PAYS program helps pre-qualified residents make upgrades that improve water and energy efficiency in their homes. They pay a surcharge on their water bills after the upgrades until the costs of their improvements are repaid. Paul Piazza, water conservation program coordinator, says that even with the surcharges in place, residents should see an immediate reduction in their bills. When
improvements are paid off, the surcharges will end and the savings will be even greater.
Everyone wins
“The innovation the PAYS program brings is that it’s attractive to everyone, even customers who don’t participate,” says Piazza. “The participants ultimately pay for the full program, but they are saving money, too. It actually benefits everybody, because even the non-participants benefit from the lower cost of maintaining capacity in the future.”
“
Water-efficient landscaping is a part of the Town of Windsor’s efforts to limit water consumption.
the innovation the PAys program brings is that it’s attractive to everyone, even customers who don’t participate.”
Reducing demand is important for Windsor because it is nearing capacity during peak demand months. The town created the program with financial assistance from the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority and the U.S. Department of Energy Better Buildings Program, but it uses its own reserves as the seed capital for the home improvements. In January, Windsor Efficiency PAYS was one of 12 projects recognized by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Alliance for Water Efficiency for programs that save both energy and water. Of 450 programs nationwide, five were deemed Exemplary Programs, and Windsor was one
PAuL PiAzzA
of seven recognized as Programs of Promise.
Not like rebates
Windsor Efficiency PAYS differs from traditional rebate programs in several ways. First, participants must qualify. “We have to qualify them based on their potential savings,” Piazza says. “We have to be sure that their savings will pay for the upgrades.” In most rebate programs, water customers simply have to prove that they installed
The efficiency program’s basic level includes installing water-saving toilets, showerheads and faucet aerators.
34
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
CAse stuDIes:
DIsINFeCtION
Problem
(Continued from page 33)
Leak detection equipment yields savings
With 75 miles of pipeline installed before 1950 and the unbilled water rate at 34 percent in 2010, operations manager Richard McDaniel of the Rockdale County Water Resource in Conyers, Ga., saw a need to monitor the aging water mains and valves. The department’s budget offered limited leeway.
Solution
In 2011, after research and competitive bidding, McDaniel purchased 370 Permalog+ acoustic leak noise loggers, a Patroller II drive-by data collection device, a triCorr touch real-time leak noise correlator, a soundsens “i” advanced correlating logger system and an Xmic ground microphone from Fluid Conservation systems. The products work together to analyze leak noise from water lines, transmit the data to mobile collection units, and pinpoint leaks to minimize repair time and cost. McDaniel and his team also completed extensive product training to ensure proper operation.
Result: Within the first year, Rockdale County Water found more than 50 leaks responsible
for losses of 248,000 gpd. At a cost of $1 per 1,000 gallons of water, the program has already saved customers more than $90,000 per year. The agency plans to continue expanding Permalog+ coverage of its distribution network. 800/531-5465; www.fluidconservation.com. wso
It’s your magazine. tell your story.
efficient fixtures or appliances. The town has set a goal of qualifying 2,000 customers in the first year and an overall goal of enrolling half of the 8,000 residential customers. “At that point we’ll probably be at our saturation point of customers who can qualify,” Piazza says. Participants enter the program at the basic level, which covers the up-front costs of installing watersaving showerheads, toilets and aerators. The fixtures that qualify exceed the efficiency standards that govern the Windsor rebate program. Once the equipment is installed, or if the home’s existing fixtures already meet program standards, owners can qualify for “basic plus measures” that help with the installation of drought-resistant landscaping, high-efficiency washing machines and compact fluorescent lights. A third step involves “co-pay measures,” requiring partial up-front investment by customers for highefficiency refrigerators, on demand hot-water recirculation pumps and high-efficiency clothes dryers. At every step, the town reviews applications to ensure that the savings will exceed the bill surcharges. If a customer moves from a house or apartment before the upgrades are paid for, that person’s obligation ends; the new resident gets the remaining savings and makes the remaining surcharge payments.
WSO welcomes news about your water system for future articles.
Send your ideas to [email protected]
room to grow
Piazza says the program may expand: “There is the potential to roll this into our commercial side, not so much based on indoor usage, but on landscape.” Water customers who don’t want to take part in or can’t qualify for the PAYS program have other ways to save water and money. Under the Water Smart Home Program residents can have a water conservation representative perform an on-site assessment. Toilets, faucets and showerheads are checked for leaks and tested for water consumption. Where appropriate, the town provides free lowflow replacement showerheads and
faucet aerators. Rebates are available for replacing 3.5-gallon-perflush toilets. Irrigation systems are inspected for leaks and are given a system performance check. Based on the results, the utility team creates a site-specific irrigation schedule for spring, summer and fall and provides water-saving recommendations for tuning up the system. A Water Efficient Landscapes (WEL) program offers rebates for upgrading to water-saving sprinkler technology or for removing turf grass. Commercial and business water users also can save water and money: • The Town of Windsor and the Sonoma County Business Environmental Alliance partner to offer commercial, industrial and institutional users free water-use assessments conducted by an independent contractor, who provides a voluntary action plan. • The town offers free landscape water-use surveys. • Large users can get rebates up
to $150 per toilet for replacing 3.5-gallon-per-flush toilets with units that use 1.28 gallons per flush or less. • The Water Efficient Landscapes Rebate Program provides up to $650 for commercial mixed-use meter accounts or $2,500 for dedicated irrigation meter accounts when customers remove turf or upgrade with new water-saving irrigation equipment. • The Water Efficient Technologies Rebate program can provide up to $25,000 for process and equipment changes that save at least 50,000 gallons per year. wso
WSO welcomes stories
about your public information and education efforts for future “Winning them Over” articles. Send your suggestions to [email protected] or call 877/953-3301.
wsomag.com August 2013
35
Tech TAlk
When Will It Be Your Turn?
Almost every organization has an emergency sooner or later. The best way to make sure you survive it intact is to plan for the worst — today.
BY STeve FrAnk, APr
S
omeone wise once said nothing ever goes wrong — until it does. The softer side The captain of the cruise ship Carnival Triumph probably thought Figuring out the operating emergencies to plan for and creating plans nothing would go wrong with his 102,000-ton ship when he got for them is relatively straightforward. One approach would be to think, underway from Galveston, Texas on Feb. 7 for a four-day cruise to “What’s the worst thing that could happen to us? What is the likelihood Cozumel, Mexico. of that happening?” Write it down, and then do the same thing for several Inspection reports by the U.S. Coast Guard on the condition of backother potentially disastrous events. up generators and lifeboats raised few red flags. The same goes for the With the event identification done, begin to think outside the fencesanitation inspection report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and line to flesh out the plan. What happens if you have a chlorine leak? That Prevention. Yet, something went wrong, and the 4,200 passengers and kind of event affects people both within and outside the plant. Your abilcrew became poster children for what happens when disaster strikes. ity to disinfect is likely compromised, and your employees’ and neighSome took it in stride. Others sued. bors’ health may be jeopardized. A fuel line ruptured, crippling the cruise ship. The ruptured line Panic may set in among your neighbors. The media will descend upon caused an engine room fire, and that caused a complete loss of power. Propulsion was risis management experts say there are only two types of organizations: lost. Toilets wouldn’t flush. Elevators and air conditioning didn’t work. Food service Those that have had a crisis, and those that will. Planning for what to do was severely restricted. The ship had to be in an emergency doesn’t mean you are planning for things to go wrong. towed to Mobile, Ala.
c
It makes you a winner.
