Water Efficiency November/Decermber 2015

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Infrastructure | AMI | Treatment

WATER EFFICIENCY THE JOURNAL FOR WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

A WINNING COMBINATION: Interns Try Out Careers and Utilities Try Out Interns

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WHY PIPES FAIL BOOSTING SUPPLIES WITH DESALINATION

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November/December 2015 Volume 10, Number 7

features

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10

18

23

30

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23

Non-Revenue Water

Drought-Proof Design

Why some pipes thrive and others fail

By Carol Brzozowski

A huge problem with a lot of causes, and a lot of possible solutions

By William Atkinson

Desalination offers alternative water supply

By Robert B. Sowby

30

34

40

Cleaning Up

Preparing for the Move to AMI

Pass It On

COVER STORY

An Up-Close Look at Our Pipes

New methods of monitoring contaminants and removing them from water

By Lori Lovely

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

–Benjamin Franklin

By Ed Ritchie

Internships—real work and qualified candidates for future openings

By Carol Brzozowski

Cover photo: iStock/Ceneri

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Raise The Bar

Don’t Settle for Second Best The HOBAS history of success is based on supplying products which far exceed the minimum national standards for sewer pipe. So, do not settle for products that simply meet minimum national standards.

To achieve the successful HOBAS track record, specify HOBAS performance.

HOBAS PIPE USA

281-821-2200 www.hobaspipe.com

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44

25th

FORESTER ANNIVERSARY

Editor Nancy Gross; ngross@forester.net Production Editor Kelsey Gripenstraw

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Editor’s Comments Guest Editorial: Todd Stocker Guest Editorial: Dan Pinney EPA: WaterSense Partners of the Year Spotlight Marketplace Advertiser’s Index Reader Profile

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Editor's Comments Nancy Gross

Water on the Plush Red Seats . . . and the Red Carpet

RYAN J. ALSOP Director of Government & Public Affairs Long Beach Water Department Long Beach, CA

SCOTT N. DUFF, MCIP RPP Manager, Program Coordination Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Ontario, Canada

CHRIS EARLEY

approaches to educate ratepayers about the need to maintain—assess, monitor, clean, and proactively repair or replace—water pipes and other infrastructure. When adversities like these happen, the public is likely to be outraged. At the first ripple in a world of great conveniences, many people view the water company as if it has been no more than a necessary evil, ignorant about what participating in the true cost of delivering clean tap water really means.

Value of water education tends to focus on the importance of conservation, but as more pipes burst from age and neglect, it ought to be joined together with a message about collective responsibility for the means of treatment and delivery.

Some municipalities are getting a handle on how to stay strong in all aspects; product manufacturers and software providers are supporting the effort.

Our “An Up-Close Look at Our Pipes” (pg. 10) and “Non-Revenue Water” (pg, 18) articles both discuss assessments, weaknesses, and solutions in detail.

I glimpsed of an exemplary utility when in June, as part of the American Water Works Association’s Annual Conference and Exhibition in Anaheim, CA, I toured the Mesa Water District.

Mesa Water relies on local groundwater that meets all standards, but has an amber tint due to a buried ancient redwood forest within the aquifer. The district filters out the reddish particles, encourages conservation, and notably excels at financing and transparency. They are not funded by taxes; rates are broken down into categories that directly reflect actual operational costs, including allocations for capital repair and replacement (http://www. mesawater.org/rates_fees.php). Employee pay and benefits, as well as board member compensation, is all clearly visible.

Since 2007 Mesa Water has earned a California Special Districts Association “District of Distinction” accreditation, which recognizes agencies that provide essential public services in a fiscally responsible manner. Polling of customers shows a 90% satisfaction rate. This ought to be as newsworthy as a big main break, with honors worthy of a red carpet celebration. WE

Principal Greening Urban, LLC Richmond, VA

LUIS S. GENEROSO Water Resources Manager City of San Diego Water Department San Diego, CA PHOTO: ISTOCK/ CENERI

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN the movie Easy A? It stars Emma Stone and was filmed in my town, Ojai, CA, from 2008–2009, and released in 2010. I will never forget the uncanny experience of watching Easy A with a bunch of other locals in our only movie theater, with the façade of the theater where we sat watching it in scenes before our eyes. I have to say that Ojai is rather proud of its distinctiveness and ties to Hollywood, so in one sense watching “ourselves” on the big screen was just another day of collective navel-gazing; another day in the life of Ojai. But even places with strong local character take their hits. For over a year now there has been no movie theater in town, because in July 2014 a water main broke, flooded the road, caused a sinkhole, putrefied the building’s innards, and left the 100-year-old landmark a hollowed-out shell. No more screen, stage, plush red seating, pictures of movie stars on the walls, or movies. A lawsuit is ongoing and the marquee now has a message addressing the water company followed by “We want our theater back!”

The same summer we lost our theater, a significant main break on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, at the UCLA campus, led to college students body surfing in the flows while cars were filling with water inside parking garages. NBC news reported that “Some 700 cars were damaged after a broken water main sent a geyser of water some 30 feet into the air, trapping people in underground parking garages and covering some of the best-known parts of campus in water, including the school’s famed basketball arena.”

The message of the article, “Who Pays for Damaged Cars After UCLA Water Main Break?” (http://bit. ly/1RbTaRp) was that drivers with full insurance coverage would fare well, but “anything less than comprehensive coverage and Tuesday’s water main break could turn into water torture, with months of claims and paperwork ahead . . . Officials with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power have set up a claims process as the agency knows the bills for any damaged vehicles are coming their way. But the process can take a while and should start with your own insurance company.”

I tell these stories to foster brainstorming on

NEIL S. GRIGG Professor of Civil Engineering Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO

ALEX H. JOHNSON Senior Freshwater Solutions Director The Freshwater Trust Portland, OR

GARY KLEIN Affiliated International Management LLC. Newport Beach, CA

GEORGE KUNKEL JR., P.E. Principal Kunkel Water Efficiency Consulting Philadelphia, PA

TYRONE LAFAY Water Conservation Coordinator Santa Barbara County Water Agency Santa Barbara, CA

MARY KAY MALCOLM Business Development Manager American Water Resources Fort Collins, CO

MELISSA MEEKER Executive Director WateReuse Association Alexandria, VA

JEFFREY J. MOSHER Executive Director National Water Research Institute Fountain Valley, CA

DANIEL RANSOM Water Conservation Program Manager Tucson Water Tucson, AZ

PETER P. ROGERS Professor of City Planning Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering, Harvard University Cambridge, MA

DAN STRUB Conservation Program Coordinator Water Loss Specialist City of Austin, TX

BRIAN VINCHESI President Irrigation Consulting Inc. Pepperell, MA

TRACY YOUNG Growth Technologies Research and Development Director Dow Water & Process Solutions Midland, MI

DAVID ZOLDOSKE, EDD Director Center for Irrigation Technology California State University–Fresno Fresno, CA

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3M

An Up-Close Look at Our Pipes Why some pipes thrive and others fail

By Carol Brzozowski

W

hen is it a good time to rehabilitate or repair a water pipe? Certainly, when the news crews are filming the break, the time for a proactive approach has passed.

