Wastewater Management with a Digital Twist

Nested within the typical scope of wastewater infrastructure management lies the hurdle of data transfer. We increasingly rely on the various crews of our authority to collect specific system data, and deliver it to administrative personnel. Due to escalating regulatory requirements, our authority has begun a venture to create a seamless transition between field data acquisition and end user format. Utilizing ArcPad and ArcPad Studio 6.0, we are creating custom forms, which allow field personnel to record their findings in great detail. This information is then updated daily into our ArcGIS database for immediate use by internal decision-makers. Introduction Over the past several years wastewater treatment facilities have come under increased scrutiny in Western Pennsylvania. Tighter regulations, increased inflow and infiltration (I/I) abatement, and the need to understand system capacity and hydraulics have all led to a greater demand for more accurate and efficient field data. The major cause for the heightened study comes from the limiting factor of system capacity routinely stretched during every rainfall, mainly due to I/I and illegal drainage connections. The Authorities of these facilities bear the responsibility to provide this system understanding in order to meet both the state regulations and the federal mandates. The McCandless Township Sanitary Authority (MTSA), located in Western Pennsylvania, is one of these authorities who have come to grips with their responsibilities. Working closely with their consulting engineer, Buchart-Horn, Inc. (BH), MTSA has worked to develop and employ several innovative and cutting edge GIS tools that enable them to more accurately inspect and define their system characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the development of one of those creative solutions for handheld field data collection. This project is a cost and time efficient solution for testing illegal drain connections entering the Authority’s system. The paper showcases the progress of one Authority’s innovations in complying with strict regulations and their incorporation of GIS technologies to achieve this goal. Background The McCandless Township Sanitary Authority was incorporated on December 30, 1955 for the purpose of providing sewage service for the Town of McCandless. In the early 1970's Franklin Park Borough, Bradford Woods Borough, Pine Township, Marshall Township and minor portions of Ross and Hampton Townships agreed to have properties in the Pine Creek watershed, within the aforementioned municipalities, served by the Authority. Currently the Authority services approximately 15,000 accounts consisting of approximately 52,000 customers. Our customers include residential, commercial, schools, colleges and hospitals. The Authority owns and operates a comprehensive sanitary sewer divided into five collection systems with four treatment plants, sixteen pumping stations and 350 miles of 8" to 42" gravity sewer. A Sanitary Authority Defined in Respect to Technological Innovation The operations of many sanitary authorities encompass the following functions and obligations: o Conveyance: The infrastructure of an authority is where most of the problems and conflict with regulatory agencies arise. The extreme recent push has been to eliminate inflow and infiltration from systems through a variety of methods. The solutions in this paper deal with 2 methods of elimination in an automated fashion, I/I elimination from manholes and I/I elimination from illegally connected building rain leaders. o Treatment: Most sanitary operations have at least one sewage treatment plant to handle the areas it serves. Treatment plants tend to be controlled environments that are equipped to deal with changing biological influent. As the conditions within the plant change with the weather, adjustments can be made within the plant to accommodate the chemical/biological demands. One thing the plants can't control is excessive contribution. o Administration: To maintain both the physical operations, a solid proactive management team must lead the way. The ideal team must be positioned to deal with regulatory changes on the horizon. The team must embrace the latest technologies available to efficiently manage increasing demands with a thinning financial support base. o Financial Responsibility: The administration of any authority must ensure all capital expenditures are justifiable. Funds spent must not only provide for present solvency, but should also allow for efficiency of future operations, anticipated sustainability, and regulatory compliance. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through the implementation of sound technological advancements. o Regulatory Compliance: Required regulatory compliance of an authority drives all the above functions. The steering hand of regulatory agencies will define the future of the wastewater industry. Acknowledging this fact allows authorities to proactively plan for future operations in an efficient manor that includes sound financial investments, stable growth with increased service area acquisition, and compliance with the letter and the spirit of the law. All of this and much more can be accomplished through the implementation of a multifaceted GIS program. GIS System MTSA currently has two ArcGIS 8.x workstations. The GIS system houses all necessary spatial information for the entire service area. Information includes manholes, sewer lines, houses, property parcel