Are you ready?
What about our utilities? Are we prepared to deal with a complete loss of power? Or a former employee who comes with a gun and methodically shuts down treatment and alarm systems? Or a major main break that causes a giant sinkhole? An emergency you are unprepared for can ruin your day and your career. Being prepared can make you look brilliant. The basics aren’t that hard. Some states require utilities to have emergency plans on hand. Colorado, for example, requires plants to submit an overall facility operating plan. If a facility doesn’t have an overall operating plan, it must submit a discussion or outline of the emergency response program used at the facility. That submission must include: • A description of alternate power sources • A discussion of alarm systems installed at the facility, including any remote transmission of alarms • A description of the chain of command in emergencies • Any other information needed for emergency response The facility also must submit a copy or description of its staffing plan. The plan must include the number of operators and their certification levels, plus operating personnel coverage during weekdays, weekends and holidays. you. Emergency response agencies, firefighters, hazardous materials handlers and police will overrun your facility, and you will be one among many agencies involved in the situation. Questions from the media will come thick and fast. Confusion will reign. Facilities can prepare for the non-technical requirements of handling an emergency by thinking beyond the control room. At the management level, these preparations include: • List everyone who would be recalled to help deal with an emergency. Include physical address, desk phone, cellphone, home phone, remote location phone (such as a getaway cabin) and email. • Develop an incident command model for emergencies. The Incident Command System is a good model for which there is much support from the federal government. You can find basic information about it at http://www.fema.gov/incident-command-system#item1. • Spell out in writing who has the authority to activate the emergency response plan. • Develop a plan to notify next-of-kin of employees who have been hurt or killed. Make sure you notify the family first. Do not let someone else do it.
36
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
• Sign a WARN (Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network) agreement so you can borrow people and equipment from other utilities in an emergency. • Make sure someone on your recall list has enough spending authority to rent equipment you might need (like power generators) or hire emergency repair crews.
happy endings?
All 155 passengers and crew survived when US Airways Flight 1549 ditched, without power, in the Hudson River in January 2009. They lived because Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger had flown thousands of hours and had practiced all types of emergencies — including dead-stick water landings — in simulators. Sullenberger had seconds to decide whether to try for an emergency landing at Teterboro in New Jersey or in the river. He did not have time to pull out the aircraft operating manual and go through long lists of operating characteristics to choose a course of action. He knew. He knew because he had practiced, and 155 people survived because he had. Crisis management experts say there are only two types of organizations: Those that have had a crisis, and those that will. Planning for what to do in an emergency doesn’t mean you are planning for things to go wrong. It makes you a winner. Sun Tzu, in his book, The Art of War, said the general who plans the most wins the battle. That’s what winners do. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steve Frank is retired as public information officer for the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District in Denver, Colo. He now owns SDF Communications in Arvada and is a communications consultant for water and wastewater utilities. He can be reached at [email protected] or 303-957-7459. wso
handling the press
The next several items will help you plan to deal with the media. Depending on the seriousness of the emergency, you could have zero to hundreds of media people on hand, all demanding your immediate attention. • Identify and appoint in writing an emergency spokesperson or public information officer (PIO), even if you don’t normally have one. The PIO must not be the person who will lead the operational side of the recovery effort. • Designate a back-up for the emergency PIO — people get sick and go on vacation. • Get media training for the PIO and backup, plus the top two operational officials who might serve as incident managers. • Spell out in writing who the PIO must get approval from to release information. • Spell out in writing who will contact government officials. • Compile a phone, cellphone, email and fax list of news media in your town and in nearby large cities. The media can help you notify stakeholders about what to do to avoid danger when lives are at risk. • Decide where your media holding area will be. You will need chairs and tables, phones, electricity, Wi-Fi access and a place to hold press briefings. • Write a one-page fact sheet about your utility. Include the headquarters location, the area it serves, how many people are served, what the annual budget is, how many employees, amount of water treated daily, how many miles of distribution lines, the last major upgrade, history and other basics. This is much easier to do when there is no emergency at hand. • Conduct a tabletop exercise with operators to talk through something like a complete loss of electrical power or other emergency. Include the communication component and local emergency management officials in the exercise. Practice is extremely important. That’s when it’s OK to make a mistake and learn from it.
Free subscription at wsomag.com
Where To BegIn?
There are many good sources of help for getting started with an emergency plan and receiving guidance throughout the process. The U.S. EPA has published “Emergency Response Plan Guidance for Small and Medium Community Water Systems to Comply with the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Act of 2002.” Visit http://www. epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/pubs/small_medium_ERP_guidance 040704.pdf. The EPA also has published a large-system planning document found at http://www.epa.gov/watersecurity/pubs/erp-long-outline.pdf. The National Environmental Training Center for Small Communities has published “Emergency Response Planning Resources for Small Water and Wastewater Utilities.” Visit http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/pdf/ emergency/training/TRBLGN25.pdf.
wsomag.com August 2013
37
Worth Noting
EDUCATION
AWWA
The American Water Works Association is offering these courses: • Sept. 11 – Well Rehabilitation and Asset Management Webinar • Sept. 12 – Design and Maintenance of Stormwater Infiltration Practices, Milwaukee • Sept. 16 - Oct. 6 – AWWA High-Tech Operator Course 1, online • Sept. 16 - Oct. 19 – AWWA Water Treatment Operator Level 2, online • Sept. 16 - Oct. 19 AWWA Water Treatment Operator Level 3, online • Sept. 16 - Oct. 19 – AWWA Water Treatment Operator Level 1, online • Sept. 23-25 – S1302 Financial Management, San Antonio, Texas, online • Sept. 25 – Introduction to Wastewater Treatment, Milwaukee Visit www.awwa.org.
WSO invites your national, state or local association to post notices and news items in the Worth Noting column. Send contributions to [email protected].
Michigan
The Michigan Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Sept. 5 – Advanced Cross Connection Seminar, Lansing • Sept. 23-25 – Basic Math & Hydraulics Short Course, Higgins Lake • Sept. 23-25 – Distribution System Short Course, Higgins Lake Visit www.mi-water.org.
New York
The New York Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Aug. 21 – GIS and Facilities Management, Melville • Sept. 10 – Activated Carbon For Water Treatment, Springville • Sept. 10 – Use of Permanganate & Corrosion Control Chemicals, Troy • Sept. 10 – Use of Permanganate & Corrosion Control Chemicals, Canastota • Sept. 11 – Basic Chemistry For Water Treatment, Ogdensburg • Sept. 11 – Activated Carbon For Water Treatment, Binghampton • Sept. 11 – Fundamentals of Hydraulics, Woodbury • Sept. 24 – Top Ops Boot Camp, Troy • Sept. 25 – Media and Publis Relations, Utica • Sept. 25 – Basic Laboratory Skills, Troy Visit www.nysawwa.org.
