An Active Solution
Water & Wastes Digest
March 2008
By John F. Masters & Jeffrey D. Bergman
Energy savings & harmonic mitigation in the water and wastewater industry
PDF Version
Recovering Revenue
Water & Wastes Digest
March 2008
By Shon Anderson
Automated water meters improve reading accuracy and recover town’s lost revenue
PDF Version
Automation Nation
Water & Wastes Digest
September 2007
By Caitlin Cunningham
ISA EXPO 2007 will address topics critical to automation and control success
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AMR—Make It Pay for Itself
Water & Wastes Digest
February 2007
By Steve Thomas
The Blue Ridge Rural Water Co. now has four residential water systems with new meters, and a growing number of AMR meters are being added on a regular basis.
Advanced Metering Simplified
Water & Wastes Digest
February 2007
By Matthew Lesh
AMRA sets out to clear confusion with new online technology assessment tool
Paving Their Way To Productivity
Water & Wastes Digest
February 2007
By Rick Straley
Motivated personnel and efficient mapping propels metering program in
Henry County, Ga.
Maximum Energy Efficiency
Water & Wastes Digest
July 2006
By Stephen B. Austin
Well-conceived Energy Action Plans can mean significant savings in cost and energy use
Realizing the Benefits of Improving RO Technology
Membrane Technology
November 2005
Rich Franks and Craig Bartels
Recent improvements in the design and construction of the RO element have come by focusing attention on the details of glue line placement, feed spacer configuration and the selection of the permeate carrier.
In Control & Beyond Expectations
Water & Wastes Digest
July 2005
By William F. Verona and Robert Rumelfanger
“This system has been operating beyond expectations,” commented Philip D’Angelo of JoDAN, “The treated water is well within the compliance limits mandated by the utility’s discharge limits, at only a fraction of the cost previously observed.
Parameters for Water Quality Field Testing
Water & Wastes Digest
October 2004
By Tony Pagliaro
The most important clues for a water treatment professional’s decision-making process come from accurate water quality analysis information.
Tennessee Titan
Water & Wastes Digest
February 2004
By J. Kernan Crotty
An overflowing sewer made Springfield an unpleasant and unhealthy place to live, and the city’s overflow prevention program was successful only on a limited basis. The city of Springfield has experienced multiple benefits from the Teletouch wireless telemetry systems.
Filtering Through the Options
Water & Wastes Digest
August 2003
Elaine Floyd
The Watsonville Wastewater Treatment Facility currently pumps 400 gallons per minute through the Tekleen water filter manufactured by Automatic Filters in Los Angeles.
Nation's Largest AMR System Comes Online in DC
Water & Wastes Digest
July 2003
Denise Covelli
Driven by the need to replace aging, inaccurate water meters, the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) has spent the past 16 months implementing North America's largest water utility Fixed Network RF System, working with the team of ABB, United Metering and Hexagram
Conservation Agency Battles Erosion, Preserves Wetlands with Computer-Aided Design Tools
Water Engineering & Management
April 2003
Chad Mills
In addition to monitoring soil quality and working with landowners to ensure environmentally sensitive farming and grazing practices, the Natural Resources Conservation Service restores wetlands to foster animal and plant life, reinforces stream banks and designs terraces to control flooding. The agency works to prevent runoff of sediments and animal wastes, and it builds dams to control the growth of gullies that have cut into the slope of a hill over the years.
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Remote Monitoring of Sewage Pump Stations
Water & Wastes Digest
February 2003
Frank Pavlik
Remote status monitoring of lift stations can be provided at a lower cost than SCADA systems, resulting in a much shorter period for realizing full return on investment.
New Process Control System Encodes Unique Elements Of Process Engineers' Knowledge
Water & Wastes Digest
January 2003
John Sheridan
Often, plant controls are nothing more than a controller connected to a dissolved oxygen (DO) probe, programmed by an installer that may know little about the actual process. The challenge is to design automation that provides real value to the user. Process knowledge and understanding of its control should be encoded into the software. The control system should enable the operator to get better performance than with a manual system. It should also bring knowledge otherwise unavailable to the operation of the plant.
Odor Control System
Water & Wastes Digest
January 2003
Brent Howe
Odor complaints have become an all too familiar subject to WWTP managers. They are not only expected to manage their plants effectively and efficiently, meeting both regulatory specs and budget requirements – they are also expected to be good neighbors and keep odor under control. This article describes the successful odor control efforts of the South Dearborn Regional Sewer District located in Lawrenceburg, Ind.
New Analyzer Takes Readings During the Treatment Process
Water & Wastes Digest
January 2003
A unique ammonia/phosphate analyzer designed to take readings directly in the wastewater, in other words, precisely where the nutrient concentration needs to be measured, also delivers real-time, online information about nutrient concentration in the process.
Profits in People: Training Helps Plants Fill Gaps
Water Engineering & Management
October 2002
Spurred by European takeovers and other forms of privatization stressing efficiency and knowledge, U.S. water/wastewater companies are expanding training programs to fill gaps caused by plant closings, cost-cutting and downsizing. Whether they grow their training programs in-house, use outside vendors or a combination of the two, executives say they are able to do a better job filling skill shortages that ensure safer and more efficient plants and that comply with increasingly stringent government regulation.
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A Common Sense Approach to Design
Water Engineering & Management
October 2002
Carter & Burgess, Inc.
When it comes to preliminary designing and engineering of wastewater facilities, it might seem like common sense to have owners and users integrally involved in the preliminary design process, but that is the exception, not the rule. However, some pioneering architecture and engineering firms are changing all of that. Best of all, this process can be applied in the water and wastewater industries.
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Routing Issues: From Paperwork to PDA Efficiency
Water Quality Products
October 2002
Lorraine Keating, Prism Visual Software, Inc.
