WINTER/SPRING 2014 MONTANA SECTION AMERICAN WATER WORKS ASSOCIATION NewsWaves Welcome to Missoula! The 2014 Host City Committee welcomes you to Missoula! The Committee has been working diligently to make the conference memorable and enjoyable for all. We hope you’ll be able to spend some time in our fair City before and after the conference as well. Here’s a few ideas of what to do in Missoula: Start off with a hike up the M-trail taking in views of the Garden City beneath you or simply stroll along the extensive river trail system, watching kayakers and surfers play on Brennan’s Wave. Stop in for a beer at one of the many flourishing breweries, play a round of golf at the University of Montana golf course, catch a Grizzly’s sport event, and end the night by watching some live music at one of the many venues downtown. If you’d like to stay out of the weather, you can visit the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Visitor Center or the Missoula Art Museum. And, of course, no trip would be complete without a visit to one of the many stores and restaurants located in the vibrant downtown of the City. Missoula has something to offer for everyone and more information and an events calendar can be found at www.destinationmissoula.org. We’re looking forward to a great conference and hope you enjoy your stay here in the Garden City! • Your MSAWWA/MWEA 2014 Host City Committee—Ross Mollenhauer, Chair 2014 MSAWWA-MWEA Annual Joint Conference “Working Together To Protect Montana’s Water Resources” 89th Meeting of the Montana Section of the American Water Works Association 70th Meeting of the Montana Water Environment Association May 13—15, 2014 in Missoula, Montana MSAWWA PRECONFERENCE THEME: “Municipal Infrastructure Planning” An Invitation to the Conference from your MSAWWA Chair and MWEA President The Boards of the Montana Section of the American Water Works Association and the Montana Water Environment Association thank you again for your continued membership and involvement in our organizations. We hope you will consider attending this year’s joint conference on May 13, 14 and 15, 2014 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula. This year’s theme is “Working Together to Protect Montana’s Water Resources” and the theme for the preconference on May 13th is “Municipal Infrastructure Planning”. As always, we will offer presentations covering an extremely wide variety of topics of interest to municipalities, utilities, consultants, regulators and vendors. We think our conference provides the best value around for your training dollars and our Host City committee is committed to making the conference an incredibly fun experience as well. The Annual Conference is the highlight activity for our organizations. It provides both training and networking opportunities to our members, as well as the revenue needed to sustain our operations, support scholarships and promote water quality issues. On behalf of the Boards and organizing committees, we hope that you will join us in Missoula for another quality event. • Gwen Pozega, MSAWWA Chair & Dan Harmon, MWEA President
Transcript
WINTER/SPRING 2014
MONTANA SECTION
AMERICAN WATER
WORKS ASSOCIATION NewsWaves
Welcome to Missoula! The 2014 Host City Committee welcomes you to Missoula! The Committee has been working diligently to make the conference memorable and enjoyable for all. We hope you’ll be able to spend some time in our fair City before and after the conference as well. Here’s a few ideas of what to do in Missoula: Start off with a hike up the M-trail taking in views of the Garden City beneath you or simply stroll along the extensive river trail system, watching kayakers and surfers play on Brennan’s Wave. Stop in for a beer at one of the many flourishing breweries, play a round of golf at the University of Montana golf course, catch a Grizzly’s sport event, and end the night by watching some live music at one of the many venues downtown. If you’d like to stay out of the weather, you can visit the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Visitor Center or the Missoula Art Museum. And, of course, no trip would be complete without a visit to one of the many stores and restaurants located in the vibrant downtown of the City. Missoula has something to offer for everyone and more information and an events calendar can be found at www.destinationmissoula.org. We’re looking forward to a great conference and hope you enjoy your stay here in the Garden City!