However, there are several factors to consider when deciding whether to do a repair, retrofit, or replacement, industry experts note. They include the pipe’s condition, taking into account corrosion, wall thickness, and age. Another is its substrate: cast iron, asbestos cement, or ductile iron. Other factors are the project timeline, budget, cost to customers, and cost of delays to the traveling public during construction.

To be certain, pipe rehabilitation and replacement costs money. There are strategies to address that, notes Maury Douglas Gaston, manager of marketing services for the American Cast Iron Pipe Co., who recently completed a twoyear tour of 60 major utility firms.

Gaston, a member of the American Water Works Association’s (AWWA) A21-Ductile Iron Pipe & Fittings Committee and chairman of Subcommittee 1, which governs ductile iron pipe design and manufacturing standards, says that from a financial standpoint, “the best utilities are the ones that have small, incremental rate increases every year regardless of whether they need it or not. Regardless of how much capital improvement money they’re spending the next year, a compounding 2 or 3% rate increase every year is going to be palatable to the ratepayers and you’re going to avoid the public outcry if you have a 9 or 12% increase every five years,” he says, adding that the incremental rate increases add cash to the balance sheet and improve the bond rating.

The American Cast Iron Pipe Co. manufactures ductile iron and spiral welded steel pipe from 4-inch to 12-foot diameters. The company also manufactures valves from 2 to

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66 inches in diameter, fire hydrants, and bolted and unbolted joints that are available restrained to prevent joint separation or unrestrained if thrust is not an issue.

“Our Flex-Ring joint pipe is restrained, has five degrees joint deflection, and has proven to be very effective in horizontal directional drilling installations where a bore path is created, and then the pipe is either pre-assembled above ground and pulled through the bore path, or can be installed with the cartridge method where one 20-foot joint is assembled and pulled through,” points out Gaston.

The American Cast Iron Pipe Co. has done horizontal directional drilling installations in a variety of large diameters up to 42 inches, and in lengths as long as 1,000 feet or more for smaller diameters, says Gaston. Flex-Ring pipe also has proven to be very effective in pipe bursting applications, he adds.

The company has furnished a number of spiral-welded steel pipe projects where a larger diameter deteriorated pipe is sliplined with a slightly smaller spiral-welded pipe, and the remaining space is sometimes grouted with sand or another material.

Cast iron pipe has been used for more than 200 years in the United States, points out Gaston, adding that old cast iron pipe was not lined. “If you see a photograph of a clogged-up, rusty-looking pipe, chances are that it was installed well before 1930, because in the period between 1923 and 1930, the cast iron pipe industry began to apply a thin lining of cement inside iron pipe which prevents tuberculation—a buildup of mineral deposits inside an unlined cast iron pipe.”

Being that pre-1920 cast iron lines were not cement lined, many of them tuberculated, restricting flow. “Typically, a utility would scour out that tuberculation, flush it out, and then cement line the pipe in situ,” he adds.

Gaston says Boston engaged in an in situ cement lining program in the early 1980s, cleaning and cement-lining all cast iron pipe. The initial intent was to first replace the oldest pipes, pinpointing priorities through conducting an assessment. But that assessment revealed that many of Boston’s oldest pipes were, in fact, in some of the best conditions. Using that as an example, Gaston says he believes assessments should be mandatory before taking actions on pipes.

STUDYING BOSTON’S PIPES One of the oldest communities in the US, Boston indeed serves as a case study on how to properly assess a pipe’s condition for repair or replacement. Recently, Stephan Shea, director of engineering and design for Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC), and James Pescatore, senior project manager for CDM Smith, presented to an AWWA conference the findings of the city’s pipe assessment and resulting actions.

Boston’s water pipe system dates to 1848. The 1,000 miles of water pipe includes cast iron and steel.

System improvements were conducted as the region expanded through annexation and reclaimed land. In the 1960s, the system showed signs of needing an upgrade due to leaks, deteriorated water mains, and low fire flows.

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PHOTOS: AMERICAN CAST IRON PIPE

A 1967 study recommended all transmission mains be cleaned and cement lined as part of other enhancements. A 1986 study included new mapping, a hydraulic model, an expanded leak detection program, a hydrant replacement program, and a valve exercising program, as well as a requirement to replace or rehabilitate a minimum of 17 miles of water pipe each year for the subsequent 20 years.

The improvements resulted in a hydraulically-strong distribution system with excellent water quality and relatively few main breaks.

While examining the late 1990s trend of pipes installed in the 1950s through the 1970s breaking, it was noted that cast cement mortar lined. iron pipes from the 1950s and 1960s were Between 1950 and 1970, lesser cracking while some pipes from the early amounts of pipe were installed consist1970s were breaking from corrosion. ing mostly of cement-lined cast iron.

An approach of replacing older From 1970 to the present, cementwater pipes was somewhat simplistic. lined ductile iron pipe was installed to Pipes that should have a life of 100 years improve hydraulic capacity and renew or more were breaking long before that. the system.

It was noted that pipe walls for cast iron Samples of different-aged pipes pipe had been getting thinner over the across all neighborhoods were obtained years and that ductile iron pipe walls from ongoing construction projects to were even thinner. provide a snapshot of the overall piping In 2007, Boston initiated a comsystem condition and its chemical and prehensive study. It included a system physical characteristics. The sampling description and history, a Massachusetts program was expected to yield informaWater Resources Authority meter assess- tion about corrosion, pipe failures, and ment, and examinations of non-revenue longevity of pipes with and without water, water use and population, hydrau- cement linings. lic conditions, water quality, external corrosion, facilities information, facilities assessment, operational practices, design criteria, software and technology tools, and financial assessment.

Boston’s more than 1,000 miles of pipe, sized from 4–48 inches, and installed between 1848 and 2014, were examined.

A significant amount of the unlined cast iron pipe had been installed between 1890 and 1949; most of it was American Cast Iron Pipe Co. technical director Gene Oliver subsequently cleaned and

Of particular interest were the corrosion results, as corrosion damage can be a major driving factor in pipe failure.

Corrosion is measured by graphitization; the rates were compared to various contributing external factors such as soil types, high groundwater—particularly salt water intrusion—and the possible presence of stray direct current from Boston’s subway system.

