7/28/2019 Water Authority Ensures Integrity With Auto Monitor'g Panels

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Pennsylvanias North Wales Water

Authority, located 30 miles northwest o

Philadelphia, serves more than 25,000

customers in seven municipalities in cen-

tral Bucks and Montgomery counties. Its

transmission and distribution system has

more than 30 remote pump stations and

water storage tanks located throughout

its 399 miles o water pipelines spread

over a 50-square-mile service area. The

recent addition o multi-parameter water

chemistry monitoring panels, installed atvarious locations within the distribution

system, allows the utility to continuously

monitor and collect critical water qual-

ity data, thereby providing water quality

surveillance 24/7.

NWWA, incorporated in 1951, was

ormed in order to acquire and operate

the tiny, privately held North Wales Water

Company. In the 60s and 70s, as more

Philadelphians migrated to the suburbs

and tapped into existing ground water

supplies, NWWA extended its servicelines into the surrounding municipalities

in order to meet its continuing need or

access to public water supplies, acquire a

larger service area and develop additional

sources o groundwater or its customers

use. In the early 1990s, NWWA ormed

a partnership with other utilities to bring

in water rom the Delaware River located

about 30 miles away, which is treated at

the authoritys state-o-the-art Forest Park

Water Treatment Plant.

Originally completed in 1994, the treat-

ment plant was converted rom conven-tional anthracite/sand media lters to

advanced membrane ltration in 2007 to

increase capacity and to provide a more

eective barrier to potentially harmul

pathogens, such as cryptosporidiumand

giardia. In addition to the robust physical

barrier provided by membranes, the plant

ozonates to provide a disinection bar-

rier ollowed by granular activated carbon

(GAC) media ltration to urther enhance

the aesthetic quality o the water.

Focus On DistributionFollowing the plants upgrade tomembrane ltration, the authority was

condent the water leaving the treatment

acility was o the highest quality. But the

authority then recognized a new concern.

Once we upgraded our plant we knew

it was providing very high quality water,

said Tom Bradbury, Director o Regula-

tory Aairs at NWWA, but we then

began to turn our attention toward our

distribution system. Although the majority

o our water mains are airly new, due to

our rapid growth, we became concernedabout how to best ensure the quality o

our water once it leaves the plant.

The utility already had a program in

place to monitor water quality throughout

its distribution system, involving a variety

o tasks including scheduled grab sampling

and analysis. But in 2006, NWWA decided

the best method or assuring water quality

delivery was to incorporate automated

water quality monitoring systems through-

out the water distribution system. These

automated systems would continuously

monitor and report real-time water qualitydata to the authoritys water distribu-

tion center. In addition, The Homeland

Security Act and 9/11 have made it

mandatory or water utilities to know at

all times whats going on in their systems.

Automated monitoring systems would

provide an important key to NWWAs

water security.

Ater careul research, the authority

acquired and installed six Hach Water Dis-

tribution Monitoring Panels at strategic

points in its distribution system and more

panel installations are planned.

Continuous MonitoringThe Water Distribution Monitoring

Panel (WDMPsc) is a compact panel tted

with our analyzers to monitor ree or

total chlorine, turbidity, pH, conductivity,

and temperature. A sensor on the panel

also monitors water pressure delivered

to the analyzers. The installation o each

panel required only a single line connec-

tion, and one sample port on the panel

Water Authority Ensures System Integrity withAutomated Distribution System Monitoring PanelsBy Steve Wortendyke -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

North Wales Water Authority serves more than 25,000 customers in seven municipalities in central Bucks and Montgomerycounties in Pennsylvania.

AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY

Reprinted with revisions to format, from the March 2009 edition ofWATERWORLD

Copyright 2009 by PennWell Corporation

7/28/2019 Water Authority Ensures Integrity With Auto Monitor'g Panels

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eeds all o the instruments. The

authoritys supervisory control

and data acquisition (SCADA)

system collects data continu-

ously rom the panels, allowing

or comprehensive water quality

network surveillance at all times.

The utilitys distribution sys-

tem is divided into ve dierentpressure zones. Along the way,

there are a series o inner pressure

zone transer stations, and the

water quality monitoring panels

have been strategically installed in

six o these stations.

The WDMPs are small (22 x

51.5), lightweight (65 lbs), and

include pre-mounted, pre-wired,

and pre-plumbed analyzers.

