INSIGHT
Effectively Managing Your Utility

Terry Brueck President and CEO

Today’s business environment presents utilities with an opportunity to rise to the occasion. Facing the impact of new technology, changing customer expectations, environmental concerns, increasing government regulation, and a transitioning workforce, utility managers must find ways to more effectively manage their utilities. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has collaborated with six water sector associations* to define a strategy to help utilities improve overall management of their organizations.

Figure 1 - The “Ten Attributes of Effectively Managed Water Sector Utilities”

Ten Attributes of Effectively Managed Water Sector Utilities

In the report “Findings and Recommendations for a Water Utility Sector Management Strategy,” collaborating organizations identify Ten Attributes of Effectively Managed Utilities (Figure 1). These attributes serve as points of reference for utility managers to focus upon to improve overall management of their utilities.

To facilitate better management throughout the utilities sector, the Committee also established five “Keys to Management Success” – specific areas of business where utilities can promote and integrate these Ten Attributes to effect change and improvement. The five keys are:

• Leadership
• Continual improvement management framework
• Strategic business planning
• Organizational approaches
• Measurement

Leadership

The need for strong leadership has never been greater for the water sector. Industry challenges require leaders who can respond effectively to current-day demands. This form of 21st century leadership includes skills such as strategic thinking, open communication, courage, effective decision-making, and the ability to deliver results. EMA Chairman Alan Manning speaks about leadership in our last two issues of Communicator. (See Fall 2007 and Issue 1, 2008.)

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement remains a significant opportunity for most water utilities. Responding to the impact of industry challenges, utilities need programs designed to assist with their continuous improvement efforts. Among these programs is QualServe, a voluntary continuous improvement program created for water and wastewater utilities, sponsored by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and Water Environment Federation (WEF). EMA has worked closely with these organizations to assist in providing ongoing program expansion and enhancement.

Launched in 1996, QualServe is designed to help utilities improve overall operations and enhance customer satisfaction as they create a culture of continuous improvement. Through self-assessment, peer review, and performance indicators (metric benchmarking), QualServe offers utilities the tools for continuous improvement. This continuous improvement cycle is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 - The QualServe Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle components address market needs for multiple utility entry points.

QualServe provides utilities with multiple points of entry to join the program. EMA has helped many organizations at various points in the cycle. Utilities looking to get started on a continuous improvement cycle can begin with a Readiness Assessment, which gives your organization a better understanding of your current practices to help identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. A newly updated self-assessment tool provides an organization-wide view of a utility’s practices compared to industry leading practices. These tools provide utilities with a sound basis to begin a continuous improvement journey.

So what does it take to get the real benefits of continuous improvement? The assessment is a start, but creating the plan to improve begins the cycle. Having a realistic yet challenging plan, utilities must implement it to get results. Assistance in developing and implementing the plan is always required to be successful, as change is not easy.

Continuous improvement is a critical element in the sustainability of any utility and directly linked to more effective management practices. The key is to make continuous improvement continuous!

* Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, American Public Works Association, American Water Works Association, National Association of Clean Water Agencies, National Association of Water Companies, Water Environment Federation, and United States Environmental Protection Agency.

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FORESIGHT
Workforce development
Sustainable Workforce?
How Do You Begin to Climb that Mountain?

Marcia Isbell Principal Consultant

If you manage a utility or other public organization, it is likely that you have heard your management or human resource team talk about workforce planning or development. Or perhaps you have attended a conference recently and noticed the buzz around the topic of workforce sustainability. Much like asset management, the words were heard long before the industry clearly defined practices toward developing and implementing corresponding strategies.

Today, the concept of building a workforce plan or strategy is better understood. It is viewed as a way to establish a stream of resources that will sustain the work of your organization well into the future. Still, understanding workforce planning and putting it into practice are two very different challenges. When considering your organization’s workforce strategy, it may seem much like staring up the side of a mountain that you have not yet started to climb.