Arkansas
The Arkansas Rural Water Association is offering these courses: • Aug. 13-15 – Backflow Repair • Aug. 20-22 – Advanced Distribution, Bono • Aug. 27 – Basic Math, Lonoke • Aug. 28 – Applied Math, Lonoke • Aug. 29 – ADH Compliance, Lonoke • Sept. 10-12 – Basic Treatment, Nashville • Sept. 24-26 – Basic Distribution, West Fork Visit www.arkansasruralwater.org.
North Carolina
The North Carolina Section of AWWA and WEA is offering these courses: • Aug. 12-16 – Western Collection & Distribution School, Morganton • Aug. 29 – Improving Operator Effectiveness Through Automation, Huntersville • Sept. 9-11 – Advanced Utility Management Institute, Durham • Sept. 16-19 – Eastern Maintenance Technologist School & Exam, Raleigh Visit www.ncsafewater.org.
California
The California-Nevada Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Aug. 19-23 – Cross Connection Course, Rancho Cucamonga • Sept. 4-5 – Water Use Efficiency Grade I Workshop, Rancho Cucamonga • Sept. 6 – Backflow Refresher, Rancho Cucamonga • Sept. 9-13 – Backflow Tester Course, Rancho Cucamonga • Sept. 13 – Backflow Refresher, West Sacramento Visit www.ca-nv-awwa.org.
Ohio
The Ohio Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Sept. 12 – Hands-On Collection Workshop, Seneca County • Sept. 19 – Hands-On Collection Workshop, Zanesville • Sept. 25-26 – Plant Operations & Laboratory Analysts Workshop, Grove City Visit www.ohiowea.org.
Colorado
The Rocky Mountain Section of AWWA is offering a PWO Seminar Aug. 22 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Visit www.rmwea.org.
Florida
The Florida Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Aug. 15 – Nitrate and Nitrate Testing, online • Sept. 19 – Phosphate Testing, online Visit www.fsawwa.org.
Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Environmental Training Center is offering these courses: • Aug. 12-13 – C Water Operator, Redlands Community College • Aug. 19-20 – D Water Operator Visit www.rscoetc.wordpress.com.
Illinois
The Illinois Section of AWWA is offering these courses: • Aug. 14 – Water Quality: Phosphates, Ammonia, Algae, Filter Cleaning, Macomb • Aug. 29 – Measurement of ATP: A New Tool for Measuring & Managing Water, online • Sept. 5 – Industrial Network Hacking Awareness & Prevention, Rockford • Sept. 19 - Nov. 14 – Water Distribution System Operation & Maintenance 8-week Class, Westmont • Sept. 24 – Collecting, Documenting, & Evaluating Well & Well Pump Test Data, Romeoville • Sept. 25-26 – High Tech Operator Course 1, Lombard Visit www.isawwa.org.
Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Rural Water Association is offering these courses: • Aug. 15 – Traffic Control and High Visibility Clothing, Ashwaubenon • Sept. 12 – Personal Protective Equipment, Plover • Sept. 17 – Personal Protective Equipment, North Fond du Lac Visit www.wrwa.org. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Continuing Education is offering a Design and Maintenance of Stormwater Infiltration Practices course Sept. 12 in Milwaukee. Visit www4.uwm.edu. wso We also feature a “People/Awards” listing which recognizes members of your team. Please send notices of achievements to [email protected].
38
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
EVENTS
Aug. 16
Texas Water Utilities Association Mid-Year Board Meeting, Hyatt Regency Austin. Visit www.twua.org.
Aug. 25-28
American Public Works Association 2013 Congress and Expo, McCormick Place, Chicago. Visit www.apwa.net/congress.
Sept. 8-11
Rocky Mountain Section, American Water Works Association, and Rocky Mountain Water Environment Association 2013 Joint Annual Conference, Keystone, Colo. Visit www.rmwea.org.
Sept. 9-12
Virginia AWWA Section 2013 Annual Conference, Richmond. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 10-13
Michigan AWWA Section 2013 Annual Conference, Grand Rapids. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 11-13
Intermountain Section AWWA Section Conference, Sun Valley, Idaho. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 15-18
28th Annual WateReuse Symposium, Denver, Colo. Visit www. watereuse.org/symposium28.
Sept. 15-18
2013 DSS/Emergency Preparedness and Security Conf., Itasca, Ill. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 15-19
Arkansas Rural Water Association Annual Technical Conference, Hot Springs Convention Center. Visit www.arkansasruralwater.org.
Sept. 18-20
Wisconsin Water Association Annual Conference, Kalahari Resort, Wisconsin Dells. Visit www.wiawwa.org.
Sept. 22-25
AWWA World Congress 2013, Las Vegas, Nev. Visit www.awwa.org.
Sept. 23-25
Northwest Membrane Operator Association First Annual Symposium, “Getting the Best from Your Membrane Treatment Plant,” Vancouver, Wash. Visit www.nwmoa.com.
Sept. 30-Oct. 3
California-Nevada Section AWWA Annual Fall Conference, Sacramento Convention Center/Hyatt Regency, Sacramento, Calif. Visit www. ca-nv-awwa.org.
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wsomag.com August 2013
39
BRIGHT IDEAS
Small Scale SCADA
Cloud-based technology provides sophisticated yet affordable system monitoring and control for a small California water company
By PETER SAGuES
H
ow can a small water company set up a SCADA system that provides and stores information to support intelligent decisions and control the water system without breaking the budget? I faced that question two and a half years ago when asked to take over as facilities manager of Gill Creek Mutual Water Company, serving about 86 homes near Geyserville, Calif., when the current managers retired. Having served as a volunteer assistant manager and on the board of directors, I knew the company faced some challenges but had some positive qualities. On one hand, maintenance and repairs ate up 32 to 45 percent of the budget, our electricity costs were high because we were unable to sync with our utility’s time-of-day rate schedule, and we often depended on customers to tell us when we had a problem such as no water or water overflowing a tank. On the other hand, we had ample water storage capacity, good-quality groundwater, and a good relationship with regulators and customers. We needed a way to monitor the system and control the equipment. A traditional SCADA system would have cost $100,000 to set up, and more to maintain and administer — clearly beyond our budget. I called my brother Paul at XiO, specializing in cloud-based automation. He said his company could collect information about our company, store it in the cloud, and use it to make decisions to help control our pumping, ultimately saving us money. While most of the cost of traditional SCADA is in hardware and software, a cloud-based system is stored on servers shared with other users, and the costs are also shared. Today, we have a cloud-based control system that runs all our equipment and tells me more about our fairly complex water company than I could have imagined. Our total SCADA system has cost less than $25,000.
Overview of the Gill Creek water system.
Each morning when I check our system from a laptop, a smartphone or an iPad, I see that the pumps filled our tanks before electric rates went up at 8:30 a.m. If our system uses more water than expected during the day, the system decides when to run the pumps to avoid peak rates. Also in place is an alarm system that can email maintenance people to report minor anomalies or phone me at any hour if immediate action is needed.