• Your MSAWWA/MWEA 2014 Host City Committee—Ross Mollenhauer, Chair
2014 MSAWWA-MWEA Annual Joint Conference “Working Together To Protect Montana’s Water Resources” 89th Meeting of the Montana Section of the American Water Works Association
70th Meeting of the Montana Water Environment Association May 13—15, 2014 in Missoula, Montana
An Invitation to the Conference from your MSAWWA Chair and MWEA President The Boards of the Montana Section of the American Water Works Association and the Montana Water Environment Association thank you again for your continued membership and involvement in our organizations. We hope you will consider attending this year’s joint conference on May 13, 14 and 15, 2014 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula. This year’s theme is “Working Together to Protect Montana’s Water Resources” and the theme for the preconference on May 13th is “Municipal Infrastructure Planning”. As always, we will offer presentations covering an extremely wide variety of topics of interest to municipalities, utilities, consultants, regulators and vendors. We think our conference provides the best value around for your training dollars and our Host City committee is committed to making the conference an incredibly fun experience as well. The Annual Conference is the highlight activity for our organizations. It provides both training and networking opportunities to our members, as well as the revenue needed to sustain our operations, support scholarships and promote water quality issues. On behalf of the Boards and organizing committees, we hope that you will join us in Missoula for another quality event.
• Gwen Pozega, MSAWWA Chair & Dan Harmon, MWEA President
NewsWaves is a publication of the Montana Section of the American Water Works Association and is published twice yearly. It is available for viewing or printing on our website at: www.montana-awwa.org.
We welcome contributions to NewsWaves. For more information, contact:
Robin Matthews-Barnes PO Box 582
Seeley Lake, MT 59868 Phone: 406-546-5496 Fax: 866-754-1558
The Montana Section of American Water Works Association is dedicated to the promotion of public health and welfare in the provision of drinking water of unquestionable quality and sufficient quantity. Montana Section of AWWA will provide the forum and opportunity through which its membership can exchange information, learn of new issues and technologies, educate the public, and enhance the professionalism of workers in
~Joint Scholarship Fund Raffle~ Thank you to Morrison-Maierle, Inc., DOWL HKM, Great West Engineering, and Interstate Engineering for their generous donations for this years’ raffle to help fund the Donald G. Willems Joint Scholarship. 1st prize is a $350 gift certificate to Chico Hot Springs. 2nd prize is a $250 gift certificate to Double Arrow Resort. Two Cabelas gift certificates will also be awarded as 3rd and 4th prize in the raffle—$150 for 3rd and $100 for 4th place. Tickets are available for purchase at the Joint Conference or by contacting Coralynn Revis by email at: [email protected]. The drawings will take place at the banquet on Wednesday evening of the Joint Conference. You need not be present to win. Ticket prices are $5/each or 5 tickets for $20. Buy your tickets to help fund a scholarship for a deserving student!
Mission of the Montana Water
Environment Association
The Montana Water Environment Association (MWEA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of Montana’s water environment. The Association is committed to advancing science and education, disseminating technical information, increasing public understanding and promoting sound public policy in the water quality and water resources field.
If so, please place your order through Robin Matthews-Barnes, MSAWWA Executive Secretary. MSAWWA receives credit for your order. The cost is the same to you, but MSAWWA gets a bonus.
THANK YOU!!!
Water For People Silent Auction & Raffle
Thank You! Great West Engineering, R.L. Winston Rod Co., and Montana Fly Goods for donating the fly rod and reel for the Water For People raffle that will take place at the conference. The combo is a 9’ Winston 6 Wt Boron III-X 4-piece fly rod with a Lamson Velocity 3.0 reel Hard Alox II. Retail value is $1,080.00. Tickets are $10.00 each and can be purchased at the Joint Conference or by contacting Carrie Gardner at [email protected] The drawing for the rod/reel will take place at the banquet on Wednesday evening of the Joint Conference. You need not be present to win. Please consider donating an item to the WFP silent raffle—any item, big or small, is appreciated! Contact Robin Matthews-Barnes for more information: [email protected]
Message from MSAWWA’s National Director ~John Alston~
This will be my last article to you as your National Director for AWWA. It has been a very fast three years but the experience was well worth the time spent. As one of the Vice Presidents of AWWA I have visited five different conferences all over North America. The one common theme I see is the enthusiasm and dedication of the water/wastewater professionals I meet. Their challenges are no different from ours in Montana; little to no funding for infrastructure, aging infrastructure and operators. I want to thank all of the Montana section for allowing me the privilege of representing you on the board. I look forward to passing the baton off to Logan McInnis at ACE in Boston! What a perfect segue to talk about one of the most exciting ACE’s we will have in years. The vendor and attendee numbers are well ahead of last year’s ACE and I can’t think of a better venue than Boston. If you are going please attend the president’s reception for John Donahue Wednesday night and have dinner and a cruise around Boston Harbor for a very reasonable price, tickets are going fast so please purchase them soon. There are several things going on at National that will be of interest to you. As many of you know our new Vision Statement is “A better world through better water”. AWWA wants to share its knowledge with the world not just North America. With that being said we are exploring opening an office in India; our International council led by our own Craig Woolard has done an outstanding job in exploring other areas of the world for places to share our knowledge. We are also engaged into a new alliance with Engineers without Borders USA and the American Society of Civil Engineers. This alliance is called Community Engineering Corps. The alliance combines the strengths of three organizations to provide technical expertise to underserved communities in the US and ensure that their infrastructure meets their community's needs. Stay tuned for updates in the future. If you are interested in volunteering please go to www.communityengineeringcorps.org. Most importantly I hope to see all of you at our 2014 Joint Conference in Missoula May 13-15
th. Our visiting AWWA representative is Vice President Reid Campbell from
the Halifax Canada Water Department. The preconference is on Municipal Infrastructure Planning. We are also going to start the first annual Tap Water taste contest. If you think your utility has good tasting water bring it on, stay tuned for more details. The winner moves on to the national contest in Boston. I look forward to seeing you all in Missoula in May!!!