Most likely you have questions. You may be asking yourself: “Where do I begin?” “What are the key factors I need to consider?” “How do I know where to focus the effort in my organization?” If you are asking these or similar questions, you are on the right path to take advantage of the best opportunities for your organization.

EMA has been partnering with organizations throughout North America and helping them answer these very questions. In each case, it begins with an assessment.

The Workforce Practices Assessment is a tool developed by EMA to assist managers in defining the priorities that their organizations should address while building a workforce sustainability plan. This facilitated assessment, conducted with a team of managers during a two-day work session, evaluates an organization’s current workforce management practices against most effective practices in nine specific areas of workforce management:

• Strategy and Measures
• Recruiting and Outreach
• Career Planning and Management
• Training and Development
• Workforce Succession and Workforce Continuity
• Leadership Development
• Knowledge Management
• Compensation and Reward
• Generational and Cultural Awareness

Figure 1 illustrates the overall process of integrating a workforce plan within an organization’s business plan, incorporating many of the nine key areas of workforce management.

Figure 1 - The Workforce Plan works within the larger organizational plan, incorporating the nine key areas of workforce management.

EMA’s Organization Effectiveness Team works in partnership with an organization’s staff to evaluate the criticality of each practice area as it relates to an organization’s operations and then facilitates a team discussion around 60 questions that are related directly to the nine areas of workforce management.

The assessment process is not only effective; it also serves a dual purpose. While the assessment identifies priorities to begin workforce planning, just as important, it opens a dialogue between operations managers and human resource practitioners that can result in increased buy-in and partnership to implement workforce sustainability strategies, a critical element in any workforce plan.

For more information about EMA’s Workforce Practices Assessment, contact Marcia Isbell at info@ema-inc.com.

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Q & A INTERVIEW
Fixing our Foundations
Making the Country’s Infrastructure
a Priority Once Again

The grades are in, and the message is clear: Our country’s infrastructure is in a serious state of decline. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), we need to invest $1.6 trillion over a period of five years to return it to good condition.

With more than 140,000 civil engineers in its membership, the ASCE has an inside track on the state of our core foundations. The Society is at the head of the charge to bring infrastructure issues to the attention of the public and Washington. ASCE also produces the highly regarded Report Card for America’s Infrastructure every four years. In 2005, the overall grade for the 15 infrastructure categories was a D. Drinking water and wastewater infrastructure came in at the bottom of the class, each receiving a D-.

As the ASCE begins work on its 2009 Report Card (due out next March) EMA spoke with Charles “Casey” Dinges, the Society’s Senior Managing Director of Strategic and Public Affairs, to discuss matters concerning the Report Card, infrastructure, and where we’re heading.

With an updated Report Card less than a year away, can you tell us where we stand in comparison to 2005?

When you look at the public landscape in all infrastructure areas, one is hard pressed to see very much improvement. It’s almost a perfect storm for infrastructure, where the design life of all these facilities – dams, bridges, roads, drinking water pipes, water pollution control plants – are all coming due at once.

Admittedly, when you hear ASCE say it’s going to cost $1.6 trillion over five years, that’s pretty daunting. That’s why we’re pushing this bill to set up a National Infrastructure Commission. We haven’t had one for 20 years. It will help us determine how to move forward and coordinate it all. You wouldn’t want to repave roads and then tear them up because you suddenly realize that you have to get to the pipes beneath them. A certain logic would have to prevail.

What is it going to take to make infrastructure improvement a priority?

I think we’re yearning for political leadership that says, “Look, this is about public health. This deals with the environment. This is a jobs issue.” Infrastructure makes the nation more competitive, and we are competing in an international marketplace now.

There’s a great quote from the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee: “Without increased investment in wastewater infrastructure, in less than a generation, the U.S. could lose much of the gains it made thus far in improving water quality, and wind up with dirtier water than existed prior to the enactment of the 1972 Clean Water Act.”

