Tag Archives: Flow Monitoring

FlowWorks Welcomes Cincinnati

Posted on by

The city of Cincinnati is the latest municipality to join FlowWorks. The city is beginning the process of moving all environmental monitoring data to the FlowWorks web platform where it will be securely stored, edited, analyzed and turned into actionable information.

In the fall of 2010, when ADS Environmental Services was bidding flow monitoring services to Cincinnati they asked FlowWorks to team with them for data management. ADS knew from their successful partnership for Seattle that FlowWorks would help them deliver superior quality data and save time and money in the process.

ADS was successful and Cincinnati awarded contracts to provide flow services for capital improvement and other modeling projects. At present, this includes flow servicing, data management and QA/QC for over 200 monitoring stations. The data is being uploaded directly to FlowWorks, where it will be combined with other Cincinnati environmental data including historic flow metering stations, rain gauges, SCADA pump stations, and CSO/SSO sites.

Check back soon for more information including how FlowWorks is helping Cincinnati and other municipalities worldwide achieve the most efficient and comprehensive flow monitoring possible.

FlowWorks in the News: Water Efficiency Magazine

Posted on by

FlowWorks gets a nice mention in the November/December 2011 issue of Water Efficiency Magazine! In “High Level Applications”, Dan Rafter writes how SCADA systems determine peak water usage, how they identify system leaks, and increase efficiency while reducing operating Costs. On page 16 in the Supplementing SCADA section, Rafter writes about how FlowWorks helps SCADA system presentation and data analysis capabilities. Timothy Hicks, president of FlowWorks, explains in the article how the combination of SCADA and FlowWorks online data analysis tools is the best way to manage water delivery systems.

FlowWorks provides a way to put any SCADA data, including sewer flow meters, treatment plant SCADA, and rainfall data collected from dataloggers together into a coherent visual display.

You can check out an online version of Water Efficiency Magazine’s November/December 2011 issue here!

You can also learn more about using FlowWorks with SCADA here here!

FlowWorks Creates Big Buzz at WEFTEC 2011

Posted on by


WEFTEC 2011, Los Angeles

Attendees at the 2011 Water Environment Federation’s Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference, WEFTEC, repeatedly asked a key question as they stopped by the FlowWorks booth: How do I sign up?

“Hundreds of people stopped by the booth,” said FlowWorks President Timothy Hicks. “People are definitely getting the message that FlowWorks is the better way to manage data.”

Held October 15-19 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, WEFTEC is the largest meeting of its kind in North America, bringing together thousands of water quality professionals from around the world to share and explore the best water quality education and training available.

FlowWorks booth was a highlight. Representatives from the nation’s biggest engineering companies, a dozen major west cost municipalities, most of the world’s flow metering firms, as well as the members of the media and investment bankers, were among those who crowded around the booth’s two demonstration screens.

“FACE and the new graphic editor were extremely well received,” Hicks noted. “I think folks were so receptive because they’re starting to understand that a platform like FlowWorks can truly bring data and people together.  After two years of speaking and educating, they are seeing a way to keep their data secure, and access and work with it at the same time.  Fortunately, they’re thinking of us.”

In other words, people are finally understanding how to deal with the vast amount of environmental monitoring data that’s piling up, and that FlowWorks offers a management approach that is far more cost-effective, efficient, and comprehensive than traditional SCADA.

The new tools have been a smash hit so far:

  • Graphic Editing QA/QC Tools—Users can now edit any and all data, on a single, secure web platform, from anywhere.
  • FlowWorks Advanced Calculation Engine (FACE)—A major upgrade to the FlowWorks data platform places Excel-quality calculation tools for real-time data directly into user’s hands.

The updates vastly expand FlowWorks data management, analysis and reporting capabilities.

The message for flow monitoring professionals of the world: FlowWorks has arrived—and 2012 looks like it is going to be a very busy year.

For more information on FlowWorks, including the new Graphic Editing QA/QC Tools or FACE, please click the links.

Quantifying I&I with FlowWorks

Posted on by
Reply

If you are responsible for operating a sanitary sewer system, you know tracking Inflow and Infiltration (I&I) is crucial. However, even with the best data this can be a challenging and sometimes tedious task without the tools to extract useful information from it. This is where FlowWorks comes in.

You have stations monitoring sewers and rainfall all over the city. The challenge for planners and engineers is to use this data to predict I&I in order to implement the required facilities or assess the results of infrastructure rehabilitation. To do this, a host of data is considered and some complex and often tedious calculations are undertaken. The versatile I&I tools in FlowWorks simplify many of the tasks required in I&I analysis, preventing errors and making the task actually tolerable (we won’t go so far as to say enjoyable!)  For those of us who used to do all of this in Excel spreadsheets, the first time you see FlowWorks do in seconds what used to take hours can be very exciting!. The program has already helped municipalities and consultants avoid potential overflows and resulting fines, which can come at a high cost to both the local environment and community.

For each storm event, FlowWorks takes into account Ground Water Infiltration (GWI) and Base Sanitary Flow (BSF), collectively known as Dry Weather Flow (DWF), and subtracts it from the total flow in the sanitary sewer to come up with Rainfall Induced I&I (RDII). This may not sound like a lot of effort, but when it has to be done manually across many stations and storm events it can easily add up to many hours of grueling, error-prone calculations.