The highest rates of pipe corrosion corresponded with fill areas in downtown Boston, the South End, south Boston, and east Boston where boundary changes involved filling in land claimed from tidal basins. The fill was not easily characterized because of the different sources ranging from landfill material to clean gravel from areas west of Boston.

While an initial supposition would be that older pipe—subjected to internal and external corrosion damage—would have a shorter service life than newer cement-lined pipe, it was found that the greater wall thickness of the older pre-1950 pipe provided more material to sacrifice to corrosion.

The city’s 12-inch diameter Class 52 ductile pipes— 40% of BWSC’s system—have

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walls that are about 0.3 inches thinner than 1908 Standard 12-inch Class C pipe.

For the 12-inch size, Class 56 ductile iron pipe has 0.12 inches more pipe wall thickness than Class 52 ductile iron pipe, which is believed to add about 90 years of life, based on the average external corrosion rate of 1.34 mils per year.

From the data collected, Class 52 ductile iron pipe was considered to have the shortest theoretical life of all of the pipe examined because its thin wall can corrode completely through sooner than other pipe materials.

The study points out that some weak points in pipe can be original manufacturing flaws. Failures often occur when mechanical forces such as internal pressure, excessive soil loads, bad backfilling, poor trenching practices, settlement, frost heaving, and direct impact by nearby excavation concentrate stresses at the weak points.

BWSC maintains a list of more than 38 years of water mains breaks from 1975 to the present day. Those breaks were examined using an

advanced statistical model, Linear Extended Yule Process, that uses multiple regression functions to develop life expectancies of assets.

The findings of average service lives: • Cement-lined ductile iron pipe installed prior to 1976: 65 years • Cement-lined ductile iron pipe installed after 1976: 85 years • Cast iron pipe with no cement lining installed between 1921 and 1949: 100 years • Cast iron pipe with factory-applied cement lining installed between 1950 and 1968: 100 years • Cast iron pipe installed between 1921 and 1949 without a cement lining but later lined in situ: 120 years • Pit cast iron pipe with no cement lining installed between 1848 and 1920: 125 years • Pit cast iron pipe installed without a cement lining between 1848 and 1920 and later lined in situ: 145 years The service life data was input into a

KANEW model that takes into account the install date for the all of the various pipes in the system and uses the service life curves to predict when particular classes of pipe will need to be retired from service. The model was utilized to predict aggregate long-term replacement and rehabilitation needs for the BWSC distribution system.

The KANEW model was used to develop a series of “what if ” scenarios aimed at leveling out the year-to-year renewal volume. The final result was a recommendation of 11 miles of pipe renewal per year to sustain the system in the long run, a considerable reduction from BWSC’s prior goal of replacing or rehabilitating 17 miles of pipe per year.

It is noted that the KANEW model should be run at five-year intervals after the inclusion of new information for pipe breaks, pipe replacements, and pipe and soils sampling.

The evaluation enabled the application of a risk-based assessment methodology to determine the long-term replacement and rehabilitation needs

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PHOTOS: KRAUSZ USA

A night installation using HYMAX coupling

for each pipe in the distribution system. The risk framework is derived from Asset Management principles, which consider “risk” to be the product of the probability of an event, such as a water main failure, and its consequences, such as a critical customer losing water service or a major hospital complex being flooded.

This computer based analysis reviewed the pipe break related data and used the statistical LEYP model to correlate breaks with spatial GIS information about corrosive soils, groundwater, fill areas, and proximity to rail lines that might influence the probability of pipe failure.

Additional information linked to specific mains was developed using the GIS and the hydraulic model. The GIS spatial analysis revealed the sensitive facilities and areas in the city where a pipe failure would have the greatest consequences.

The hydraulic model assessed which mains were the most hydraulically critical regarding potential failure and service interruption.

The Annual Rehabilitation Planning (ARP) model weighs and ranks prior risk data to generate prioritized groupings of pipe segments that could be used to more strategically spend capital funds and make better informed infrastructure renewal decisions, augmented by engineering review, for pipe rehabilitation and replacement programs for the subsequent five years.

A second objective was to provide groups of pipe assets to select from over the subsequent 20 years. A 36-inch transmission main in an area of critical concern will carry a high ranking but a low probability of breaking. As such, that and similar pipes could be monitored for leakage or pipe wall corrosion as a precaution.

The process serves the long-term goals of reducing distribution system risk, maintaining existing low failure rates, and creating a sustainable, long-term rehabilitation and replacement strategy that minimizes the lifecycle cost of renewal of distribution system infrastructure.

As a result of the study, the BWSC created several action steps, including moving to the use of 56 ductile iron pipe to significantly increase the life of the pipe; poly-wrapping all new pipe in areas with poor soils or high groundwater; replacing or rehabilitating a minimum of 11 miles of pipe per year; using the ARP model as a guide to selection of pipes for replacement; collecting and analyzing pipe and soils samples each year; and rerunning the software using new main break and pipe analyses data.

Through renewal and replacement efforts, the BWSC system is now comprised of about 455 miles of cement-lined ductile iron pipe, 538 miles of cast iron pipe, and about 11 miles of steel mains; the remainder is comprised of miscellaneous materials.

CONDITION ASSESSMENTS In determining whether to repair or replace a pipe, contractors focus on its structural integrity. “If the pipe wall is in good condition and there are simply joint or tuberculation problems because it was not cement-lined but the structural integrity of the pipe remains in place, that’s a perfect candidate for rehabilitation,” notes Gaston.

Because budgets are tight “there’s nothing like a preventative maintenance program,” says Gaston, adding a utility should aim for a condition assessment every 10–15 years.

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Above: An installation of HYMAX coupling in Haines City, FL; Left: HYMAX VERSA

Although a valve and a hydrant exercise maintenance program is not directly related to rehabilitation, when it’s being conducted in a particular area near a pipe network, there is an opportunity to do a condition assessment, points out Gaston.

The most cost-efficient approach is predicated on a number of factors, says Gaston: “Is it in an urban environment? Is it in a rural environment? Is it small diameter? Is it large diameter? What is the original pipe material made of?”

He points out that in a Houston project, a trenchless rehabilitation was desirable because of the economic impact of tearing up the streets in a particular commercial neighborhood. In another project in North Carolina, pipe-bursting was appropriate because the cast iron pipe could be broken, says Gaston.

“There are many aspects to cement pipe in the ground of which the public is unaware,” says Gaston. “There is some thought that asbestos is dangerous only if it is airborne and not waterborne, but nonetheless, there are millions of feet of asbestos pipes still delivering water to people. It can easily be broken with a pipe-bursting application.”