2014 JOINT CONFERENCE REGISTRATION INFORMATION ****Early bird deadline for registration is April 25th****
Please go to www.montana-awwa.org/2014 Conference for more information and to fill
out the registration form, or simply click on the link below. You will have a choice to register and pay by check or register and pay by credit or debit card. See the website for more detail. Please contact Robin Matthews-Barnes at [email protected] with any questions, or if you would like a hard copy of the registration form mailed to you, or emailed directly to you.
Click here for attendee registration to pay by check Click here for attendee registration to pay with debit or credit card
For lodging reservations—please call the Hilton Garden Inn—406-532-5300 and mention
the conference to obtain the conference rate of $119/night, not including applicable taxes. A limited number of rooms are still available so call today!
NewsWaves—Page 8
NEW AND EXCITING ACTIVITIES AT THE CONFERENCE THIS YEAR! Exhibitor Track—An Exhibitor track will take place during the technical sessions on Wednesday
afternoon and Thursday morning. These tracks will be 15 minutes in length and will give the attendees an opportunity to learn about applications/case studies of Exhibitor products and services.
Pub-style Trivia Challenge—Are you super savvy on toilet bowl minutiae or wastewater
treatment nuggets??? Is your brain packed with clean water factoids and distribution system details? Then join us in the main Exhibitor area during the Thursday morning break with your team of 4-5 to challenge friends, competitors, and coworkers in a pub style trivia wager of wits. Rules: Teams will be made of 4-5 members. Answer sheet will be provided to each team. No electronic devices or any type of outside sources are allowed. Teams that are reported using any
outside devices will be disqualified.
Taste Test Challenge—Do you think your city’s tap water is the best around? Do you frequently
brag to your friends and relatives about how wonderful the water is in your community? Well we are finally taking it to the judges to crown an official winner of our first ever Best Tap Water Taste Test Competition. Bring your community pride and come support your city in the competition!!! The Taste Test Challenge will take place in the Exhibitor Area during the Thursday morning break. Rules: Participant must not have incurred any state or federal drinking water violations (MCL, monitoring,
recordkeeping, etc.) during the previous 12 months. Samples should be brought in glass containers (not required) with the name of the water system clearly
identified. Samples will be served at room temperature to help the judges better assess each sample. Judging for the People's Choice award will be open to all attendees. The official judging panel will be a mix of local public figures and flavor-profile analyzers. Samples will be judged on a 10-point scale from Good (1) to Best (10).
Scores will be tabulated and the winner will be announced immediately following the contest.
Tuesday—May 13, 2014 7:00 am—5:00 pm Registration desk open 8:00 am—5:00 pm All day session including lunch 5:00 pm—6:30 pm Ice-Breaker Sponsored by Exhibitors
Preconference Session—Room location: tbd
Moderators: Collette Anderson, Great West Engineering
8:00—8:15 Welcome and Introduction—MSAWWA Education Committee
8:15—9:00 Asset Management Tools for Identifying Leakage and Assessing and Prioritizing Main Replacement Needs—Logan McInnis, Mountain Water Company
9:00—9:45 A Comprehensive Approach to Asset Management in the City of Bozeman—Jon Henderson, John Alston, Craig Woolard, City of Bozeman
9:45—10:00 BREAK
10:00—10:45 Navigating Infrastructure Improvement Projects—One Community’s Experiences—Larry Bonderud, City of Shelby
10:45—11:30 Impact Fees for Dummies—Charlie Harball, City of Kalispell
11:30—1:00 Lunch (included in registration fee) Location: tbd
1:00—1:45 Developing an Equitable Impact Fee—Paul Burnham, Morrison-Maierle, Inc.
