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AN OVERVIEW OF U.S. EPA RESEARCH ON REMOTE MONITORING AND CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES FOR SMALL DRINKING WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS
Citation:
PATTERSON, C. L., R. HAUGHT, JAMES A. GOODRICH, CHRISTOPHER A. IMPELLITTERI, AND H. E. MORENO. AN OVERVIEW OF U.S. EPA RESEARCH ON REMOTE MONITORING AND CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES FOR SMALL DRINKING WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS. In Proceedings, World Water Congress 2005, Anchorage, AK, May 15 - 19, 2005. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Reston, VA, 277, (2005).
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
There are approximately 160,000 small community and non-community drinking water treatment systems in the United States. According to recent estimates, small systems contribute to 94% of the Safe Drinking Water Act violations annually. A majority of these are for microbiological MCL violations. Small drinking water system research is being conducted at the U.S. EPA's Test & Evaluation (T&E) Facility in Cincinnati, Ohio with an emphasis on "package plants" for biological, physical, and chemical treatment of drinking water sources. Research studies are designed to provide guidance to operators of small Public Water Systems to ensure compliance with current regulations including the Surface Water Treatment Rule and the Groundwater Rule. Several U.S. EPA studies have focused on packaged filtration and disinfection systems equipped with remote telemetry units and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. SCADA systems are commonly used by large (not small) water utilities to control and monitor their operations. However, the constant monitoring requirements for small system operators in remote locations can incur substantial costs in time and travel. Remote monitoring and control systems offer a cost-effective way to reduce manpower requirements by providing real-time monitoring of water quality, continuous control of operating conditions, and the reporting of information electronically from a "centralized" location.