Gaston says he believes ductile iron pipe would be an “excellent” rehab/replace option for asbestos cement pipe.

“PVC pipe is known to suffer from fatigue in particular force mains where the pumps turn on and off,” he says. “If that becomes an issue, since PVC can be broken by pulling something through it, then pipe bursting would be good for that with ductile iron pipe.”

If there are corrosive soils, the ductile iron pipe needs to

be wrapped in polyethylene encasement, adds Gaston. His company offers V-Bio, an enhancement and improvement polyethylene encasement. The product has a chemical infused on the inside of the polyethylene; the chemical kills germs and bacteria that can set up a period of brief initial corrosion for the first six months or so of the pipe’s installation, before the fresh supply of oxygen is depleted.

“This V-Bio product shuts all that down—the corrosion monitoring and graph is just a flat line from day one,” says Gaston. “We also offer zinc-coated iron pipe with an asphaltic top coat if areas have corrosive soils. Having said all that, if you have corrosive soils and you put zinc-coated iron pipe and encase it in polyethylene, you’re going to eliminate your external corrosion risk.”

Many utilities—particularly those with cast and ductile iron pipe—are planning for a 100-year life, “and that’s a reasonable expectation for cast and ductile iron pipe,” says Gaston.

“AWWA’s Buried No Longer report would substantiate a 100-year life for iron pipe,” he adds. “With that in mind, a lot of utilities target a 1% replacement of their system each year, which would mean they could replace the entire system every 100 years.”

Ductile iron pipe has been around for so long and pipe rehabilitation and condition assessment has come to the forefront so recently that many times, ductile iron pipe is not thought of as a rehabilitation or replacement option, says Gaston.

“Ductile iron pipe and cast iron has been around for more than 150 years. Its robustness with respect to [being] cleaned and in situ lined, and joints being replaced if they’re a problem, should not be overlooked as a replacement pipe,” he says.

“People tend to think that newer is better and that’s not always the case,” he adds. “Asbestos cement pipe came and went over a 20-year period of time, partly in response to the metal shortage in World War II. Pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe was developed in the 1940s because it used less steel than the equivalent amount of iron in cast iron pipe. The prestressed concrete cylinder folks thought that it was going to be a temporary product that would be phased out when the war was over and metals were available again, but it held on.”

Gaston says many pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipelines have been slip-lined with slightly smaller spiral-welded steel pipe.

COUPLING AND GROUND MOVEMENT Krausz USA—which designs and manufactures coupling and repair clamp solutions for water and wastewater applications worldwide—recently launched its HYMAX VERSA coupling, an all-in-one product to stab-fit two separate pipes of same or differing materials and diameters, or wrap around the pipe’s damaged section.

It is designed to offer a range of options for installers to make repairs quickly and easily under different circumstances and conditions.

Case in point: in situations where cutting pipe involves adhering to stringent environmental precautions, HYMAX VERSA’s installation time is intended to be a fraction of that

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“You now have a device that not only repairs the break, but can be a permanent repair, allowing the pipe to continue to move.”

DIAMOND PLASTICS

with standard repair techniques, since the pipe can be wrapped in one step without cutting away damaged pipe.

“With asbestos cement pipe, that it a key issue,” says Tom Gwynn, president of Krausz USA. “Once it has been cut, it creates a hazardous material site for any municipality that has to deal with it.

Both the time and the repair costs start going up many times over.”

It also is useful in situations where pipes are not completely round and don’t easily fit into a standard coupling.

“We know it’s unconventional to think of a coupling that can be either stab-fitted or wrapped around pipe,” concedes Gwynn. “Regardless of how HYMAX VERSA is applied, however, it works similarly to our flagship HYMAX coupling, which has been used in more than one million installations across North America. This new product uses the same pressure-assisted gasket as in the HYMAX and allows for dynamic deflection. It also features heavy-duty construction to endure the most severe conditions.”

HYMAX VERSA’s parts are 100% stainless steel. Its weld-free construction is designed to resist corrosion since welded areas of couplings are often where corrosion starts. Additionally, the

54-inch pipe at a Grand Island, NE, plant pipeyard

coupling’s bolts go through a molecular anti-galling process that embeds them with zinc to help minimize oxidization.

These features make HYMAX VERSA an ideal coupling in corrosive ground conditions or “hot soil”.

HYMAX VERSA’s hydraulic pressure-assisted gasket inflates with increasing water pressure, allowing for dynamic deflection of up to three degrees on each side and reducing the risk of future pipe damage due to ground shifts and temperature changes.

HYMAX VERSA has an extra-wide tolerance of up to 1.3 inches and can take the place of multiple repair products. Additionally, HYMAX VERSA features top-facing bolts and lightweight construction.

“When it comes to repairing pipes, installers want a solution that stands the test of time and can be applied quickly,” says Gwynn. “HYMAX VERSA offers both. Its versatility means that it’s easier and faster to repair pipes and return operations to normal.”

Gwynn points out there are inherent dangers in working in a trench in the ground repairing a pipe. “Being down there the minimal amount of time possible is important, so speed and simplicity become very important,” he says.

Gwynn also mentions that the ground is in constant movement, such as

between summer and winter. “It’s one of those things that puts stresses and forces on pipes that eventually cause them to fail, and it’s unavoidable,” he says. “Most pipe being rigid in nature, there’s a reason why a pipe breaks where it does.

It’s usually because the ground is moving in such a way that the point on the pipe is experiencing stresses higher than the rest of the pipe.”

Putting a flexible repair device on the break allows the pipe to continue to move as the ground moves, says Gwynn. “You now have a device that not only repairs the break, but can be a permanent repair, allowing the pipe to continue to move. And you’re not back digging it up to replace it or put another one on another 5 or 10 feet further down because now the point that’s been repaired is rigid and inflexible.”

LINING For those whose objective is corrosion protection or tuberculation prevention, a pipe liner such as 3M Scotchkote Pipe Renewal Liner 2400 can quickly get the pipe back in service, notes Sunidh Jani, marketing development manager for 3M Infrastructure.

“If upon examination the pipe is also showing signs of wear and tear such as pin holes and cracks, Scotchkote Liner 2400 also extends the life of

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the pipe and provides some structural enhancement,” adds Jani. “However, if a pipe is showing signs of major degradation, it may be time to replace it.”

Scotchkote Liner 2400 from 3M is designed to allow water pipes to be cleaned and lined and returned to service much quicker and with less disruption than pipe replacement, says Jani.

“Further, cleaning certain types of pipes and then lining them with Scotchkote Liner 2400 can help improve water quality and flow,” adds Jani. Scotchkote Liner 2400 has been applied in ferrous and cement pipes in the United States and other sites around the world.