1:45—2:30 Municipal Infrastructure Planning—Anna Miller, MT DNRC
2:30—2:45 BREAK
2:45—5:00 Municipal Infrastructure Planning—Panel Discussion with Speakers & Allison Mouch, Community Technical Assistance Program (MDOC)
Approximately 7.5 hours of training will be available for attendance at the preconference & 11 hours of training will be available for attendance at the conference, with a possible additional two hours for the Thursday afternoon demonstration or tour. Actual number of credit hours are awaiting MT DEQ approval. Additional information & CEC forms will be included in your registration
packet at the conference.
MSAWWA-MWEA 2014 JOINT CONFERENCE “Working Together To Protect Montana’s Water Resources”
Wednesday—May 14, 2014 7:00 am—8:00 am Early Morning Break (Exhibitor Area) 7:00 am—5:00 pm Registration desk open 8:00 am—12:00pm Morning General Session 12:00pm—1:00 pm Lunch & Awards 1:00 pm—5:15 pm Afternoon Concurrent Sessions 5:30 pm—6:30 pm Beer and Wine Reception Hosted by participating Exhibitors 6:30 pm—8:30 pm Banquet and Awards Water For People Raffle Drawing—Fly Rod & Reel (Winston 9’ 6Wt Boron III-X rod & Lamson Velocity
3.0 reel Hard Alox II donated by Great West Engineering, R.L. Winston Rod Company & Montana Fly
Goods)
Scholarship Fund Raffle Drawing—1st Prize: $350 gift certificate to Chico Hot Springs Resort;
2nd Prize: $250 gift certificate to Double Arrow Resort; 3rd Prize: $150 gift certificate to Cabela’s;
4th Prize: $100 gift certificate to Cabela’s (donated by Interstate Engineering, DOWL HKM, Great West
Engineering, & Morrison-Maierle, Inc.)
Silent Auction Items Dispersed
8:30 pm—?? Come and join in the fun—Game Night and Beer Tasting from local breweries
General Session—Room location: tbd
Moderators: Gwen Pozega, MSAWWA Chair, CDM Smith
Dan Harmon, MWEA President, HDR, Inc.
8:00—8:30 Welcome and Opening Session
Gwen Pozega, MSAWWA Chair Dan Harmon, MWEA President John Engen, Mayor of Missoula
8:30—9:30 AWWA & WEF Guest Speakers—
Reid Campbell, AWWA Vice President George Martin, WEF Board of Trustees. General remarks followed by an open forum
9:30—10:00 Halifax Water Loss Control Program—Reid Campbell, Director of Water Services at Halifax Water
5:00 – 5:15 Photoionisation for Odor Control with 3 Examples from Montana—Calvin Pride, Ambio Biofiltration, Ltd.
MSAWWA-MWEA 2014 JOINT CONFERENCE “Working Together To Protect Montana’s Water Resources”
Thursday—May 15, 2014 7:00 am—8:00 am Early Morning Break (Exhibitor Area) 7:30 am—8:30 am Joint MSAWWA-MWEA Membership Meeting and Election of Officers 8:00 am—10:00 am Registration desk open 8:00 am—12:00pm Morning Concurrent Sessions 12:00pm—1:00 pm Lunch & Prize Drawings—Must be present to win from a great selection of Exhibitor sponsored prizes! 1:30 pm—3:30 pm Mountain Water Company Demonstration & Wastewater Facility Tour
Thursday Morning Concurrent Sessions
NewsWaves—Page 13
Water Sessions—Room location: tbd
Moderator: Greg Lukasik, Great West Engineering, Inc.
8:30 – 9:15 What’s In Your Pint: The Importance of Water Quality in Your Favorite Beverage—Scott Schaefer, AE2S, Inc.