Once you’ve accumulated an adequate number of storm events, FlowWorks will quickly handle plotting of an I&I envelope or the Q vs I relationship, giving you the relationship between I&I and rainfall so that return-period based I&I flows can be estimated.

All I&I analysis data can be saved for later reference or comparison and can be published for any audience, public or private. For those who have multiple monitoring sites, a seasonal set up, which includes dates of storms, dry weather patterns, etc., can be easily transferred between sites to avoid the hassles of setting up multiple sites.

If you haven’t tried out the I&I tools yet on some of your data, we encourage you to give it a try (use of the I&I tools is included in your subscription).

Inflow and Infiltration 101 – Part 3

Posted on by
Reply

This is part 3 of Mike Homenuke’s series on Inflow and Infiltration. For part 1 click here and part 2 click here.

Why care about I&I?

 Before we get too much further into this, we should probably discuss why we should even care about inflow and infiltration into our sanitary sewers. Whether you’re an engineer or an urban planner, inflow and infiltration (I&I)—surface runoff and groundwater that has entered the sanitary sewer system—should be on your radar.

 Sanitary sewer systems are designed to carry a specific volume of wastewater, usually from systems including toilets and sinks in homes and businesses. Meanwhile, stormwater sewers are designed to carry rainwater and groundwater away. However, when this water flows into sanitary sewers, it taxes the load on the overall system, including wastewater treatment plants.

 The result—public health risk and extra costs to your community. And if that doesn’t get your attention, consider that sanitary sewer overflows can kill fish and will violate state and federal environmental regulations.

 

Extra Load and Dangerous Consequences

Wet weather and storm events can quickly fill sanitary sewer systems beyond capacity. At that point, wastewater flows at higher-than-usual water levels and can begin to flood basements and homes and spill onto streets. These wastewaters and potential pathogens are a significant public health risk. And, as these flows mix into water bodies like streams and lakes, contamination becomes a major issue for all those interconnected waterways—harming the flora and fauna that reside there and can prompt officials to issue beach advisories and closures.

 EPA regulations 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires regulated agencies possessing a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to stop all wastewater overflows from reaching United States waters. It’s a daunting and nearly impossible task because I&I can’t be stopped altogether, and will continue to increase over time as the infrastructure ages. Since the late 1980s public awareness and interest has grown in upgrading sanitary sewer infrastructure and municipalities are continuing to respond.

Costs can be high when it comes to dealing with I&I, and encompass fees associated with overflows, wastewater treatment and transportation facilities and funding opportunities. Also bear in mind that sewer backups that spill water into households can result in litigation for which the city or local agency may be responsible.

The best thing municipalities can do is to understand the I&I within their systems, and determine if larger responses could result in a problem.  I&I events are based on climatic events and as such their return periods can be calculated.  A return period I&I response that causes a sewer backup or overflow can be calculated for every pipe in a city. If the return period is less than the expected service level promised to the rate payers or results in an overflow that harms the aquatic environment, action is required.  Since I&I increases with sewer age, it’s important for utilities to understand the current response and calculate the corresponding return period.  Information such as this helps to avoid overflows and resulting fines—and starts with effective monitoring tools.

 Stay tuned for our next blog about how to quantify I&I and how FlowWorks can help.

Inflow and Infiltration 101 – Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

This is part 2 of Mike Homenuke’s series on Inflow and Infiltration. For part 1 click here.

Lets take a closer look  at the components that comprise I&I:

 Groundwater Infiltration (GWI)

These rates in the Pacific Northwest typically occur in the 3,000 – 5,000 L/ha/d range. High GWI can be found in:

  • Catchments with poorly draining soils
  • Deep sewers
  • Structural decay
  • Ungasketed joints 

 Achieving complete I&I reduction in these catchments will likely require an intense focus on rehabilitation of the lower portions of the system.

 Stormwater Inflow (SWI)

SWI usually results from:

  • Directly connected roof leaders
  • Foundation drains
  • Sump pumps
  • Catch basins
  • Defective sewer access points including manhole frames and covers, cleanouts and inspection chambers

SWI is indicated in flow monitoring records as sharp responses to rainfall events during summer months, but is nearly impossible to separate from Rainfall-Induced Infiltration (RII) during winter months. This can be quantified at a return period using the I&I Envelope Method.

Rainfall-Induced Infiltration (RII)

RII enters the sewer system through:

  • Leaking joints
  • Structural defects in pipes and manholes

Service connections are typically buried at shallow depths and are easily damaged. Additionally, brick risers and other component interfaces in manholes are not typically sealed. This allows for rapid infiltration of groundwater to occur. 

Infiltration in pipes and lower portions of manholes occurs more slowly, but can be significant during longer wet weather events.

It’s difficult to visually detect RII Because CCTV inspections are usually conducted during dry weather to prevent submergence of the camera. RII becomes fully developed when soils surrounding the sanitary sewer become saturated. This is also determined using the I&I Envelope Method, indicated by flow events with the highest ratio of Rainfall-Dependent Inflow & Infiltration (RDII) to rainfall.