The frequency with which a system should be evaluated for problems is sitespecific, explains Jani. While everyone understands the need to maintain water infrastructure, no one likes to impose or receive a rate increase, points out Jani.

“Products like liners help solve an immediate need and allow funds to be used for other projects,” says Jani.

“Liners can save a utility’s resources as they help reduce excavation and limit community disruption. By extending the life of the existing pipe, a utility stretches its resources so money can be spent on more areas to meet the greatest number of needs.”

QUESTIONS AND ASSESSMENTS When New Jersey American Water managers look at the water pipe infrastructure to determine whether there is a need for rehabilitation or replacement, several factors are considered, says Mike Wolan, engineering manager at Project Delivery North.

“Some common factors that are considered include the age of the pipe, pipe material, leak history, flow characteristics, pipe integrity, potential disruption to customers, local conditions, and future needs,” he says.

Since no two projects are identical, ascertaining whether a pipe should be repaired or replaced depends on local conditions, says Wolan.

“The best approach is to ask some basic questions for every project,” he says, giving these examples: “Can the longevity of the existing pipe be extended? How difficult will it be to install new or rehabilitate the existing?

Will there be any future maintenance

concerns? What is the cost and value comparison between the different methodologies? Will water quality or hydraulic performance be improved?

What environmental and social factors exist that are important or impact our customers?”

New Jersey American Water continuously monitors its system on a daily basis. Critical or emergency projects are accelerated based upon this gathering of information, says Wolan.

“Routine projects are prioritized using a pipeline prioritization model,” he says. “This model provides individual scoring and allows selection of projects with greatest need for construction first.”

Larry Schmidt, technical services engineer for Diamond Plastics Corp., says the company offers PVC pipe that is designed to not corrode or require maintenance of cathodic protection devices to prevent it from corroding.

In the arid Southwest, pipe assessment management is especially critical in saving water before it is lost.

Charles Scott, the engineering project manager of the asset management division of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, an end user of Diamond Plastics pipe, says the assessment task involves assessing a pipe’s condition, break history, the consequence of failure, and coordination of road improvement projects at the same time.

The system is relatively young—the average age of underground pipe is 21–22 years old—so the division doesn’t have a “sense of urgency” to replace a fixed number of miles of pipe per year, says Scott.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District system entails some 4,500 miles of pipe of six inches and larger, not including service laterals. The system is a combination of 60% PVC; 30% asbestos cement; and the remainder is steel, either cement mortar lined or concrete lined.

Scott says the Las Vegas Valley Water District started doing condition assessment eight years ago on small diameter asbestos concrete pipe. “The assessment technology works well,” he says. “The only problem is you can’t really assess the pipes that have been repaired numerous times because they have a number of clamps on them, so

consequently, we’re only assessing pipe that hasn’t broken. We’re recommending areas to be replaced, sometimes in areas that hadn’t broken.

“You can’t get focused just on one part of the picture, which is only ‘assess and address’—you need to take a look at the bigger picture. You have to look at break history and a variety of other factors when selecting areas for rehabilitation.”

In doing pipe rehabilitation or replacement work, utilities such as the Las Vegas Valley Water District and New Jersey American Water typically use in-house resources. “We outsource some of the things we don’t have expertise in, such as statistical analysis,” says Scott.

“We also do condition assessments in-house, but typically for the larger pipelines, we’ll outsource that.”

New Jersey American Water typically uses in-house resources to determine individual needs but will utilize outside consultants when appropriate.

Whether pipe work is done inhouse or outsourced depends on the utility’s size and expertise.

“The options available have increased as the industry has matured,” notes Jani. “Now you can customize the solution to your situation. There are many good suppliers who offer ongoing, continual monitoring. So the final solution might include in-house staff, contractors, or an outsourced supplier or any combination of these.”

More sophisticated utilities might have in-house capability, says Gaston.

“If I were a utility director, I would not invest my resources in condition assessment equipment and personnel; I’d outsource it to the experts,” he says.

“Let them come in and do it and leave and not be burdened with that ongoing overhead. That seems to be the better business model today.” WE Frequent contributor Carol Brzozowski specializes in topics related to water resource management and technology.

for related articles: www.waterefficiency.net

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NonRevenue Water A huge problem with a lot of causes, and a lot of possible solutions

By William Atkinson

PHOTOS: AQUARIUS SPECTRUM

N

on-revenue water (NRW) is the difference between the amount of water that is produced by a water utility for consumption/use, and the amount of water that is actually billed to customers.

Often, people fail to put the seriousness of the nonrevenue water problem for water utilities into perspective. Jeff Lipton, director of marketing for WaterSmart, helps to provide some insight. Based on his estimates that the average water utility loses about 20% of its water to NRW: “Imagine any other business in the world that would lose one-fifth of all its product to ‘breakage,’” he says.

NRW is a huge and costly problem—for utilities in the US and around the world. According to Ivan Nazzaretto, product manager for Smart Water Software with Schneider Electric, NRW is one of the most important sustainability issues in the water industry. It leads to avoidable operational expenditures (mainly energy), reducing water availability in resource-scarce areas, and increasing or diverting capital expenditures to find additional water sources to satisfy new or unmet customer demand.

“Sensitivity to water loss has not always been directly

Sensor on hydrant

proportional to the magnitude of the problem,” says Nazzaretto. “Traditionally, water-rich geographies used to have a low perception of the direct costs and the impact of water loss on the environment. However, this attitude is rapidly changing in many countries as more stringent regulations are being applied, and customers and shareholders are acting as watchdogs of the efficiency of the water industry.”

How much of a problem is NRW globally? According to Zeev Efrat, CEO of Aquarius-Spectrum: “The average gap [between water produced and water properly paid for] ranges between 25 and 50% of the total water distributed globally,” he says.

And, according to one report, The Drivers of Non-Revenue Water: How Effective Are Non-Revenue Water Reduction Pro-

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iQuarius uses acoustic correlation technology to enable easy surveying, leak detection, and pinpointing..

grams? published by the World Bank Group in August 2014, the total cost to water utilities caused by NRW on a worldwide basis is estimated to be $141 billion per year.

While one might imagine that NRW is more of an international rather than domestic problem, because of the availability of advanced technology in the US and often primitive water systems in other countries, NRW is also a serious problem stateside. “In 2007, the EPA estimated the amount of water lost in the US from distribution systems was 1.7 trillion gallons per year, with a national cost of $2.6 billion per year,” says Nazzaretto. “And, according to the American Water Works Association [AWWA], between five and ten billion kWh of power generated in the US in 2009 was consumed in the treating and pumping of water that was either leaked or not paid for by customers.”