9:15 – 10:00 Understanding the ISO Fire Suppression Rating Schedule and Water Supply Evaluation—Anthony Zampella, ISO
10:00 – 10:30 BREAK – Taste Test and Pub-style Trivia Challenge in Exhibitor Area
10:30 – 11:15 Using Membrane Autopsy to Evaluate Membrane Fouling and Chemical Cleaning—Charles Liu, Pall Corporation
11:15 – 12:00 OpWorks! Going Digital: Treatment Facility Logs and Reporting Gets a Facelift—Brian Barclay, AE2S, Inc.
Wastewater Sessions—Room location: tbd
Moderator: Jeremy Perlinski, Morrison-Maierle, Inc.
8:30 – 9:15 Odor Control at the New Miles City Headworks—Holly Manning & Brad Koenig, Robert Peccia & Assoc./Calvin Pride, Ambio Biofiltration, Ltd.
9:15 – 10:00 Surface Water Discharge via Groundwater, City of Sidney, MT—Patrick Murtagh, Murtagh Municipal Engineering
10:00 – 10:30 BREAK – Taste Test and Pub-style Trivia Challenge in Exhibitor Area
10:30 – 11:15 Wastewater Treatment Regionalization & the Interlocal Agreement with Manhattan, MT & the Churchill Sewer District—Kevin Johnson, DOWL HKM
11:15 – 12:00 Hydraulic Headloss Predictions as it Relates to Influent Wastewater Screens—Steve Aiken, Duperon Corp.
Wastewater Sessions—Room location: tbd
Moderator: Doug Whitney, Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson
8:30 - 9:15 Missoula Hybrid Poplar Tree Land Application Program—Starr Sullivan, City of Missoula
9:15 – 10:00 Missoula’s Collection System Maintenance Program—Pat Brook, City of Missoula
10:00 – 10:30 BREAK – Taste Test and Pub-style Trivia Challenge in Exhibitor Area
10:30 – 11:15 High Speed Blower Technology: Retrofit Your Existing Blowers—Save Energy, Significantly Reduce Maintenance Requirements and Operation Costs and Take Advantage of Available Incentives!—Christina Ahmadpour, APG-Neuros
Please Support Your Association’s Committees Please remember that the committees cannot survive without member participation. You can sign up to be on a committee at any time during the year, however, the Joint Conference is the ideal time to do so and there will be sign-up sheets in your registration packet. Please consider participation in at least one committee. If you have questions about the committees, please contact the chair of that committee to find out more about how you can help. If you are currently serving on a committee and wish to continue serving, please be sure to sign up at each conference. The slate is wiped clean after each conference, and unless we have the new sign-up form, we do not know if you wish to continue serving.
Thank you to everyone who volunteers for making MSAWWA and MWEA so great!
NewsWaves—Page 14
Thursday Morning Concurrent Sessions Continued
Exhibitor Sessions—Room location: tbd
Moderator: tbd
8:30 – 8:45
Advanced Biological Nutrient Recovery—Rick Johnson, Clearas Water Recovery
8:45 – 9:00
Schwing Bioset Products and Services—Joshua DiValentino, Schwing Bioset
9:00 – 9:15
Cold weather Nitrification in Lagoons—Jim Martin, Lemna Technologies, Inc.
9:15 – 9:30 Circular Clarifiers—Jeff Thomas, Walker Process Equipment
9:30 – 9:45
Slope Stabilization and Geohazard Mitigation—Bryan Wavra, GeoStabilization International
9:45 – 10:00
New Air Release Valves—Wayne Ward, Mueller Company
10:00 – 10:30 BREAK – Taste Test and Pub-style Trivia Challenge in Exhibitor Area
10:45 – 11:00 ICEAS Process / Optimizing Efficiency in Oxidation Ditches—Irina Gokhman, Xylem-Sanitaire
11:00 – 11:15 Cold Water Lagoon Total Nitrogen & Ammonia Removal—Todd Latchaw, Nelson Environmental, Inc.
11:15 – 11:30 OpWorks - A Digital System for Log and Record Keeping—Sarah Volk, AE2S, Inc.
11:30 – 11:45 EnergySource—Rory Schmidt, Energy Laboratories, Inc.