Our personnel simply

mounted each WDMP on a wall

and hooked each to an electricline, a water line and an outlet

drain, Bradbury said. Ater each panel

was installed, baselines or the our water

chemistry parameters (chlorine, turbidity,

pH, conductivity) were established, allow-

ing us to set the various alarm parameters

or each.

Not all o them are set up the same,

due to varying conditions within our sys-

tem, he said. For example, the average

chlorine residual might be 0.5 in one part

o our system and 0.65 in another.

The multi-parameter panels allow

NWWA to continuously collect critical

water quality data, thereby providing sur-

veillance and increased security. The panels

continuously transer real-time data to

the authoritys SCADA system, allowing

personnel to make inormed decisions.

These monitoring panels are very

sensitive, Bradbury said. We can tell i

somebody has opened a re hydrant be-

cause the turbidity readings will rise. I we

get low chlorine or high turbidity or any-

thing out o the ordinary at any station,well get an alarm right away. Four o us

can access SCADA rom home, so were

alerted immediately i theres an alarm.

Three computer monitors in the au-

thoritys distribution system control room

continuously display data. One display is

tied into the SCADA system, the second

is a backup, and the third shows a script

program that brings up critical real-time

inormation on a rotating basis. This setup

enables personnel to continually view data

rom the monitoring panels, check the

status o all the pumps in the system, the

fow rom the plant, storage tank levels,

and other critical operations.

This aords us an instant snapshot

o the entire system at any given point in

time, Bradbury said, and i we need to

zero in on any one monitoring panel we

can quickly bring it up on our display in

the control room or a closer look.

Continuous, automated monitoringprovides much more data than manual

testing, enabling a reliable database to be

established. The concurrent measurement

o several key water chemistry parameters

within the system can serve to correlate

and conrm a deviation rom the normal

quality baseline, thereby alert personnel

when or even beore problems occur.

Historical DataThe monitoring panels have helped in

certain troubleshooting situations with

customers, Bradbury said. For example, amajor pharmaceutical company recently

reported having a turbidity problem at

its acility. Turbidity within the NWWA

system typically is about 0.05 NTU, while

the pharmaceutical company was report-

ing readings o up to 3.5 NTU.

One o our monitoring panels is

located just a couple hundred yards rom

where their supply comes o, so we ran

the turbidity history o the panel, Brad-

bury said. We were able to give them a

printout o the turbidity data that showed

a consistent history o low turbidity.

Ater eliminating NWWA water as the

source o the problem, urther investiga-

tion ound that a large internal loop going

around the complex needed to be fushed.

Being in the water supply business,

youre always guilty until proven inno-

cent i theres a problem, Bradbury said.Thats another advantage o having those

monitors in place. We have an accurate

history o all the water that goes through

our distribution system.

Cost, Time SavingsAlthough NWWA is still required to

manually gather and test samples through-

out the network or regulatory reporting,

Bradbury said that by providing con-

tinuous chlorine, turbidity, conductivity,

and pH surveillance, the six automated

monitoring panels have enabled them toeliminate much o the time-consuming

nuisance sampling. This has saved miles

o driving time or personnel, hours o

sampling and testing time, and rees up

personnel or perorming other important

tasks.

The analyzer measurements are also

helping NWWA to improve overall water

quality through the ability to better iden-

tiy the potential or chlorine stratication

in tanks. Further, the continuous data is

allowing personnel to learn more about

the unique dynamics o the system.

The authority is currently discussing the

installation o additional water monitoring

panels to monitor its bulk wholesale water

Bringing on our new plant and de-

veloping the capacity rom the Delaware

River gave us an opportunity to not only

serve our customers, but also gave us the

ability to be a regional water supplier, and

we wholesale to our other municipalities.

Were currently discussing adding addi-

tional monitoring panels at key sales point

to these bulk customers. This will give us aprecise water quality history o all fows we

deliver to them, Bradbury said.

About the Author: Steve Wortendyke is a Sales Develop-ment Manager at Hach. During his 11 years o service atHach, he has also held positions as Regional Sales Managerand Product Manager and was the 2007 Salesman othe Year. Wortendyke received his BS in Chemistry romOral Roberts University and his MBA or Texas ChristianUniversity. Previous to his career at Hach, he spent six yearsas a Captain in the USAF.

AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY

The Hach Water Distribution Monitoring Panel (WDMPsc) is a compactpanel ftted with our analyzers to monitor ree or total chlorine, turbidity,

pH, conductivity, temperature and sample pressure.