Getting started: communication
We needed to link our three locations: the wells, the pumphouse with contact tank and the hilltop tank reservoir. For years we had used five dedicated phone lines to communicate on/off information between the pumps and tanks. Floats in the tanks directed the pumps to start and stop. One phone line was hooked to an auto-dialer that was less than reliable in sending accurate alarms. The usual replacement for a phone line is to use radios that work with the SCADA system and use serial modems, which means extra costs with every hardware or software change. Paul recommended a fairly new technology — reliable and low-cost IP radios, which are used to provide Internet access in rural areas. These smart 900 MHz radios establish a local area network (LAN), but we needed line-of-sight. My first job was to establish radio contact between the pumps and wells. After using GPS to identify four possible transmitter/receiver locations, we plugged the data into Google Earth and found that we had lineof-sight down a canyon if we could locate one of the pumphouse radios on a hill above the pumphouse. We could then run a cable 150 feet to the pumphouse, which would contain most of our control equipment. We bolted the radios to 1 1/2-inch galvanized pipe and secured them with guy wires. (If we had been confident that the radio network would perform as well as it finally did, we would have used telescoping towers to make maintenance easier for the two radios that stand 30 feet above the ground.) The wells were in direct line-of-sight from the pumphouse, so that hookup was easy.
System monitoring
Phase one was to monitor the system without changing the controls to see what was happening daily. We installed pressure transducers to measure the water level in the upper tank, the intermediate surge (contact) tank and the two wells. The well transducers hang from stainless steel cables two feet above the submersible pumps, but the tank transducers are at the bottom, outside the tanks, connected to the tanks by narrow rodent-resistant tubing.
SCADA display showing a normal hypochlorite level.
40
WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
The water system’s upper tank.
pump, causing the well pumps to cycle frequently while the lift pump was running. The well pumps seemed to fight each other, and the resulting flow rate was barely higher than if the faster well pump had run alone. We found that one well pump could do the job without cycling, saving significant energy and wear on both pumps. For long pump runs, we could turn on the second well pump to finish the cycle without shutting down the lift pump. Since all of our pumps started at random times during the day depending on float height, we often paid the highest electric rates. In summer, about half our energy cost came from pumping about 30 percent of the water. The sodium hypochlorite mix level dropped slowly even when the well pumps were not running. A couple of bad check valves created a vacuum in the pipeline from the wells when water drained back into the well. The Gill Creek cloud-based SCADA system home page. That sucked chlorine through the metering pump(s) and allowed an extra gallon or so of disinfectant to be drawn into the well pipe each day. This was easily rectified and did not cause a hazard, but we would not have The transducer, in a PVC housing (Figure 2), sends the signal via a known about it without the controls. cable to our module in a watertight box (a field-installable unit, or FIU) By constantly monitoring the electricity used by each pump, we found fastened to the radio tower. The transducers measure the depth of water that the newer well pump cost us about 50 percent more per 1,000 gallons above the sensor, and the FIU converts that signal to feet and inches. We than the older pump. We also know that one of our lift pumps is much can measure changes of less than 1/8 inch over the 15-foot tank height. less efficient than we thought. Since we had 110 VAC power at the upper tank, we just plugged in, but Several times per month, a flaw in the old startup routine would since the module and radio together use less than 10 watts, we could have abruptly stop the lift pumps before the slow-closing Bermad valve shut used a solar supply. down. The resulting “hammer” subjected the pipes to damage, and the We also installed electronic pulse generators on our McCrometer alternate lift pump often failed to start automatically after the other flowmeters at the wells and at the output of our lift pumps, and tied them pump stopped, causing the system to run out of water. into the nearby FIUs. Our last monitoring station was in the chlorination If one of the lift pumps failed room. We rebuilt a free chlorine hile most of the cost of traditional SCADA is in to start, the lift pump would shut monitor (Hach CL-17) and plugged down and the entire system would it into the FIU in the pump house, hardware and software, a cloud-based system lock up until an operator went on and also began reading the level of is stored on servers shared with other users, and the site to reset the pumps. During sodium hypochlorite in a 40-galcosts are also shared … Our total SCADA system has that time, the main tank was lon mix drum using a noncontact heading to empty. gauge. cost less than $25,000. Then we hooked up the system Cloud system startup to the Internet using a cellular modem that plugged directly into the SoftWe had found a number of areas needing fairly simple fixes. Now it I/O module. There is only one control component inside the FIU. We can was time to turn the system over to the new controls. The goal is to pronow watch our system from any laptop, iPad or smartphone. vide uninterrupted service to the community, so we maintained the abilWhat we learned from monitoring surprised us: ity to run all pumps manually if necessary. Our wells were in good condition after 40 years. The well-level senWe connected the well pumps so that either could run separately or sors told us that even after the pumps ran for several hours, the water both could run together to keep the intermediate (contact) tank supplied level dropped only 16 feet, leaving at least 66 feet of water over the pumps. with water for the lift pumps. This independent operation caused a bit of Recovery after pumping took only minutes. a problem: Because the flow rate varies greatly depending upon which For years, the floats in our 84,000-gallon upper tank were only allowpump (or pumps) are running, the amount of sodium hypochlorite ing 5,000 gallons of outflow before the pumps ran to refill the tank — the needed varies similarly. In addition, the only operational flowmeters were result of an error in how the floats were set. nearly a mile from the pumphouse at the wells. Both well pumps typically ran together to keep up with the 30 hp lift
W
wsomag.com August 2013
41
We were saved by the LAN, which makes the combined flow rates of the two wells readily available at the pumphouse. Within seconds of a well pump starting, the signal from the McCrometer flowmeters at the wells and a flow switch in the disinfection room allow the local Soft-I/O module to calculate how much sodium hypochlorite the metering pump(s) should inject into the pipe to the intermediate (contact) tank. A Hach CL-17 downstream of the intermediate tank tells us the free chlorine level as water is pumped to the main reservoir up the hill. We set up the 30 hp lift pumps to follow certain priorities: 1. Keep the tanks full regardless of electrical costs during high-firedanger times. 2. Pump water when electrical rates are lowest, if practical. 3. If one lift pump fails to start, or stops during its normal run, trigger an alarm so that the other pump automatically starts and keeps the tanks full. Alarms are also sent: • If the level of available sodium hypochlorite is getting low • If the chlorine analyzer shows a high or low free chlorine reading • If water levels are either higher or lower than a setpoint in any tank • If any pump fails to start or maintain flow • If the cloud servers lose contact with one of the sites
the drum before untreated water was pumped into the system. Since the cloud-based monitoring system has been active, we have had no out-ofwater events. I have become accustomed to picking up my smartphone or going to my desk and in a minute knowing that all is well on the system. Every event the SCADA system has recorded in the past year is stored in the cloud and is available, without taking up space on a local computer.
B
y taking advantage of off-peak electricity, we reduced our electric bill by about 25 percent. Several times we detected system leaks very quickly, resulting in a tight system in which we billed about 99 percent of the water pumped.