The infrastructure issue is waiting to be tapped. The difficulty is, how do you pay for it? How do you deal with it in a public policy setting? Are we just going to put it back on ratepayers? What should the proper federal partnership be? We’re also dealing with bodies of water and other infrastructure that cross multiple state lines. There is a logical federal role in this, but how should that partnership be structured? The government is facing major deficits, and explaining how to pay for things, even legitimate public investments like these, is a challenge. The big question is, “How do we get there?”

So how do we get there?

ASCE estimates that the price tag for improving grades would be $1.6 trillion. Out of the $1.6 trillion, about half is already being met through money from programs or through private investments. That leaves a gap of about $800 billion, or $160 billion a year for five years. That’s the size of the stimulus package that was enacted a couple months ago, roughly one percent of the U.S. GDP. When you realize that’s across 15 categories, with water and wastewater being just a part, it’s a do-able challenge between the public and private sector.

Tell us about the Infrastructure Report Card that ASCE produces.

We bring together experts from across the country who work in these specialty areas to form an advisory council, which then analyzes hundreds of studies, reports, and other sources. Everything we use to determine grades comes from publicly available documents: reports from the EPA, Congress, industry, professional societies, and associations. Because we’re all familar with report cards, we use the grades as a way to connect with the public so they have a sense of what’s going on and what they should be concerned about.

What should water and wastewater utilities take away from the report card?

Clearly utilities are the ones dealing with ratepayers. Investing in infrastructure will affect rates or the need to borrow money through bonds, and the utilities will have to make the case to their customers for those increases. Certainly asset management is an important feature that the public’s going to demand. If you’re making “a big ask,” whether it’s appropriation or a big bond initiative for infrastructure, the ratepayers want to know that best practices are being brought to bear in terms of their facility, protecting assets, and lifecycle costs. They may be willing to pay a little more up front because there’s an understanding that the facility will last longer or cost less to maintain.

There’s a tendency to just low cost everything up front. People tend to forget that we need infrastructure to last for 30 to 50 to 100 years. We should take a longer view of how much that facility is going to cost to maintain. We also need to keep up with research, which is often the first thing to go when things get tough on the budget.
The Geological Survey estimates we lose six billion gallons of drinking water every day. It can’t be accounted for. The assumption is that there are some leaky pipes down there. That’s a good part of it. Six billion gallons. And think about the value of water nowadays.

We need to invest more. We need to take better care and preserve our assets. Think of your home as an analogy. If you wait too long to fix your roof, you’ll have lots of other problems. Certainly homeowners wouldn’t tolerate a leaky pipe causing damage. This infrastructure is our collective home, and we need to take care of it.

So what’s the priority?

Research is among the most important things. Research will help us find new technologies, new materials, methods, and processes for building and operating these facilities. ASCE sees itself as a voice for infrastructure research because those investments pay dividends down the road.

Two funding concepts currently are being discussed at the federal level: the Clean Water Trust and the Infrastructure Bank. Are these viable options?

There has been a lot of discussion in Washington and within the industry about the Water Trust Fund. Trust funds work pretty well. The concept is a user fee. The public gets that. “Okay, I’m using the water system, so I should pay.” There’s an element of fairness that people understand. The key issues are: How do you come up with the revenue? What’s the mechanism? With transportation, it’s gas. Every time we use the pump, there’s a gas tax. How do we do that with water? Do you tax bottled water? Do you tax toilet paper? That’s the challenge. It will take the better part of the 111th Congress to accomplish.

The Infrastructure Bank is a bi-partisan effort to create an entity independent of the federal government. It could provide funding for “qualified” infrastructure projects of “regional and national significance.” Eligible projects would include wastewater and drinking water plants.

The intent is to leverage non-governmental resources. There would be a tax credit as incentive for non-governmental dollars to be brought to the table. You see it on the transportation side with toll roads. Here, in Washington, they will be adding more lanes to our beltway, all with private money. They’re going to have congestion-priced tolling to give access to those lanes. You have private sector stepping in, but in the end, the public still pays. We’ll see how it works out and how comfortable people are with that level of privatization with traditionally public assets.