11:45 – 12:00 Case Studies on Fusible PVC Pipe Systems—Patrick Laidlaw, Underground Solutions
NewsWaves—Page 15
NewsWaves—Page 16
Thank You To All Of The Exhibitors that have so far committed to participate at the 2014 Joint Conference
~Your support of the Annual Joint Conference is vital to its success and is sincerely appreciated~
isiWest Lemna Technologies M.E.T. Valves & Controls Mueller Company Nelson Environmental Inc. Northwest Pipe Fittings, Inc. Pall Corporation Pipestone Equipment, Inc. Pure Technologies Rotork Controls, Inc. Schwing Bioset, Inc. Shearer Tanks Territorial Landworks, Inc. Thermal Process System Trojan Technologies Underground Solutions Vulcan Industries Walker Process Equipment Wastewater Technologies, Inc. Water Technology Group Western States Automation Xylem-Sanitaire Products
Xylem-Sanitaire Products
Yellowstone Waterworks (formerly Misher Sales)
Calling All Student Writers!! Write About Anything Water and Win a $200 Scholarship
MSAWWA produces Newswaves twice yearly for the water supply community. Our subscribers include professionals in the water supply industry including Montana cities and towns, engineering firms, and suppliers. We certainly would like to hear from the education community. For each newsletter we encourage submission of student papers of 1000 words or less. If more than one article is submitted, they will be judged and the top pick will be printed in the newsletter. In addition, the student will receive a $200 scholarship along with a 1 year membership to AWWA. The next Newswaves will be published this coming summer/fall. Articles must be received by August 15, 2014 to be considered. For more information, please contact Robin Matthews-Barnes at 406-546-5496 or by email at: [email protected]
Able Wright, Inc. Advanced Pump & Equipment, Inc. AE2S, Inc. Aeration Industries International Ambiente H2O, Inc. Ambio Biofiltration, Ltd. APSCO, LLC Aquarius Technologies, Inc. BioLynceus Clearas Water Recovery Curb Box Specialists, Inc. Dana Kepner Company/Sensus DN Tanks Enduro Compsites Energy Laboratories Engineering America, Inc. Falcon Environmental Corporation GC Systems, Inc. GeoStabilization International Goble Sampson Associates HD Supply Waterworks Henry Pratt Hydrogate Industrial Systems, Inc.
Thank you to the following companies that have so far committed to sponsor events at the conference: Gold: ●AE2S, Inc. ●Pall Corporation Silver: ●Mountain Water Company Bronze: ●HD Supply Waterworks ●APCSO, LLC. ●Yellowstone Waterworks (formerly Mishler Sales) ●Xylem Dewatering Solutions Sponsoring events at the Joint Conference is a great way for your company to help bring this educational and networking opportunity to those in the water and wastewater fields. Please consider donating—all sponsors will receive recognition at the conference and in the program!
Visiting Dignitaries from AWWA & WEF
Attendees of the 2014 Joint Conference will be introduced to 2013-2014 AWWA Vice-President Reid Campbell and current WEF Board Member George Martin. Mr. Campbell and Mr. Martin will offer their insight at the opening session of the conference on Wednesday morning, May 14th. Please help your MSAWWA and MWEA Boards in welcoming these visitors to Missoula!
From Idea to Reality: City Needs Drive Development of Web-Based App New App Allows Plant Operators to Easily Track and Report Data
By Heather Syverson, AE2S A project that modernized a municipal water treatment plant’s operator logs was instrumental in the
development of a web-based application called OpWorks. The app helps municipal or industrial facilities manage their
plant operations. After more than a year of beta testing, the app is now available to other cities and industries.
From Paper Logs to Digital Age
Two years ago the City of Grand Forks, N.D. approached Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. (AE2S) about creating a solution for the City’s Water Treatment Facility (WTF) that could track, search, and combine data from their supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), chemical inventory, lab data, bench testing, and equipment issues. Up to that point, the City’s water treatment operators used handwritten log books to record the day to day information needed to communicate between shifts and to produce regulatory compliance reports. The logs were used as a tool to share shift notes between operators whose schedules rarely intersected. At times, the penmanship and legibility complicated the process. “The operators needed to communicate between shifts, and we needed to communicate from the supervisory level to the operators. Some of the information was very difficult to go back and read,” says Hazel Sletten, Grand Forks Water Utility Superintendent.