In 2013, EPA estimated that the US “will need to spend over $200 billion on water systems over the next 20 years to upgrade transmission and distribution systems. Of this amount, $97 billion (almost half) is estimated to be needed for water loss control.”

In perspective: “NRW is a massive problem for water utilities in the US and around the world,” says WaterSmart’s Lipton. “It is estimated at an average of 20% of all supply production—treatment and conveyance. Ten percent NRW levels are considered well within the bounds of good water management, but certain systems see losses of 30% and above.”

costly for most water utilities. These are losses that result from leakages from various parts of the distribution system, as well as overflows at utility storage tanks. Such losses can be caused by ineffective operations and maintenance, the absence of leakage control programs, and poor quality or aging underground assets. Water utilities may have hundreds or even thousands of miles of mains, so detecting where leaks are located in the first place can be a major challenge.

“These are real losses of water—volumes lost through all types of leaks, bursts, and overflow on mains, service reservoirs and service connections, up to the point of customer metering,” says Schneider Electric’s Nazzaretto.

According to Aquarius-Spectrum’s Efrat, utilities are losing between 10 and 40% of their treated water due to leaks. “Very often, these leaks are gradually developing underground without being visible, until pipes burst,” he says. “The reasons are pipe aging, worn-out infrastructure, and improper maintenance.”

As Efrat sees it, the best way for utilities to reduce water loss as a result of leaks is to carry out continuous monitoring in order to assess the condition of the pipes in each area, and manage the maintenance accordingly. “However, because some of the methods to do so are relatively complex and require skilled labor and large investments, many utilities are not able to utilize this process,” he says.

While catastrophic main breaks are of significant concern to water utilities when it comes to physical losses, they are not the only problem, according to Myles Meehan, senior vice

NRW CAUSES NRW causes are generally categorized into three areas. They are, in order of significance: physical losses (leaks), commercial losses (meter and paperwork problems), and “everything else.”

Physical Losses Physical losses are, by far, the most common, widespread, and

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HOMESERVE

president of public relations for HomeServe. “A hole the size of a dime was recently linked to a leak that wasted 1.4 million gallons of drinking water every month in Minnesota,” he says.

According to WaterSmart’s Lipton, a 2013 infrastructure report (http:// bit.ly/1zGf7hQ) by the American Society of Civil Engineers, estimated that US water distribution networks experience 240,000 main breaks each year, due to dramatic underinvestment. Cost estimates on infrastructure replacement range from $1 trillion (http://bit.ly/19PMur1) to nearly $5 trillion (http:// Water line bit.ly/1iMGYuT) over the repair next 20 years.

“One of the reasons our water infrastructure is in such disrepair is that water is too registering accurate usage, of course, is inexpensive,” says Lipton. “Most water a major challenge. Identifying instances systems can’t afford to invest in upgradof theft can also be difficult. Schneider ing distribution systems due to a lack of Electric’s Nazzaretto refers to these as revenue. In some cases, operating costs “apparent losses, which include unauexceed water revenues, particularly in thorized consumption and metering times of drought that lead to greater inaccuracies,” he says. conservation and reduced revenue.” This WaterSmart’s Lipton agrees with the leaves no reserves for long-term capital assessment. “A small portion of NRW investments. By pricing water at the is due to bad water meters, or gradumarginal cost of procuring additional ally declining accuracy of consumpsupply (including the cost of infrastruction telemetry, where the utility can’t ture rehabilitation), utilities would be measure or charge for the water being able to create more sustainable water consumed,” he says. “Another cause is systems, improve network efficiency, and outright theft. However, these are secensure high quality and reliable service. ondary causes. The main culprit, by an “This means that everyone needs to pay order of magnitude, is system leaks.” more for water,” says Lipton. “Without a financial restructuring of how we run “Everything Else” our water systems, including a signifiPurposely unbilled (but still authorized) cant reduction in the amount of subsiwater use is another cause of NRW. dies provided to cities and agricultural This can include water that is being interests, we will see increased NRW used by the utility itself, water that is levels, more main breaks, and more boil used for firefighting, water that is proorders due to contamination.” vided free of charge to certain groups, and situations in which utilities cover Commercial Losses part of the cost of lost water resulting Commercial losses are those that are from leaks on homeowners’ or busithe result of customer meter underness owners’ properties that should registration, data handling, or billotherwise be billed to those customers ing errors—and even theft of water. (discussed in more detail later).

Assessing each meter to make sure it is While “Everything Else” is, indeed,

a partial contributor to NRW, physical losses and commercial losses, according to Nazzaretto, are the two major sources of NRW. “One reason is that, for a lot of water utilities, their pipes and water meters— instead of being treated as assets to be managed during their entire lifecycle— often suffer the ‘install and forget’ practice,” he says.

“The fact that most pipelines were installed before the era of digitization does not help. In sum, technical difficulties in assessing the conditions of pipelines and spotting problems, as well as indifference, are usually the main causes of high levels of NRW.” NRW SOLUTIONS How can and should water utilities address the problem of NRW? The first step, for better or worse, is usually also the most difficult, timeconsuming, and expensive—identifying where, when, why, and how much water is being “lost.”

One way to do this is to divide the utility’s water distribution system into district metered areas (DMAs). This involves dividing the water district into small, well-defined segments and then installing flow meters at specific locations in each DMA. This allows the utility to monitor water flows in each DMA and thus isolate specific areas where leaks or other losses (e.g.: inaccurate meter readings, theft, etc.) may be occurring. Initiatives designed to address these losses can then be targeted to the DMAs that are registering the greatest losses first.

Once this information has been collected, the next step is not necessarily to create and implement strategies to reduce the losses. Rather, it is to determine if it is worth the time, effort, and cost to address each specific loss. That is, it does not make sense to address all NRW problems; cost must be taken into consideration. The August 2014 World Bank Group report cited earlier noted that “an important conclusion is that the

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VALOR WATER

design of non-revenue water reduction programs should study the main drivers of non-revenue water to provide utility managers with a better understanding of what can be achieved in terms of nonrevenue water reduction and whether the benefits of these reductions exceed their costs.”

Solutions can comprise a number of options. One is a comprehensive program. Others are programs that focus specifically on leaks—or on meters.

Comprehensive Solutions Many solutions are available in the market to address NRW. “However, so far, most of them focus exclusively on leak detection or smart metering,” says Schneider Electric’s Nazzaretto.

“Schneider Electric, on the contrary, provides solutions for comprehensive leakage management, following a holistic approach, and by interconnecting all utility departments around this issue, managing the team and resources, presenting performance results as needed by each department, and providing support to the decision-making process to efficiently manage the water distribution network.”