Charles v. "Casey" Dinges Casey Dinges is the Senior Managing Director of Strategic and Public Affairs for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). In this capacity, Mr. Dinges leads numerous departments including: Government Relations, Communications, Strategic and International Initiatives, Geographic Services, and History and Heritage. He also oversees the Society’s K-12 Outreach and Diversity programs and all infrastructure initiatives. Under his leadership, numerous ASCE programs have won national awards and recognition from organizations such as the American Society of Association Executives, the Construction Writers Association of America, and the American League of Lobbyists. Mr. Dinges also led the team that developed ASCE’s award-winning Report Card for America’s Infrastructure campaign. Recognized nationally as an advocate for the nation’s infrastructure, Mr. Dinges has appeared as a subject matter expert for ABC News, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, C-SPAN, and the McLaughlin Group.

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CUSTOMER STORY
Honolulu Board of Water Supply
Reaching New Heights Through Technology
and Best Practices

Clockwise from upper left: Bird’s eye view of Waimanalo Bay; BWS Field Operations - Kalihi Yard; Beretania pumping station in downtown Honolulu; Scenic view on south side of Sandy Beach on the windward side of Oahu; BWS logo at Field Operations yard; Majestic view from the Nuuanu Pali Lookout.

While necessity may be the mother of invention, at the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS), it is the foundation for innovation – where the implementation of best practices and state-of-the art technology has fostered stronger asset management practices and an atmosphere of continuous improvement throughout the agency.

Sustainability is critical at BWS. As a semi-autonomous agency of the City and County of Honolulu, BWS is an island institution, as it services the entire island of Oahu, the third largest and most populous of the Hawaiian Islands. The agency provides water to the island’s nearly one million residents as well as the more than five million tourists who visit each year. In total, BWS manages 166,000 customer accounts on the island and provides billing services for the islands of Maui and Kauai, which total an additional 70,000 customers.

Brian McKee Chief Information Officer

Managing one of the island’s greatest resources, BWS confronts special circumstances. “The resource itself is very pure,” said Brian McKee, Chief Information Officer at BWS. “It’s all ground water that requires little treatment outside of chlorination. But topographically, it’s very challenging, and there are some smaller, private water systems that we’ve taken over from old plantations that need to be upgraded.”

A Holistic Approach to Managing Assets

Following an Information Technology (IT) Master Plan authored by BWS and EMA back in 2001, the agency recognized that their asset management needs required an enterprise-wide approach that relied heavily on technology and automation. Integration is key, according to McKee.

“We’ve gone from largely manual internal processes to automated, web-based systems and software,” McKee said, citing several more implementations that are in the works. “There are a lot of changes that have taken place since 2001. Most everything is driven by IT. We’ve had 16 straight implementations without a failure. We’ve got the track record and momentum to keep it going.”

Among the many wins are the implementations of: Automatic Meter Reading, an IP-based phone system, a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) with mobile GIS capability driven by IBM Maximo® and ESRI ArcGIS® software, as well as the integration of Kronos timekeeping with BWS’s CMMS, and implementation of the J.D. Edwards 5 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technology system that now manages BWS’s financial operations.

“The ERP is a state-of-the-art web-based financial system,” McKee said, noting that the new technology was only part of the project. The implementation, performed with EMA, also included modernization and optimization of business practices as well as extensive training and support to ensure the project’s success.

In addition to these and other implementations, the agency’s continued innovative integration of GIS technology has spread across the organization and continues to serve as an example for utilities throughout the country.

The Significance of GIS

While BWS began using GIS in 1989, recent years have brought new dimension to the technology. “Information is now ubiquitous,” McKee said. “GIS is the repository for all of our assets.”

Ellen Hirayama GIS Manager

Ellen Hirayama, the agency’s GIS Manager, has witnessed BWS’s progression and is an integral part of the process. “Looking at the bigger picture as to how we take care of our assets, GIS gives us a wealth of information about what’s out there, where it’s located, and its condition and allows us to make decisions faster and more effectively,” Hirayama said. “GIS helps us to put it together.”