Results
By taking advantage of off-peak electricity, we reduced our electric bill by about 25 percent. Some savings came from running the more efficient pump preferentially. Several times we detected system leaks very quickly, resulting in a tight system in which we billed about 99 percent of the water pumped. More than once, we detected when an operator forgot to fill the sodium hypochlorite tank. We were able to see the outage graphically and refill
The bottom line is that the cloud-based SCADA system helps us anticipate problems rather than react, and thus our maintenance and repair costs have dropped dramatically. Looking at our energy savings and the reduction in emergency service calls, I can say we have made our small water district a better organization. It has certainly made my life easier! A link to a cloud-based SCADA system is at http://my.softWSO welcomes stories io.com/demo. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Peter Sagues is facilities manager of Gill Creek Mutual Water Co. in Geyserville, Calif. wso
about your plant and system innovations for future “Bright Ideas” articles. Send your suggestions to [email protected] or call 877/953-3301.
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January/February 2012
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
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BRIGHT IDEAS:
Automated meter reading in Davie County, N.C.
Page 36
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE:
Plant upgrades in Rockville, Md.
Page 30
GreaT!
STORY: Ted J. RulSeh PHOTOGRAPHY: John BoRge
TasTes
Water plant supervisor Kris Knutson adjusts an ozone gas feed valve. ozonation has helped Moorhead Public Service correct recurring odor issues caused by source water variation. (gas flowmeter by erDCo engineering Corporation, valve by Modentic industrial Corp.)
Technology and teamwork help Moorhead Public Service deliver consistently high-quality water from a highly variable source in Minnesota’s Red River
TECH TALK:
Keys to success with wireless SCADA
Page 38
Troy Hall Water Division manager Moorhead, Minn.
T
Tastes Great!
MOORHEAD PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERS HIGH-QUALITY WATER FROM VARIABLE SOURCES
Page 10
Quality leaders
PLANT
he Red River is best known for periodic floods that afflict North Dakota, most notably around Grand Forks. Much farther south, in Moorhead, Minn., the river is known for something else, though mainly to the staff at the water treatment plant. “Up here, it’s not a big river,” says treatment plant operator Dan Haman. “Local events can have a large impact on it. A rain event can often wash interesting water into the river, especially if the weather has been dry for a while.” Years ago, that led to complaints from customers about odor and bad taste in the water coming from the tap. That no longer happens. In 1995, Moorhead Public Service added ozonation to its treatment process, and it proved to be a reliable cure. In fact, for the past two years, Moorhead’s water has been voted the best tasting in the state in a competition held by the Minnesota section of the American Water Works Association. Troy Hall, Water Division manager, credits the treatment technology, along with a talented operations team, with keeping the process on track. “When we look at the SCADA and see our water-quality trends, we want to see flatlines — everything just humming along,” says Hall. “Through teamwork, that’s what we’ve accomplished.”
Variable source
What the Moorhead team calls the North Treatment Plant (10 mgd capacity) was built in 1995. The old 6 mgd treatment plant is now rarely used: The staff operates it periodically just to make sure it remains functional and available for emergencies. When the plant operates, it treats well water only. The new plant, with 10 full-time and two part-time staff members, was designed specifically to deal with variable source water in the Red River. The utility also draws well water from the Buffalo Aquifer, but the river provides about 85 percent of the source water on an annual basis. “There’s a reason it’s called the Red River,” says Nate Halbakken, lead treatment plant operator. Which is to say it’s not what one would call
POSTERS
Starting At
The MPS TeAM
Staff members at the Moorhead Public Service water treatment plant are: • Troy Hall, Water Division manager, 19 years of service, Class A license • Kris Knutson, water plant supervisor, six years, Class A • Nate Halbakken, lead water treatment plant operator, nine years, Class A • Jason Yonke, lead water treatment plant operator, 14 years, Class A • Gena Dahl, water plant chemist, four years • Dan Haman, water plant operator, six years, Class C • Daryl Brahos, water plant operator, four years, Class C • Christopher Capecchi, water plant operator, one year • Christopher Knutson, water plant operator, one year, Class D • Alan Neer, water plant operator, four years, Class A • Leslee Storlie, part-time water plant operator, one year • Kevin Young, part-time water plant operator, one year
“
When we look at the SCAdA and see our water-quality trends, we want to see flatlines — everything just humming along. Through teamwork, that’s what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
TRoy hAll
Water treatment plant operator Dan Haman adjusts gas flow on ozone generator from WeDeCo, a division of Xylem.
Hall cites SCADA work as an example of the team’s cooperation. “For the past decade, we have done all our SCADA work internally,” he says. “It’s not a perfect SCADA, but it has been built by people who really care about the end result. When we want to make a change in how a process works, we all work together. “I’ve done some SCADA work in the office. Kris and Dan have done screen development for various purposes. It has evolved almost entirely inhouse. We also select and install our own instrumentation.”
Problem solvers
Teamwork has helped the Moorhead staff resolve a variety of process issues. Several years ago, pH variability was a constant challenge. Working together, staff members made the correction by installing pH probes, making plumbing changes, and doing SCADA programming. In another instance, rising non-carbonate hardness in the Red River was taking a toll on the soda ash feed pumps. A former operator located a peristaltic pump model (Watson-Marlow) that appeared better suited to the task. Operators, an instrument technician and electricians from the utility’s electrical side worked together to test and install the new pumps. “In a few months, we went from having to service the pumps every week to having almost no problems,” says Haman. Another improvement involved installing a meter in the intake line to sample Red River water for conductivity as a way to predict total hardness in the river in real time. The team did the job, including data analysis and SCADA programming, entirely in-house, installing a used instrument purchased on the Internet for a few hundred dollars. Future plans include installing instrumentation at the river pumping station, about three miles (two hours of in-pipe travel time) from the plant. “I’m excited about that,” says Haman. “We’ll be able to see changes in the water before it gets to the plant and so deal with them more effectively.” Hall calls it a privilege to lead a staff with many and diverse talents. “The strengths of our people make it all work,” he says. “We try our best every day to use the strengths of the people we have.” The results show up daily in the water glasses of Moorhead residents. wso
$
Part-time water treatment plant operator leslee Storlie uses a Thermix stirrer from Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis in a lab testing protocol. Members of the MPS Water Division team are, back, from left, water plant staff members Dan Haman, Kris Knutson, Nate Halbakken, Troy Hall, Jason Yonke, Chris Knutson, Alan Neer, Chris Capecchi and Daryl Brahos; front row, distribution crew members Jared Heller, Chris Perlichek, Matt Andvik, Phil Shequen and Matt Mehl.