By now, handhelds have enjoyed enormous popularity in any industry that deals with deliveries, services or exchanges. The bottled water and water treatment industries are not an exception. PDAs enhance performance, accuracy and cost-efficiency.
PDF Version
Automated Treatment, Monitoring System Keeps An Eye On Operations
Water & Wastes Digest
September 2002
To make the most of its resources, including operator time and energy, Warrington Township Water and Sewer Department--located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania--installed a compact sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system when the facility was built four years ago. And an equally hardworking Hach OptiQuant SST Analyzer, installed two years ago, keeps a vigilant eye on the final product.
Controlling Hospital Grease, Sludge Discharges
Water & Wastes Digest
September 2002
One of the major problem areas in St Petersburg, Florida has two hospitals and a nursing home that discharge to a common sewer line. Historically, the city had to clean this section of the sewer line at least four times a year to avoid blockages and sanitary sewer overflows. Working together, the city and one of the hospitals took action to control the discharge of grease from the hospital's facilities and to reduce the costs of maintenance for both the city and the hospital.
Keeping Meters On Line: Accurately Measuring Drinking Water and Sewage
Water Engineering & Management
September 2002
Rodney Johnson
Detroit Water & Sewerage Department (DWSD) has a high stake in keeping its flowmeters up and running with calibrated accuracy. This is especially true for its 278 wholesale water meters used in its vast network of distribution lines that serve 126 communities. It also is true for metering sewage inputs from wholesale customers for its Wastewater Treatment Plant. This article focuses on a unique answer that DWSD found for keeping its magnetic meters online by means of a portable electronic system that verifies and certifies calibration, all done in-line.
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The Invisible Sewage Plant
Water Engineering & Management
September 2002
Carl Dorsch
If you go looking for a particular sewage treatment plant in Cincinnati, Ohio, the first thing you'll notice is--you might not notice it at all. In fact, you might drive right by the facility, dismissing it as just another office building. It just does not look like a treatment plant.
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The 6 Rules of Never: What a General Manager Must Know About Technology to Thrive
Water Engineering & Management
August 2002
Alan Manning
You cannot apply technology without changing what people do or how they do it. The only way to get a return from technology is to have your staff specifically design a plan that involves all your utility's policies and procedures, assessing and modifying them to maximize the payback from integrated technology. This applies to utilities of any size. Technology must be implemented as a strategy to thrive, to grow and improve.
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Texas Utility Cuts Meter Reading Costs, Improves Efficiency with AMR
Water & Wastes Digest
April 2002
The city of Pasadena, Texas, targeted a variety of objectives for improved customer service in meter reading. Pasadena’s primary goals were elimination of estimated water bills and minimized disruption for customers. But the city’s manual reading system was inefficient, especially where meters were remote or hard to access. The answer was a system that increased the efficiency of Pasadena’s water meter reading operations with a leap from a manual meter reading process to an automated meter reading (AMR) solution.
Cutting Grease With Ongoing Monitoring and Maintenance
Water Engineering & Management
March 2002
James M. Russell
Grease is clogging sewers nationwide, creating a costly mess to clean up and a dilemma for officials and regulators. Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that 75 percent of the sewer systems in the United States work at only half capacity because of grease clogs. The cost of keeping sewers open, a cost borne by taxpayers at a local level, is $25 billion per year. The increase in grease in sewer lines is a direct result of the phenomenal growth in dual-income households who choose to eat out or take-out rather than cook at home.
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Small Town Finds Big Technology Affordable
Water Engineering & Management
November 2001
By Mary Turner
Rapid changes in technology make it vital for small utilities such as Wrightstown to update their systems. IPMC software components make it easy to update, integrate and expand the applications. Non-proprietary software helps ensure that data will be available and usable with existing or future system software. Data preservation in an open architecture format allows for data migration to other software applications as may be required when working with an engineering consultant.
PDF Version
AMR: An Asset Comes of Age
Water Engineering & Management
August 2001
John Hengesh
Automatic meter reading has helped water utilities and municipalities solve numerous challengesand significantly reduce expenses.
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SCADA Keeps City in Fresh Water
Water Engineering & Management
May 2001
The City of Blackfoot is a small town of 10,000 located in southeastern Idaho. Like many communities in the region, Blackfoot relies on a collection of wells for its drinking water.
Web-Based and Wireless REVOLUTIONS
Water Quality Products
May 2001
Lorraine Keating, Prism Visual Software
The media predicts that virtually all work as we know it soon will be Web-based and wireless. With the proliferation of PDAs and cell phones, and with their continually decreasing costs, this statement is hard to refute. An article published in Software Technology magazine stated that to characterize this new technology as a "revolution" is an understatement. Rather it is a "cataclysmic change."
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E-Business
Water Quality Products
April 2001
Dale B. Langefels, Crane Environmental
With so many water treatment technologies and ways to apply them, a major challenge to our industry is to develop online configurators that allow the user to select and order a system that best fits his specific needs.
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Riding the Tides to Information Integration and Improved Performance
Water Engineering & Management
March 2001
Paul Borzo
San Diego Water has taken a giant technological leap forward. It has gone from a 15-year-old monitoring system operating with tone telemetry on leased lines to a state-of-the-art supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system that integrates numerous technology systems throughout the enterprise.
PDF Version
Automatic Samplers Designed to Improve Efficiency, Control
Water & Wastes Digest
September 2000
ISOLOK® automatic samplers offered by Bristol Equipment Company in Yorkville, Illinois, draw measured portions of liquids or slurries on command from electrical or all-pneumatic controls. Actuated by a single compressed air cylinder, for greater safety in dusty or volatile environments, the sampler taps process streams moving through pipes or vessels pressurized up to 300 psi, as well as troughs or tanks.
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