Prevention of Sewer Spills

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Prevention of Sewer Spills using Remote
Electronic Monitoring
July 23, 2008
Gregory M. Quist, Ph.D
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SOUND FAMILIAR?
April 3, 2007 Major sewage spill fouls lagoon
January 16, 2006 Big Sewage Spill Closes
California Beaches
March 28, 2006 Raw sewage flows into reservoir
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OR HOW ABOUT THIS ?
Aug 28 809 PM US/Eastern Dead Dog Blamed for
Sewage Backup in Utah
February 27, 2006
Prank Causes Concord Sewage Spill
November 28, 2001
Folsom sewer backup act of vandalism, city says
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The BIG Picture

• Increasing public expectations (plus lawsuits)

• Evolving regulations
• e.g. CA 2006 WDR, Sewer Overflow CRTK Act

• Increasing stress on CA water supplies
• - Todays sewage is tomorrows potable water
• - You must protect your source water

• Rising operating costs
• Gas prices, vehicle operations, HC costs

• Security

• Public safety and health

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The Old Way of Doing Things

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The Old Way of Doing Things 2
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Spill Avoidance - 20th Century
NO SPILLS ?
Capital Improvement Projects
Long Term Repair
Short Term Repair
Aggressive Cleaning Program
Frequent Inspection
Manual Monitoring of Hot Spots

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NO Spills Still Occur

• Why?
• Aging collection system
• FROG
• Accumulated sediment
• Construction debris
• Mechanical Failure
• Communications failure
• Vandalism

Spill picture 2
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Real-Time Know about it nowContinuous Measure
all the time Remote Do it from a distance
Sewer Monitoring

• Spills dont always happen where you expect them
• How can you prevent them from happening?
• Widespread continuous monitoring of your
  collection system

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Continuous Real-Time Monitoring ?
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Continuous Real-Time Monitoring ?
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Continuous Real-Time Monitoring ?
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Continuous Real-Time Monitoring ?
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Sewer Monitoring Evolution
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Convergence
February 2005
Hadronex formed to provide SSO solution
Technical solution developed from scratch -
No good solution available on the market
Solution developed from industry interviews -
Vallecitos WD (San Marcos) - Fallbrook PUD -
Valley Center WD with the intent to be a
dedicated spill prevention system...

• Founders
• David A. Drake Water San Diego CWA, Rincon
  del Diablo MWD
• Technical CalTech (EE), JPL, DEC,
  SAIC
• Gregory M. Quist Water San Diego CWA, Rincon
  del Diablo MWD
• Technical Yale / UCSB
  (physics), McDAC, SAIC

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Attributes of Effective CollectionMonitoring
System

• In order to be most effective, remote monitoring
  needs to be performed at a substantial number of
  locations
• An effective real-time monitoring system needs
  to have the following attributes
• Low cost - to be economically feasible at large
  of sites

• High reliability - so a surcharge or potential
  spill isnt missed

• Low maintenance - to keep field visits to a
  minimum

• Stays out of the water - avoid making problems

• Can be re-located - move to better locations if
  necessary

• Easy to install - minimize time in traffic

• No confined space entry - avoid safety problems

• Data logging - for trends and predictive
  maintenance

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Sewer Monitoring Technologies
Flow Monitors (e.g. Flo-Dar)
Float Alarms (e.g. M-80)
Level Monitoring (e.g. SmartCover)
Semi-revolutionary revelation For sewer overflow
prevention, LEVEL is key (not flow)
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How the SmartCover System Works
Traffic-rated antenna
Waterproof enclosure Battery powered
Ultrasonic sensor
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SmartCover Wireless Network Architecture
Digital network ground station
Digital network server
Local digital radio base station
Communications satellite
INTERNET
Customer Interfaces
INTERNET
SmartCover Site

• Fully two-way using existing digital network
• Enables drop-in rapid installation
• Low bandwidth and highly reliable
• Only wireless system to survive Katrina

Hadronex server
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Elimination of Sewer Overflows using a Continuous
Real-Time Monitoring System
Rick Carver, City of Hawthorne Gregory Quist,
Ph.D. David Drake, Hadronex
CWEA 2008 Session 40 - Collection
Systems Wednesday, April 16, 2008
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Hawthorne Collections System
68 Hot Spots in Collection System
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Layout of Hawthorne Monitoring System
Picture of locations in Hawthorne collections
system
50 SmartCovers in Collection System
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116th StreetNovember 15, 2006
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Cerise StreetDecember 26, 2006
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Water Level Below Sensor (in)
Shelf Level 11
Alarm Level 10
Date
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Cerise Surcharge Event History
Water Level, Inches Below Sensor
Date/Time
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Carlsbad, CA
November 26, 2007
Chinquapin Street
Surcharge Cause Root ball downstream
SPILL PREVENTED
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Oxnard, CA
December 11, 2007
Rice Avenue and Hwy 101
Surcharge Cause Accumulated grease in
slumped pipe downstream
SPILL PREVENTED
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El Segundo, CA
February 19, 2007
Lift Station 2
Surcharge Cause (a) Pump turning, but
failed to prime (b) SCADA indicated no
problem (c) Water level rose to alarm level
SPILL PREVENTED
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San Diego County, CA
November 14, 2006
Surcharge Cause - Failed pump at pump
station - No SCADA notification -
Water backed upstream
SPILL PREVENTED
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Raw level data
Rolling daily average
SmartCover
I and I measurement
CIMIS Station daily rainfall
Pre-rain baseline
Alarm Level
Inches from Sensor
Daily rainfall (in)
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Where to Locate Sewer Monitors

• Where youve had a spill before
• - Upsteam, downstream, at location

• Hot Spots
• - Places you typically already monitor or need to
  clean
• often, lift stations (backup or primary)

• Environmentally sensitive spots
• - Rivers, ocean, wetlands, canyons, bays,
  sloughs, etc.

• Politically sensitive spots
• - Schools, hospitals, public venues, commercial
  areas,
• district boundaries

• Where you want to know whats going on
• - I and I, dumping, easements, difficult areas,
  etc.

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Smartcover?Agency Scorecard
As of July 21, 2008...
SPILLS PREVENTED 161 ILLEGAL INTRUSIONS
CAUGHT 16 HOURS OF OPERATION gt
1,700,000 SURCHARGE FALSE ALARMS
0 SPILLS MISSED 0
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Conclusions

• The world is changing
• - Higher customer expectations
• - More litigation
• - Higher fines
• - CA State WDR 2006
• HAWTHORNE Pre-SmartCovers 10 spills per year
• Post-SmartCovers 0 spills per year
• The old way of doing things is not good enough
  anymore
• Technology - like the SmartCover - is now
  available and affordable
• that revolutionizes how we can monitor our
  collection systems
• With 7/24 real-time remote monitoring and
  maintaining aggressive
• cleaning and inspection programs,

SPILLS CAN BE ELIMINATED
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THANK YOU !