Working from the principal that virtually all corporate information technology (IT) systems and field sensors and devices in the water network can contribute to advanced leakage management, Schneider Electric provides software, sensors, communications, automation, and controls. The core of the company’s offering is software that is specifically designed for water network operators and leakage practitioners.

One of these is WMS Water Loss.

“WMS Water Loss is our leakage management system, which provides

automatic leakage calculation and realtime alarming for early warning,” says Nazzaretto. It also supports the International Water Association’s four pillars for water loss reduction—active leakage control, pressure management, speed and quality of repairs, and pipeline and asset management—embedding a business intelligence platform for continuous performance monitoring.

“It provides reliable NRW calculations, identifies critical geographic zones and new events, helps manage leak detection teams, and monitors leak repair activities,” he says. “This shortens action times and improves overall efficiency.”

Another is Aquis. “Aquis is our specialty software for online water network optimization, powered by an advanced hydraulic model engine,” says Nazzaretto. It provides specific tools for NRW management, including pressure management (dynamic pump scheduling and automatic feed-forward set-points of pressure-regulating valves), and leak localization. By applying an advanced real-time pressure management system, utilities can reduce leakage levels and new burst occurrences, thus reducing energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and leak repair and detection costs.

“Overall, our solutions can provide up to 20% water loss and operating cost reductions, plus significant time savings in calculation, regulatory reporting, and planning tasks,” says Nazzaretto.

WaterSmart also offers a comprehensive solution. “We offer water utilities a customer engagement and data analytics platform that drives persistent improvements in water use efficiency, using behavioral cues to compare household usage with similar residents,” says Lipton. “This approach has been proven to reduce water consumption by an average of 5%.” By reducing demand at the customer end, water utilities can improve NRW levels as a result of less throughput (and thus less loss), as well as a reduction in system pressure, which further reduces loss levels. “If a utility can reduce customer demand in a controlled manner by 5%, then a 20% NRW level becomes a 19% NRW level,” he says.

Widely available software for the industry as a whole is also useful.

In recent years, new emphases from

AWWA, EPA, and state-level agencies have brought about tools related to conducting water audits to determine levels of water losses. Since it was introduced in 2008, the AWWA Free Water Audit Software, which is based on best practices from the International Water Association (www.iwa-network.org), has been used by over 500 utilities to conduct audits.

Leak (Physical Loss) Solutions Aquarius-Spectrum specializes in advanced monitoring solutions for urban water networks’ leak detection and maintenance. “The technology provides a daily vision of the monitored water network,” says Efrat. “In addition, since NRW is an outcome of the deterioration of the pipes, a fixed monitoring system enables the utility to make better decisions about pipe replacement. This is the most cost-effective way to reduce and better use limited budgets for pipe replacement programs.”

Aquarius-Spectrum has two product lines that enable water pipes to become Internet-monitored equipment.

One is the AQS-SYS fixed-sensor monitoring solution, which is based on acoustic daily monitoring, using fixed all-time correlating sensors. “One benefit is the ability to locate pipe leaks from a very initial stage, when they are still very small,” says Efrat. “As an example, more than two thousand sensors are operating in four cities in Israel, monitoring more than 1,000 kilometers of water pipes daily. Due to system alerts, over 100 leaks were found and repaired.”

The other Aquarius-Spectrum offering is the iQuarius, which is a set of smartphone tools enabling easy surveying, leak detection, and pinpointing, using new acoustic correlation technology. “The technology provides fast, efficient and accurate surveying and pinpointing of water leaks,” says Efrat.

While locating and repairing leaks in water mains and other major sections of pipe networks is important to reducing NRW, locating and repairing leaks on customer property is also important.

“Similar to the infrastructure challenges that municipalities and utilities face in the public right of way, homeowners face leakage issues on service lines and plumbing systems in the home,”

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says HomeServe’s Meehan. “To enable the reduction of significant volumes of NRW and general water loss, leak awareness and prompt repair are key.”

Water utilities that partner with HomeServe provide a turnkey program for their homeowner customers that offers year-round, around-the-clock service support from qualified local technicians who can identify the source and repair pipe leaks to minimize water loss. “This speeds up the repair process from identification to completion, shaving days off the process and saving significant water loss,” says Meehan. “In California, for example, where water conservation is a top priority, HomeServe’s service plans have saved an estimated 690 million gallons of water by facilitating service line repairs more quickly for homeowners.”

However, if the leaks are on customer property, how does this help water utilities address the NRW problem, since, it would seem, customers would be the ones responsible for paying for the water lost on their property? Two ways, according to Miles, depending on the location of the water utility.

“In many areas of the country, nearly all of the northern half, the water meter is located inside the home, typically in the basement, because these are areas prone to freezing temperatures and deeper frost lines,” says Meehan.

“In these areas, the service line from the water utility’s connection at the street/ property line to the home is the homeowner’s responsibility. However, leaks on this line represent NRW for the water utility, because it is before the meter.”

In more temperate climates, where the meter is located at the street/property line, leaks occurring after the meter on the customer-owned service line (or inside the home) are the homeowner’s responsibility. “Leaks on this line can create significant water bills for the homeowner,” says Meehan. “However, often, the water utility will split the cost of this bill with the customer, which is

for related articles: www.waterefficiency.net

then lost revenue to the water utility, and thus NRW.” Meter (Commercial Loss) Solutions One company that provides technology to address meter-related NRW problems is Valor Water Analytics. Valor provides software that analyzes customer data and meter data. It can track all of the anomalies on a meter, even beyond NRW, to discover what are called “non-revenueperforming meters.” This involves tracking everything that can be going wrong with a meter such as leaks, broken meters, meter tampering, etc., so that utilities can collect the right amount of revenue for any given meter. “We run the algorithms to flag these meters and present them back to the utility for action,” says Christine Boyle, Ph.D., founder and president. “Based on results from the different utilities we work with around the country, we have found that, on average, 2.3% of meters have some type of revenue-related problem.”

Some of the reasons for “nonrevenue-performing meters” are that the meters have become old, are nearing the end of their service lives, and are thus no longer functioning properly. However, according to Dr. Boyle, there can also be problems with new meters. “New meters are much more technically-complex, such as reporting via antenna or cellular network,” she says. This complex technology doesn’t always work properly. In addition, information from the meters is reported electronically to different departments in the utility, which can lead to data errors.

NRW EFFORTS IN ACTION One utility with an extremely effective NRW program is the City of Asheville, NC, Water Resources. “Our NRW had not really been a priority for a number of years prior to 2012,” says Ivan Thomas, operations manager. “We had reporting and tracking methods in place, but overall NRW was steadily increasing.”