Moorhead (Minn.) Public Service
FouNDeD: | 1896 PoPulATioN ServeD: | 42,000 TerriTorY: | Cities CAPACiTY: | 16
SYSTeM STorAge: | 7.9 SourCe WATer: | Red TreATMeNT ProCeSS: iNFrASTruCTure:
KeY CHAlleNge: | Source ANNuAl BuDgeT: | $4.5
of Moorhead and Dilworth, Oakport Township mgd million gallons River (85%), Buffalo Aquifer (15%) Lime/soda ash softening, ozonation, dual media filtration 190 miles of water mains, three water towers, two ground storage tanks, two reservoirs on plant sites water variability million (operations)
activated carbon were fed at the river pumping station, but at times that wasn’t enough. When taste and odor problems arose, complaint calls came in bunches.
|
Reliable process
The MWH engineering firm (then known as Montgomery Watson) designed the new treatment plant. The Moorhead team has steadily improved on the design with instrumentation and updates to the SCADA system, originally supplied by Instrument Control Systems (ICS). One river pump station and two well pump stations deliver raw water directly into the plant. The waters mix in an influent chamber, and the flow then enters two 5.5 mgd softening basins (Infilco Degremont). Typically, only one basin operates at a time, and when both operate, they work in parallel. Water in the basins is fed with lime and soda ash, along with ferric sulfate as a coagulant and polymer for flocculation. Ammonia is also added in the softening stage for bromate control in the downstream ozonation process. The WEDECO ozonation/recarbonation chamber (Xylem) has six cells fed with variable amounts of ozone and carbon dioxide, depending on raw water conditions. Residual ozone is sampled at various points in the chamber. Before final filtration, fluoride is added, along with sodium hexametaphosphate for heavy metal sequestration and corrosion control. The
plant’s four dual-media filter cells each hold two feet of anthracite coal atop 12 inches of sand. The filtered water goes to the clear well, where chlorine is fed to combine with ammonia and form chloramines for disinfectant residual. The water is then delivered to the reservoirs and water towers (7.9 million gallons total system storage).
“
|
ozone does it
WeBSiTe: | www.mpsutility.com
clean. The Red is subject to wide variations in organic matter and hardness, related to weather and the nature of the watershed, Hall observes. Normal flows range from about 3,000 to 5,500 cubic feet per second. The main feeder streams include the Otter Tail River, with generally high water quality; the Bois de Sioux River, with very poor water quality; and the Wild Rice River. “Every river system that feeds the Red is variable, depending on how much rain we’re getting at the time,” says Hall. At the old treatment plant, which used lime and soda ash softening and dual-media filtration, the wide source water variations overwhelmed the process. At the time, the source water included about 60 percent river and 40 percent well water. Potassium permanganate and sometimes
Hall notes that ozonation is KRIS KnuTSon the key to odor and taste control. “We ozonate at very high pH [at times 11 or higher] so that we benefit from some advanced oxidation,” he says. “Ozone has been a really big improvement since it came online in 1995. It helps break down the organic material. Sometimes we feed CO2 with the ozone as the pH is dropping down close to that of the product water. That helps with taste and odor, too.” But it wasn’t technology alone that conquered the variability of Red River water. The plant staff’s diligence had a lot to do with it. “Since we started this plant, we have probably doubled or tripled the amount of online instrumentation,” says Hall. “Our SCADA gives us a lot of information about water quality and what’s happening in the process, and we’re constantly trying to improve that.” The system’s programmable logic controllers and other control hardware are from Allen-Bradley (Rockwell Automation), and the SCADA software is from IntelliSys Inc. Online instrumentation in the treatment plant and water system includes:
We don’t like to keep secrets between positions. We expect all our operators to be very familiar with the SCAdA. As a supervisor, I try to involve the operators so they can help me out with data analysis, maintenance tasks, or whatever happens to come up.”
Water from Moorhead, Minn., won the first two “Best in glass” taste competitions held by the state section of the American Water Works Association at its annual conference in September in Duluth. The event includes a vendor show where water samples from communities that enter the competition are subjected to a taste test and a popular vote among the attendees. The field is narrowed to the top three vote-getters, which go to a second round of tasting by a panel of three from Minnesota section members and a celebrity judge. “in both 2009 and 2010, we won both the popular and the panel vote,” says Troy Hall, Water Division manager for Moorhead Public Service. “The official winner is the sample selected by the panel of judges.” Another honor awaits: The plant is to be featured during 2012 on an episode of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” program, showing the process of cleaning the softening basins. Says Hall, “it has been a fun year.”
Water Division manager Troy Hall
“
The strengths of our people make it all work. We try our best every day to use the strengths of the people we have.”
TRoy hAll
The SCADA is programmed with the U.S. EPA ozone contact time (CT) requirements for disinfection. The ozone analyzers feed data directly into the SCADA, which calculates the actual CT value in real time. “In operations, we adjust the ozone, pH or whatever parameter is necessary to make sure the actual plant CT value is above the EPA requirements,” says Haman. “Once we meet the disinfection requirement, 99 percent of the time the odor and taste issues are taken care of.”
MoRe InFo:
Emerson Process Management
800/854-8257 www.raihome.com 800/553-0550 www.erdco.com 800/227-4224 www.hach.com
35
OI Analytical
800/653-1711 www.oico.com
(See ad page 29)
ERDCO Engineering Corporation
Rockwell Automation
Hach Company
414/382-2000 www.rockwellautomation.com
• Three total chlorine analyzers from Wallace & Tiernan (Siemens Water Technologies Corp.) • Monochloramine/ammonia analyzer, five pH monitors, and eight turbidimeters from Hach Company • Two pH controllers (CO2 auto control), four ozone analyzers and two conductivity meters from Rosemount Analytical (Emerson Process Management) • Organic online analyzer from s::can Measuring Systems Benchtop lab equipment includes a turbidimeter and spectrophotometer from Hach Company, total organic carbon analyzer from OI Analytical, an IC chromatograph from Dionex, now sold as Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis, and an Orion pH meter from Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis. The team tests raw water for hardness and alkalinity every four hours and tests the finished water every eight hours. The ozone analyzers test the water in the ozone contact chamber every 20 seconds. Ozone dosage is adjusted manually based on monitoring for ozone residual. “We have to adjust the ozone feed rate as water quality changes — on a good day, just a couple of times; on a bad day, once an hour or more,” says Haman.
As a team
The staff’s success derives in part from the team atmosphere its leaders try to create. “There’s a lot of overlap in the way we do things — a lot of cross-training,” notes Kris Knutson, water plant supervisor. “We don’t like to keep secrets between positions. We expect all our operators to be very familiar with the SCADA. As a supervisor, I try to involve the operators so they can help me out with data analysis, maintenance tasks, or whatever happens to come up.” Halbakken adds, “We communicate with each other. If one of us sees a problem, we alert the others. Everybody is always looking to keep the best product going out of the plant at all times. If that means someone has to be called at three in the morning to deal with a problem, everybody’s open to that. Everyone’s willing to help out.” Notes Haman, “We try to work to each other’s strengths and shore up our weaknesses. For example, Nate is better at plumbing than I am, so I’ll give him plumbing jobs. In turn, he can give me data to analyze to find out when is the best time to order lime. We each have our little projects and our specialties.”
s::can Measuring Systems
888/296-8250 www.s-can.us
ICS Healy-Ruff
763/559-0568 www.icshealyruff.com
Siemens Water Technologies Corp.
866/926-8420 www.water.siemens.com
Infilco Degremont, Inc.
804/756-7600 www.degremont-technologies.com
Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis
800/225-1480 www.thermoscientific.com/water
Extra! Extra!
Featured in An Article?
Want More Stories?
Get more news, information,
IntelliSys, Inc.