The technology touches nearly every facet of the organization. Internally, GIS is utilized through HONU (Honolulu Online Utility), the agency’s enterprise website. Engineers reference asset-specific data in GIS to plan and design projects. Customer Service relies heavily on the information to provide faster turnaround in areas such as bill payment information and permit approvals – where GIS technology is used to check main sizes to ensure there is adequate fire protection and water pressure in a given area.

“In GIS, you can click on a parcel and collect all the historical information,” Hirayama said. “It’s a huge time saver.”

While utilized throughout the company, Field Operations is taking GIS to even greater heights, as crews are using mobile GIS technology where they need it most – in the field.

Mobile GIS Technology

The mission is clear in BWS Field Operations where core responsibilities include the installation, maintenance, and repair of the water pipeline infrastructure.

“Our primary function is to keep our water system up and running,” said Mike Fuke, Program Administrator of Field Operations at BWS.

Mobile GIS technology integrated with CMMS leverages the division’s work and asset data. The result provides field operators with increased functionality, improved efficiencies, and greater access to information while in the field. The technology, which BWS refers to as MANO (Mobile Asset Notebook) is part of EMA’s MaxGIS suite of software tools that manages work, asset, and customer service information.

“Once we went asset-based, it changed everything,” Fuke said. “Almost everything we do now is charged to an asset, which gives us more work history on the asset.”

The mobile GIS technology allows field crews to view work order and service request information electronically from a laptop. Through electronic mapping, crews also can view assets spatially. Users also can assign assets to work orders and make changes to assets electronically with easy-to-use redlining tools. All of this can be done from the field.

The technology has eliminated the need for the large, cumbersome map books once used regularly. Now, field operators simply look up locations and assets electronically, and manage their work through the CMMS.

“It’s giving us the information that we can use to perform our jobs better,” said Daryl Hiromoto, Assistant Chief of BWS Field Operations. “It allows us to categorize the work we’re doing, break it down and assign it to the proper asset.”

The mobile capability has significantly improved efficiency and cut costs, reducing field crew drive time between the yards and work sites by 50 percent and saving BWS thousands in print and production costs for maps alone.

“We’ve made huge strides in the field,” McKee said. “A lot of it is just accountability.”

Multi-skilled Worker Program

The accountability that McKee mentions is accompanied by vision, as the strides made in Field Operations also include a multi-skilled worker program. Working with EMA, BWS devised a multi-skilled worker/skill-based pay program that cross-trains specialized field staff in other areas of expertise, providing everyone with a working knowledge in all-around basic skills such as pipefitting, masonry, welding, carpentry, and operating heavy equipment.

The result is a win-win. As field operators have expanded their individual skill sets, the collective workforce has become more streamlined and flexible, possessing the necessary skills to handle jobs more efficiently.

Best Practices at BWS

BWS has taken aggressive steps to establish best practices throughout the organization. Whether it’s integrating training and best practices with the implementation of new software or introducing web-based mapping capabilities throughout the organization, it is a process of continuous improvement that doesn’t show signs of stopping.

The most recent efforts to implement best practices can be seen in Plant Operations where a grass roots initiative has provided increased focus and greater operational control.

Teaming up with EMA, BWS assessed its maintenance program and practices and developed strategies to increase efficiency and improve control over workflow and the management of assets.

Marc Chun Program Administrator of Water System Operations

“This has to do with the sustainability of our organization,” said Marc Chun, Program Administrator of Water System Operations. “It’s about the sustainability of both our equipment and our people. To accomplish this, we are setting standards and long-term goals.”

Initial assessments established several key priorities for Plant Operations:

• planning for succession
• managing institutional knowledge
• establishing standardized operating procedures
• prioritizing maintenance projects

“We’ve identified instances where a lot of institutional knowledge may have resided with a single person,” Chun said, emphasizing the need to empower more people with more information. “We are now sharing that knowledge among many.”