The large amount of paper in the binders also made difficult to search for relevant shift notes and data more than a couple weeks in the past. With her upcoming retirement in mind, Sletten determined that it was also important that the data be highly searchable to ease the transition for the WTF staff since there would be an inevitable loss of institutional memory.
Brian Barclay, AE2S web developer and programmer, began working on a web-based application that could be easily customized by the City’s staff. The application that became OpWorks grew out of that seed of an idea. Barclay developed OpWorks so that it can be accessed by computer, tablet, and mobile phone.
Customization Options
The organization of data, data entry, and reports were prime concerns and challenges that Barclay tackled.
Instead of configuring a system that had predefined areas to track and trying to fit the Grand Forks WTF’s needs into
those areas, Barclay created a flexible framework that allows plant administrators to create their own unique
worksheets that define the information that they would like to track. For instance, the Grand Forks WTF’s facilities
include the intake building, pre-treatment facility, main treatment plant, as well as numerous resevoirs around the city.
Within the WTF’s OpWorks worksheets, important equipment and sensors can be selected under each of these
facilities such as clarifiers, softening basins, and pumps. At each of the locations, readings can either be pulled from
existing SCADA data or be entered in the worksheets manually by the operators. This structure allows staff to pull up
any portion of the operation and view current and historic data.
Shift notes can be assigned to specific locations within a facility. That means instead of browsing endlessly through documents, operators simply select from a drop down menu of locations to read the shift notes for a specific location. Date ranges and operator names can further narrow the search results. Searching by operator name or within a time period allows employees to find information about past incidents quickly. The Grand Forks WTF operators immediately saw that the data entry was more consistent, and it was easier to see what happened during other operators’ shifts.
OpWorks is also capable of interpreting data for daily monitoring and creating regulatory reports. The more complex reports have an administrative configuration system that can pull information from multiple worksheets and SCADA values to run advanced custom calculations. “For instance, there is an aggregate report that shows the monthly cost for chemicals in cents per thousand gallon, as well as high-level graphs and charts that are easy to read. The charts and graphs allow operators and management to run a report to see things like how many chemicals were used over a period of time or the river conditions on a certain day. The number of things that can be tracked is virtually limitless,” says Barclay. Continued on page 19
NewsWaves—Page 19
Continued from page 18…. Future Capabilities
The City of Grand Forks currently has a little more than a year of data in the new system, and Barclay says the system will become more powerful as the backlog of data grows. Sletten says she can think of several new ways to use the capabilities of OpWorks. “We could pull rainwater information off of our rain gauges across the city, because they are on SCADA. Or for the drought management side of it, there you have site specific annual rainfall right at your fingertips. Rainfall and river level combinations would eventually work into the triggers for the drought monitor,” says Sletten.
The versatility of OpWorks is its biggest benefit. “Out of the box, it can be tailored to whoever is running it – what they want to track and what is important to them. What’s important to one city may not be to another city. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ solution,” says Barclay.
“Although initially developed for the public utility sector, OpWorks can easily be applied to industries that also deal with water, wastewater, produced water/salt water disposal facilities and assets,” says Andrea Boe, AE2S Water Solutions Business Development Director. The flexibility of the application can be used by industries ranging from food processing to oil field water processing facilities.
OpWorks was recently featured in the Workforce Strategies section of the January issue of AWWA’s Opflow
magazine. For more information about OpWorks, check out www.OpWorks.us.
2013—2014 Committee Chairs Below is a list of the members of MSAWWA and MWEA that volunteered to chair each organization’s
committees following last years’ Joint Conference. Volunteers are always welcome, so if you wish to help your association and serve on a committee you may still sign up by contacting the chair of that committee or
Do You Have Something To Say? If you have ideas, announcements, articles, or stories you would like to submit for consideration for publication in the next issue of NewsWaves, please email Robin Matthews-Barnes at [email protected]. The next issue will be published late summer/early fall, so keep it in mind!
~2014 Joint Directory~ The 2014 Joint Directory was emailed to all MSAWWA and MWEA members recently. If you did not receive the digital copy, or would like a hard copy mailed to you, please email Robin Matthews-Barnes at [email protected] and let her know. A revised version will be emailed again soon to all members, as many updates were received after the initial digital version was published. The digital version allows changes to be made on a more regular basis rather than just annually, saves $$$, and saves paper!