800/347-9977 www.intellisyssoftware.com
Watson-Marlow Pumps Group
800/282-8823 www.wmpg.com
Modentic Industrial Corp.
www.modentic.com.tw
Xylem
MWH Global
303/533-1900 www.mwhglobal.com
704/409-9700 www.xyleminc.com
Reprinted with permission from WSO™ / Month 0000 / © 2012, COLE Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, WI 54562 / 800-257-7222 / www.wsomag.com
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WATER SYSTEM OPERATOR
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Managing Our Most Valuable Resource
January/February 2012
www.wsomag.com
BRIGHT IDEAS:
Automated meter reading in Davie County, N.C.
Page 36
Water plant supervisor Kris Knutson adjusts an ozone gas feed valve. ozonation has helped Moorhead Public Service correct recurring odor issues caused by source water variation. (gas flowmeter by erDCo engineering Corporation, valve by Modentic industrial Corp.)
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE:
Plant upgrades in Rockville, Md.
Page 30
TECH TALK:
Keys to success with wireless SCADA
Page 38
Troy Hall Water Division manager Moorhead, Minn.
Tastes Great!
MOORHEAD PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERS HIGH-QUALITY WATER FROM VARIABLE SOURCES
Page 10
GREAT! GREA
STORY: TED J. RULSEH PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN BORGE
TASTES
Technology and teamwork help Moorhead Public Service deliver consistently high-quality water from a highly variable source in Minnesota’s Red River
T
“
When we look at the SCADA and see our water-quality trends, we want to see flatlines — everything just humming along. Through teamwork, that’s what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
TROY HALL
QUALITY LEADERS
PLANT
he Red River is best known for periodic floods that afflict North Dakota, most notably around Grand Forks. Much farther south, in Moorhead, Minn., the river is known for something else, though mainly to the staff at the water treatment plant. “Up here, it’s not a big river,” says treatment plant operator Dan Haman. “Local events can have a large impact on it. A rain event can often wash interesting water into the river, especially if the weather has been dry for a while.” Years ago, that led to complaints from customers about odor and bad taste in the water coming from the tap. That no longer happens. In 1995, Moorhead Public Service added ozonation to its treatment process, and it proved to be a reliable cure. In fact, for the past two years, Moorhead’s water has been voted the best tasting in the state in a competition held by the Minnesota section of the American Water Works Association. Troy Hall, Water Division manager, credits the treatment technology, along with a talented operations team, with keeping the process on track. “When we look at the SCADA and see our water-quality trends, we want to see flatlines — everything just humming along,” says Hall. “Through teamwork, that’s what we’ve accomplished.”
THE MPS TEAM
Staff members at the Moorhead Public Service water treatment plant are: • Troy Hall, Water Division manager, 19 years of service, Class A license • Kris Knutson, water plant supervisor, six years, Class A • Nate Halbakken, lead water treatment plant operator, nine years, Class A • Jason Yonke, Y Yonke, lead water treatment p reatment lant o reatment p lant perator, 14 years, 14 y 14 years, Class A Jason Yonke, lead water treatment plant operator, 14 years, Class A • Gena Dahl, water plant c lant hemist, four y lant c our years our y years Gena Dahl, water plant chemist, four years • Dan Haman, water plant o lant perator, six y lant o ix years, ix y years, Class C Dan Haman, water plant operator, six years, Class C • Daryl Brahos, water plant o lant perator, four y lant o our years, our y years, Class C Daryl Brahos, water plant operator, four years, Class C • Christopher C Christopher apecchi, water plant o lant perator, one year lant o y year Christopher Capecchi, water plant operator, one year • Christopher Christopher K nutson, water Christopher Knutson, water plant operator, one year, Class D • Alan Neer, water plant o lant peralant o Alan Neer, water plant opera tor, four years, Class A • Leslee Storlie, part-time water Leslee Storlie, part-time water plant operator, one year • Kevin Young, Y Young, part-time water Kevin Young, part-time water plant operator, one year
Hall cites SCADA work as an example of the team’s cooperation. “For the past decade, we have done all our SCADA work internally,” he says. “It’s not a perfect SCADA, but it has been built by people who really care about the end result. When we want to make a change in how a process works, we all work together. “I’ve done some SCADA work in the office. Kris and Dan have done screen development for various purposes. It has evolved almost entirely inhouse. We also select and install our own instrumentation.”
Problem solvers
Teamwork has helped the Moorhead staff resolve a variety of process issues. Several years ago, pH variability was a constant challenge. Work Working together, staff members made the correction by installing pH probes, making plumbing changes, and doing SCADA programming. In another instance, rising non-carbonate hardness in the Red River was taking a toll on the soda ash feed pumps. A former operator located a peristaltic pump model (Watson-Marlow) that appeared better suited to the task. Operators, an instrument technician and electricians from the utility’s electrical side worked together to test and install the new pumps. “In a few months, we went from having to service the pumps every week to having almost no problems,” says Haman. Another improvement involved installing a meter in the intake line to hardsample Red River water for conductivity as a way to predict total hard analyness in the river in real time. The team did the job, including data analy sis and SCADA programming, entirely in-house, installing a used instrument purchased on the Internet for a few hundred dollars. Future plans include installing instrumentation at the river pumping station, about three miles (two hours of in-pipe travel time) from the plant. “I’m excited about that,” says Haman. “We’ll be able to see changes in the water before it gets to the plant and so deal with them more effectively.” Hall calls it a privilege to lead a staff with many and diverse talents. “The strengths of our people make it all work,” he says. “We try our best every day to use the strengths of the people we have.” The results show up daily in the water glasses of Moorhead residents. wso
Variable source
What the Moorhead team calls the North Treatment Plant (10 mgd capacity) was built in 1995. The old 6 mgd treatment plant is now rarely used: The staff operates it periodically just to make sure it remains functional and available for emergencies. When the plant operates, it treats well water only. The new plant, with 10 full-time and two part-time staff members, Water treatment plant operator Dan Haman adjusts gas flow on ozone generator from was designed specifically to deal with variable source water in the Red WEDECO, division of Xylem. River. The utility also draws well water froma the Buffalo Aquifer, but the river provides about 85 percent of the source water on an annual basis. “There’s a reason it’s called the Red River,” says Nate Halbakken, lead treatment plant operator. Which is to say it’s not what one would call
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Water Division manager Troy Hall
Moorhead (Minn.) Public Service
FOUNDED: | 1896 POPULATION SERVED: | 42,000 TERRITORY: | Cities CAPACITY: | 16
Members of the MPS Water Division team are, back, from left, water plant staff members Dan Haman, Kris Knutson, Nate Halbakken, Troy Hall, Jason Yonke, Chris Knutson, Alan Neer, Chris Capecchi and Daryl Brahos; front row, distribution crew members Jared Heller, Chris Perlichek, Matt Andvik, Phil Shequen and Matt Mehl.
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Water from Moorhead, Minn., won the first two “Best in Glass” taste competitions held by the state section of the American Water
The strengths of our people make it all work. We try our best every day to use the strengths of the people we have.”
TROY HALL
of Moorhead and Dilworth, Oakport Township mgd million gallons SOURCE WATER: | Red River (85%), Buffalo Aquifer (15%) TREATMENT PROCESS: Lime/soda ash softening, ozonation, dual media filtration INFRASTRUCTURE: 190 miles of water mains, three water towers, two ground storage tanks, two reservoirs on plant sites KEY CHALLENGE: | Source water variability ANNUAL BUDGET: | $4.5 million (operations) WEBSITE: | www.mpsutility.com
SYSTEM STORAGE: | 7.9
activated carbon were fed at the river pumping station, but at times that wasn’t enough. When taste and odor problems arose, complaint calls came in bunches.