lines, streets, hydrology, boundaries of service areas, and contours. An active push is in progress to populate the GIS database with property parcel lot and block numbers. These IDs are the common unifying language for Allegheny County. In anticipation of a future watershed approach the lot and block numbers will be the common language to all communities, and prove most beneficial to linking an effective GIS program. The Authority also has a licensed stand alone differential correction GPS base-station, allowing for precise plotting of all structure points within our service area. The development department employs a pack worn GPS unit and captures the manhole point structures as new housing developments are constructed. The combination of an in-house basestation with GPS capabilities provides a powerful and cost effective tool for continually updating the Authority’s GIS system. Some current GIS uses include; daily maintenance direction maps, generated every morning for the various work crews, maps with specifically queried attributes used for field inspections, one-call system acknowledgments, system upgrades, line replacements, flow studies, hydrologic studies, capacity evaluation, CCTV scheduling, cleaning operations, dye testing, and manhole inspections. Dye Testing Defined A large amount of water is contributed to a sanitary sewer system through downspouts and area drains connected to the Authority’s collection system. During initial sewer installation in the late 50’s, a common practice to eliminate rain run-off was to tie in house gutters with the sanitary sewer. The sanitary sewer system would inevitably overflow during a significant rain event, dumping large quantities of untreated sewage into the areas streams and rivers. Direct elimination of precipitation run-off contribution to a sanitary system can be achieved through an aggressive dye-testing program. Through this program the Authority employs two crews equipped with dye test spraying outfit and two 500 gallon water tanks. The water carried in these tanks will dye test approximately five houses. Arrangements have been made with a local fire company to refill the tanks during the day, as needed. MTSA has installed a water meter at the refill facility to aid in monetary reimbursement. The trucks were purchased through the Federal Surplus Program, and fitted in-house with flatbed bodies. All in-house work was completed during the winter months to defer employee layoff and provided a cost efficient means of conducting necessary field inspections. MTSA has performed in excess of 3,600 dye tests since starting in 1998. Most of the compiled data over the past five years has been entered manually into the GIS system and scanned in JPEG format into a standalone database. Gaining access to these records is both time consuming and highly unreliable. Purpose In March 2003, BH was retained by MTSA to create an automated field data management system. The system would associate some of the Authority’s field operations directly with tasks performed in their offices. There are a number of cases where the Authority could be more efficient and save time and money by eliminating the transfer of paper work and the redundant entering of information. The historical trail of dye test information and manhole inspection forms has been plagued with data entry inaccuracies and increased data management. The entire process was contingent upon personnel efficiency and individual interpretation of inspection data. MTSA was interested in employing the use of handheld computers in the field to collect inspection data and then deploy that information into their existing GIS. BH’s role was to develop an effective means of capturing the interested field information, minimize error in data duplication, and automate the transfer of data across the GIS system. Accomplishing these tasks would enable the Authority to efficiently store, query, and report their field investigations with confidence. Key Project Goals o Design a Dye Test Data Management System incorporating a handheld CE device to link data acquisition in the field to the automated entry of information into a master database for use in letter notification and report generation. o Select Hardware and Software compatible with the current Data Management System that would utilize current GIS and database software. o Develop a database that will function as the master database for dye testing data, eliminating stand-alone storage. o Develop a customized GIS project for the handheld and desktop computers to be used for data collection and analysis. Methodology Initially the management structure for the Authority’s Dye Test inspections was centered on the Senior Inspector creating paper map books and forms for the field crews to use. Once the field inspections were complete, the paper information was transferred through several internal channels and eventually stored as scanned JPEGs in a stand alone database. As you can see in Figure 1, the structure allowed for redundancy, duplication of tasks, and inefficient production. Figure 1: Original MTSA Dye Test management structure After reviewing the current field management system, BH was able to develop a more efficient solution utilizing the power and flexibility of the GIS system as the management focal point. The success of the Dye Test Data Management System relies on a structured tree of information and data transfer beginning with the GIS system, as modeled in Figure 2 below. The Senior Inspector creates customized GIS