A physical assessment of BWS’s 200-plus pump sites has been conducted to better understand asset condition. “We needed to take inventory of what’s out there and the condition it is in,” Chun said. He noted that the move was strategic and designed to provide Plant Operations with the information it needs to prioritize maintenance projects as well as establish and maintain effective job plans and preventive maintenance schedules.

It is an ongoing process, Chun admitted, but one that enables the agency to better manage existing assets.

Continuous Improvement

BWS also recognizes the importance of continuous improvement through the use of performance data.

“We collect metrics on everything,” McKee said, noting that performance data also helps BWS determine better, more effective ways to carry out work and increase efficiencies within specific processes.

User feedback is another critical factor, according to Hirayama. “Because we are a major water authority in the United States, we must keep up with best practices,” she said, emphasizing that post-implementation feedback helps pave the way for the development of new and improved innovations. “We have to keep up with users to make sure they have the tools to do their work. We need to go back to people and ask, ‘How do you like this? What’s working? What isn’t working?’”

New Projects, New Heights

BWS continues to embrace new technology. The result? Greater efficiency, better management of infrastructure, an empowered workforce, and world-class service. BWS is vested in improved practices, and projects in development reflect the agency’s proactive stance.

Media Pack

As part of the continuing enhancement of BWS’s mobile GIS capabilities, this innovation emerges from BWS Field Operations, where field operators first began taking photos of assets and storing these photos on their individual hard drives to build a visual reference center.

“Media Pack is a way to merge all this data and share it with everyone,” said Tom Otaguro, Project Engineer and Manager in BWS’s IT division. “It also provides a way to attach all this data spatially.”

Currently in test phase, Media Pack takes GIS capability to another level, linking media packets of information to specific assets and locations on an electronic map. The linked media can come in a variety of formats, including photos, audio files, pdfs, scanned documents, and videos. The technology provides field crews as well as planners and schedulers with valuable access to detailed asset information that not only tells them about a specific situation, but shows them as well.

CIS

As BWS continues to integrate new technology, the focus turns to Customer Service where plans are underway to implement a new Customer Information System (CIS). The move will replace the last of the legacy systems still in place at BWS. The new system will support industry best practices for customer care and asset management.

Broadband Wireless Technology

Through a grant secured with the U.S. Department of Defense, BWS is in the development phase of establishing its own secure broadband microwave wireless network. “The technology will give us greater security in the case of any sort of emergency,” McKee said. The technology, soon to be in testing phase in one region of the island, includes high definition security cameras. BWS has the perfect situation, according to McKee, who explained that when complete, the cameras will be up and running at the more than 200 pumping stations on the island. The new wireless technology will allow BWS to communicate even if overhead lines go down. In addition to greater security, there are other significant benefits for the agency, which include real-time, mobile connectivity throughout the island for all field operations crews.

Maintaining the Vision

The key to success at BWS has been a constant state of continuous improvement that has driven the integration of new technology and best practices throughout the organization. The charge goes on for McKee and his IT team. As new projects and new technologies arise, McKee remains clear on the priorities to keep BWS moving toward even greater sustainability. “First, we will have full integration of all of our systems,” he said. “Then the goal is to connect it all wirelessly.”