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Reliable process
The MWH engineering firm (then known as Montgomery Watson) designed the new treatment plant. The Moorhead team has steadily improved on the design with instrumentation and updates to the SCADA system, originally supplied by Instrument Control Systems (ICS). One river pump station and two well pump stations deliver raw water Part-time water treatment plant directly into the plant. The waters mix in an influent chamber, and the operator Leslee Storlie uses a Thermix stirrer from Thermo Scientific flow then enters two 5.5 mgd softening basins (Infilco Degremont). Typi– Water Analysis in a lab testing cally, only one basin operates at a time, and when both operate, they work protocol. in parallel. Water in the basins is fed with lime and soda ash, along with ferric plant’s four dual-media filter cells sulfate as a coagulant and polymer for flocculation. Ammonia is also each hold two feet of anthracite ozoadded in the softening stage for bromate control in the downstream ozo coal atop 12 inches of sand. The nation process. filtered water goes to the clear well, The WEDECO ozonation/recarbonation chamber (Xylem) has six where chlorine is fed to combine cells fed with variable amounts of ozone and carbon dioxide, depending with ammonia and form chloraon raw water conditions. Residual ozone is sampled at various points in mines for disinfectant residual. The the chamber. water is then delivered to the reshexametaBefore final filtration, fluoride is added, along with sodium hexameta ervoirs and water towers (7.9 milphosphate for heavy metal sequestration and corrosion control. The lion gallons total system storage).
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The SCADA is programmed with the U.S. EPA ozone contact time (CT) requirements for disinfection. The ozone analyzers feed data directly into the SCADA, which calculates the actual CT value in real time. “In operations, we adjust the ozone, pH or whatever parameter is necessary to make sure the actual plant CT value is above the EPA requirements,” says Haman. “Once we meet the disinfection requirement, 99 percent of the time the odor and taste issues are taken care of.”
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clean. The Red is subject to wide variations in organic matter and hardness, related to weather and the nature of the watershed, Hall observes. Normal flows range from about 3,000 to 5,500 cubic feet per second. The main feeder streams include the Otter Tail River, with generally high water quality; the Bois de Sioux River, with very poor water quality; and the Wild Rice River. “Every river system that feeds the Red is variable, depending on how much rain we’re getting at the time,” says Hall. At the old treatment plant, which used lime and soda ash softening and dual-media filtration, the wide source water variations overwhelmed the process. At the time, the source water included about 60 percent river and 40 percent well water. Potassium permanganate and sometimes
Ozone does it
Hall notes that ozonation is KRIS KNUTSON the key to odor and taste control. “We ozonate at very high pH [at times 11 or higher] so that we benefit from some advanced oxidation,” he says. “Ozone has been a really big improvement since it came online in 1995. It helps break down the organic material. Sometimes we feed CO2 with the ozone as the pH is dropping down close to that of the product water. That helps with taste and odor, too.” But it wasn’t technology alone that conquered the variability of Red River water. The plant staff’s diligence had a lot to do with it. “Since we started this plant, we have probably doubled or tripled the amount of online instrumentation,” says Hall. “Our SCADA gives us a lot of information about water quality and what’s happening in the process, and we’re constantly trying to improve that.” The system’s programmable logic controllers and other control hardware are from Allen-Bradley (Rockwell Automation), and the SCADA software is from IntelliSys Inc. Online instrumentation in the treatment plant and water system includes:
We don’t like to keep secrets between positions. We expect all our operators to be very familiar with the SCADA. As a supervisor, I try to involve the operators so they can help me out with data analysis, maintenance tasks, or whatever happens to come up.”
The staff’s success derives in part from the team atmosphere its leadwww.s-can.us Works Association at its annual conference in September in Duluth. ICS Healy-Ruff ers try to create. “There’s a lot of overlap in the way we do things — a lot The event includes a vendor show where water samples from 763/559-0568 Siemens Water Technologies Corp. of cross-training,” notes Kris Knutson, water plant supervisor. “We don’t communities that enter the competition are subjected to a taste test www.icshealyruff.com 866/926-8420 like to keep secrets between positions. We expect all our operators to be www.water.siemens.com and a popular vote among the attendees. The field is narrowed to Infilco Degremont, Inc. very familiar with the SCADA. As a supervisor, I try to involve the operthe top three vote-getters, which go to a second round of tasting by a 804/756-7600 Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis ators so they can help me out with data analysis, maintenance tasks, or panel of three from Minnesota section members and a celebrity judge. www.degremont-technologies.com 800/225-1480 whatever happens to come up.” www.thermoscientific.com/water “In both 2009 and 2010, we won both the popular and the panel Halbakken adds, “We communicate with each other. If one of us sees IntelliSys, Inc. vote,” says Troy Hall, Water Division manager for Moorhead Public Service. 800/347-9977 Watson-Marlow Pumps Group a problem, we alert the others. Everybody is always looking to keep the “The official winner is the sample selected by the panel of judges.” www.intellisyssoftware.com 800/282-8823 best product going out of the plant at all times. If that means someone has www.wmpg.com Another honor awaits: The plant is to be featured during 2012 on to be called at three in the morning to deal with a problem, everybody’s Modentic Industrial Corp. an episode of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” program, showing www.modentic.com.tw Xylem open to that. Everyone’s willing to help out.” the process of cleaning the softening basins. Says Hall, “It has been 704/409-9700 Notes Haman, “We try to work to each other’s strengths and shore up MWH Global www.xyleminc.com a fun year.” our weaknesses. For example, Nate is better at plumbing than I am, so I’ll 303/533-1900 give him plumbing jobs. In turn, he can give me data to analyze to find www.mwhglobal.com out when is the best time to order lime. We each have our little projects rom Wallace Wallace & Tiernan (Siemens W (Siemens and our specialties.” • Three total chlorine analyzers from Reprinted with permission from WSO™ / January 2012 / © 2012, COLE Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, WI 54562 / 800-257-7222 / www.wsomag.com Water Technologies Corp.) nalyzer, five pH monitors, and and eight eight • Monochloramine/ammonia analyzer, urbidimeters from Hach Company turbidimeters • Two pH controllers (CO2 auto control), four ozone analyzers and two conductivity meters from Rosemount Analytical (Emerson Process Management) • Organic online analyzer from s::can Measuring Systems s::can Measuring Systems Benchtop lab equipment includes a turbidimeter and spectrophotometer from Hach Company, total organic carbon analyzer from OI Analytical, an IC chromatograph from Dionex, now sold as Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis, and an Orion pH meter from Thermo Scientific – Water Analysis. The team tests raw water for hardness and alkalinity every four hours and tests the finished water every eight hours. The ozone analyzers test the water in the ozone contact chamber every 20 seconds. Ozone dosage is adjusted manually based on monitoring for ozone residual. “We have to adjust the ozone feed rate as water quality changes — on a good day, just a couple of times; on a bad day, once an hour or more,” says Haman.
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