Metropolitan St. Louis sewer district - Case study

Chuck Scholpp

“Hach WIMS has been instrumental in the collection of relevant data”
-Stephanie Eisner, NRS Project coordinator

Background

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) is a public agency whose responsibilities include the interception, collection and treatment of wastewater, as well as stormwater management. The District's current boundaries cover 525 square miles and encompass all of the City of St. Louis and approximately 80% of St. Louis County. MSD serves a population of approximately 1.4 million and has approximately 519,000 single-family residential, multi-family residential and commercial/industrial accounts. Of these accounts, approximately 87,000 are for stormwater service only. MSD currently operates seven wastewater treatment facilities, treating a combined average of 330 million gallons of sewage per day. The District is responsible for operating and maintaining 9,649 miles of sewers. 

Problem

Gathering the data and producing regulatory reports was time consuming and potentially very error prone.  MSD was completely dependent on a few key people with specific knowledge of how to gather and manipulate the required data.  This was a major issue every month when regulatory reports were due.  This lack of access to data caused plant managers, operators, and engineers to become increasingly frustrated with the amount of time it took to gather data. They found it difficult to perform analysis and optimization projects due to the complexity of identifying the true source of the data, resolving data discrepancies, correlating results across multiple parameters from laboratory and plant data, and generally having faith in the accuracy and integrity of the data. These difficulties resulted in data that was duplicated in multiple systems as users found ways to get their work done.

Solution

MSD wanted to replace their unsecure, unwieldy manual entry system. They wanted an automated and integrated system to collect data from all of the wastewater treatment plants, the associated SCADA and control systems, and their central Laboratory Information Management System. To resolve their most immediate concerns of easy data analysis, overall data integrity and easy report generation, they needed an automated system without the burden of long-term maintenance of software code.

After assessing the products in the marketplace, Hach Water Information Management Solution™> (Hach WIMS™) software was the unanimous decision. Key to its selection was its substantial reporting capabilities, ability to interface with multiple systems, secure storage and access of all the data. Following selection, MSD was impressed with the ease of the Hach WIMS implementation. The system delivery included full product configuration, end user training, acceptance testing, and system roll-out. MSD has consistently used the product since its selection and believes the system has resolved their key issues of data consolidation, regulatory reporting and data integrity. Secured access makes it easy to allow the right people to get the data they need. The system is currently used by all treatment plant managers in their daily analysis of plant operations and produces all required federal and state regulatory reports. In demonstration of their satisfaction with the Hach WIMS support, MSD specifically notes their timeliness to address issues and the ability to talk directly with an individual instead of an automated service.

City of Salem Natural Reclamation System

Background

In 2003, the city of Salem, Oregon embarked on a multi-year pilot project to determine whether a constructed wetland approach-a Natural Reclamation System (NRS)-could provide a new way of dealing with treated wastewater by reusing it instead of directly discharging it into the Willamette River.

The mission of the NRS is to demonstrate the use of natural systems as a sustainable method of polishing effluent, improving water quality, and providing reclaimed water supply and management, as well as determining whether the process is appropriate within the Willamette River watershed.

Encompassing approximately 40 acres adjacent to the City's Willow Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant, the project facility actively tests the effectiveness of the NRS to polish effluent. Of special interest is the capability of the NRS to reduce water temperatures and ammonia concentrations throughout the summer. If this reduction could be accomplished, the use of constructed wetlands could create a more livable environment for endangered fish species.

Problem

The City needed a data management product to handle the magnitude of data to be compiled and analyzed to determine the success of the NRS. That data management product needed to capture the data from multiple sources, store the significant amount of data generated by the project, and report the data in a format that could be easily used for numerous analyses.

Solution

The City was utilizing Hach Water Information Management Solution™ (Hach WIMS™) software to collect extensive information about their operations and treatment process to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations.  When they realized it had additional capabilities to handle the data generated for the NRS, the City decided to use Hach WIMS as their data management tool. 

"Hach WIMS has been instrumental in the collection of relevant data," said Stephanie Eisner, NRS Project coordinator. "Its data capture and reporting capabilities have provided us a comprehensive analysis of the wetlands pilot project."

To date, Hach WIMS has compiled more than five years of data while the city continues to test and analyze the NRS. Temperature and ammonia concentrations have been reduced, but the feasibility of a full-scale wetland remains in question due to the availability of the quantity of land required. The unique NRS approach has piqued the interest of many communities who want to enhance the environment through development of their own wetlands. With its ability to easily export data, Hach WIMS allows the City to share its "lessons learned" with other cities. The partnership of the City of Salem and Hach provides the City, as well as other communities, the ability to invest in the future of their community... and their world.

Chuck Scholpp, Director, Hach IIM Business Development
Chuck Scholpp directs Hach's Integrated Information Management business, developing integrated solutions that leverage instrumentation, communications, people, and software. Chuck has held positions in engineering, marketing, service program management, product management and new product development in water-related industries. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering, an MS in Engineering Management, and an MBA.