Mobile GIS: Comments from the Field Implementing Mobile GIS technology brought big changes to BWS – especially in Field Operations. Since its roll-out in 2006, Mobile Asset Notebook (MANO) has revolutionized Field Operations, bringing electronic mapping capability and access to up-to-date asset and work order information directly into the field. No one understands the impact better than Leland How, lead multi-skilled worker and Field Operations troubleshooter. A daily user of the mobile technology, How says he now has the tools he needs to be more efficient and effective in his job. Utilizing a laptop to access all work and asset information, How explained there are many benefits that accompany the mobile technology. BWS Field Operations troubleshooter Leland How displays one of the many map books once used to reference asset data in field Electronic Maps How and his co-workers no longer need physical map books, as all data is now stored electronically and is extensive and up-to-date. “There were times when the map book would show one thing at the site, and we’d get out there and find something completely different,” How said. “You’d have no idea what changes had been done at the site since the map had been printed.” As a troubleshooter, there are times when How must leave his area of response to help others. With maps books, that proved difficult, as troubleshooters only carried maps for their primary areas of response. Today, How can easily pull up work and asset information on his laptop from any location on the island using MANO. With current capabilities this is no longer a challenge. “The great thing about MANO is that it shows every area of Oahu on my laptop,” How said. “What used to be pages and pages is stored electronically, and it’s the most current information because it’s constantly being updated. It’s all here. Job management, work management, and time management are right at my fingertips.” Changes Made Easy Updates to assets and locations are “easily made” electronically, How explained, through the redline feature. Redline capability allows field operators to use marking tools to make changes to assets onsite through their laptops. Edits are then forwarded to editors who make the updates quickly – often overnight. “Updates only take a few days,” How said, noting the distinct difference from the days of hard copy maps, when updates to assets were not made and circulated until the following year when new maps were produced and distributed. New Opportunities How also looks forward to new technology currently under development – especially the prospect of wireless. “With wireless, we can send and receive data on the spot,” he said. “Driving to my next job, the data will be there – in real time.”

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e-FLUENT
operations optimization
Water Quality Control in Real Time

Steve Conrad Program Manager

Two utilities in the Pacific Northwest have taken proactive steps to maintain the level of quality of their water. Both Metro Vancouver (formerly Greater Vancouver Regional District) and Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) have teamed up with EMA to implement Water Quality Analyzer (WQA) technology that monitors water quality around the clock.

Typically, utilities in the Pacific Northwest have enjoyed long periods of excellent source water quality. Still, instances such as unexpected rainfall, extreme consumer demand, and equipment failure have led area utilities to more intensive water quality monitoring to ensure they meet expected standards.

In the midst of these challenges, pressure on Operations continues to build, not only to maintain but also to exceed water quality guidelines and utility performance standards. Even with filtration and other treatment improvements, the variation in source quality requires more proactive solutions. Continuous monitoring of source water quality using WQAs provides one solution, ensuring optimum operation of the filtration plant and high distribution quality.

Water quality data is collected from sources such as LIMS, SCADA, and other systems and compared to the utility’s performance and operating criteria. The data is then deemed acceptable or unacceptable and results are relayed via various modes of communication.

Water Quality Analyzer Technology

Recognizing the need to sustain water quality levels, both Metro Vancouver and SPU have incorporated water quality monitoring into daily operations. Working with EMA, the utilities integrated advanced monitoring, detection, and expert knowledge into their operations, enabling their organizations to optimize their operations around water quality in real time.

The WQA is a rules-based software program that allows a utility to receive data from a number of sources, such as lab samples through Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), in order to compare data to the utility’s performance and operating criteria. With water quality information coming from several sources, the WQA provides the architecture that enables data collection, display and correlation, and detection. Using the WQA and communications between Operations and Quality Control, utilities are able to consider their water quality performance criteria alongside supply management and the economic costs of transmission and distribution.

A Holistic Monitoring System

Constantly monitoring water quality across a utility allows users to receive information about the entire utility system. The analysis of water quality is from the perspective of the entire water system and not simply from one isolated point. The WQA examines water quality data and related supporting information and determines whether any values are out of acceptable range or conditions are abnormal. If the values are out of range, the WQA will assist in generating operating strategies and event information for use in developing the Utility System Operating Plan, an operations plan developed and executed daily.

It’s up-to-the-minute quality and assurance checking, 24 hours a day, seven days a week that increases the responsiveness to water quality alerts and provides utilities with the opportunity to better recognize trends in any quality degradation that may occur.

WQA technology allows utilities to better manage their water system, sources, and water quality — in real time. As a result, utilities are able to optimize costs and better utilize their water system assets to ensure that a high level of quality is sustained.

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