Although water is plentiful in the region, the utility became aware that surrounding states were instituting mandatory auditing and state-regulated reporting. “Instead of waiting for our state to implement such measures, we thought it to be good practice to implement the program in our system

proactively,” says Thomas. “With the higher pressures and mountainous terrain, coupled with high water loss numbers, what better place to start a more detailed practice for NRW?” The utility has instituted a number of effective strategies since 2012. “First, employee engagement and education of NRW are a must,” he says. “We created several teams that focus on different aspects of NRW, for a total team focus.”

In addition, a robust approach to proactive leak detection and a smart approach to testing, replacing, and repairing meters are two other initiatives that Thomas says have been “heavy hitters” for the utility.

“We are also turning over old billing and meter records, in addition to searching unmetered fire lines for NRW,” he says. “Altogether, the programs, in addition to a high level of communication between the teams, have made the programs successful to date.”

How successful? Overall, the utility has been able to reduce its water loss by 10%, from six million gallons per day to 5.3 million gallons per day, since implementing its initiatives. “The overall cost savings, according to our last audit, is somewhere in the one million dollar range annually,” says Thomas.

The unintended benefits of taking a proactive approach have been significant as well, according to Thomas. “More revenue from accurate meters and fewer claims for property damage due to proactive leak detection have been nice additions to the list of benefits from the program,” he says.

Other smaller side projects have also proven successful. “We recently completed an audit of all of our city, county, and volunteer fire departments that use city water to protect our community,” he says. The audit was an opportunity to ensure that all 20-plus stations were reporting water that is pulled from hydrants, to make sure it is tracked and reported in a consistent manner. “In addition, we corrected billing inconsistencies to create a more streamlined approach to water that is not being used for firefighter training and firefighting in general,” he says. WE William Atkinson specializes in topics related to utilities and infrastructure.

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CARLSBAD

Drought-Proof Design Desalination offers alternative water supply

By Robert B. Sowby

P

erhaps no one captured the vision as well as John F. Kennedy.

“If we could ever competitively, at a cheap rate, get freshwater from saltwater,” he said in a 1961 press conference, “it would be in the long-range interests of humanity, which would really dwarf any other scientific accomplishments. I am hopeful that we will intensify our efforts in that area.”

Kennedy’s vision for reliable, economical water supplies was soon eclipsed by his other calls to action, most notably his Moon Speech the following autumn, but now, more than 50 years later, the world is entering a new age of

water—one to be driven by desalination technology on account of great need.

Though water is abundant on Earth, most of it is unsuitable for human use. Some 97% is saltwater in the oceans, and of the remaining freshwater, over two-thirds, is frozen in glaciers and ice caps. Groundwater and surface water—the primary sources for municipal and industrial supply—make up less than 1% of Earth’s water. The most accessible and economical freshwater sources have already been developed, especially in water-scarce areas.

Climate change and growing demands necessitate novel solutions.

Enter desalination. Having

advanced tremendously in recent years, desalination—the process of transforming saline water to clean, drinkable water by removing salts—offers new alternatives. It expands the set of potential sources to include seawater, brackish groundwater, and other saline or contaminated water. Rather than be limited to a sliver of Earth’s alreadystressed freshwater, water suppliers can use desalination to tap larger and more reliable sources.

“Desalination is one of several tools communities can use in appropriate circumstances to gain greater water security,” says Felicia Marcus, California Water Board Chair, in a news release.

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West reverse osmosis permeate collection tubing

To be sure, desalination is no panacea. In most cases, it is a desperate last option. The process is energy intensive, requires special materials to handle corrosive outcomes of water chemistry, and has certain environmental impacts that must be weighed carefully. Some are concerned that desalination only encourages growth and development when wise resource management is needed most. Still, many are including desalination as part of a strategic water portfolio— a diverse set of water assets that collectively lowers risk and increases reliability.

“Desalination is typically employed when there is water scarcity,” says Ronan McGovern, a researcher at MIT’s Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy. “In such scenarios, the [alternatives] include pumping water over long distances, recycling wastewater, and increasing water conservation. There is no obvious winner as all have benefits and drawbacks. Water

“There is no obvious winner as all have benefits and drawbacks.

Water conservation measures can be politically difficult. ”

conservation measures can be politically difficult. Wastewater recycling is cost effective, but in periods of drought there is less wastewater to recycle. Pumping over long distances may require pipes to be laid in environmentally sensitive locations.” These constraints may leave desalination the most viable option.

“The benefits are that it creates a new source of water that is robust to drought, may be more environmentally acceptable than pumping water from afar, and may be more politically acceptable than water conservation,” says McGovern.

Almost all water has some salinity. Freshwater is defined as having a salt content, measured as total dissolved solids (TDS), of less than 0.05% (500 mg per L) by mass. Brackish water is saltier than freshwater but less salty than seawater, ranging from 0.05–3% (500–30,000 mg per L) TDS. Brackish water is found at freshwater–seawater interfaces such as estuaries and in many aquifers in the southwest United States, especially in Texas and New Mexico. Saline water ranges from 3–5% (30,000–50,000 mg per L) TDS and includes seawater with a typical salinity of 3.5% (35,000 mg per L). Water with salt concentrations over 5% (50,000 mg per L) TDS is called brine. Salinity in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, for example, ranges from 5–27% (50,000–270,000 mg per L) depending on the lake’s level. The higher the salinity, the more effort is required to desalinate.

About 16,000 desalination plants of various sizes operate around the world. Output has tripled since 2000, and con-

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struction is accelerating while technology improves. Global capacity in 2013 was estimated at 21.1 billion gallons per day, and 300 million people in 150 countries rely on desalinated water for some or all their daily needs, according to the International Desalination Association. Saudi Arabia is the largest desalinator, accounting for 17% of global desalination output, followed by the United Arab Emirates and the United States, which each make up 13%. Most desalination in the United States is for inland brackish groundwater, though seawater desalination will be the main source of desalination growth.

TECHNOLOGIES At least a dozen different desalination technologies exist.

Distillation was the first—used thousands of years ago, and the most common through the 1990s. The process involves evaporating water by thermal or vacuum methods, thereby leaving solids behind, and condensing the desalted vapor into liquid form. Multi-stage flash, multiple-effect distillation, vapor distillation, and vapor compression are examples of such processes. Thermal distillation produces about half of all desalinated water in the world, but is being outpaced by more efficient methods.

Electrodialysis reversal (EDR) arose in the 1960s. During EDR, feed water passes through an electric field. Dissolved positive and negative ions (e.g., sodium and chloride) migrate through a stack of alternating ion-exchange membranes until completely separated from the water. Periodically, the direction of ion flow is reversed by switching the polarity of the applied electric current. While water does not pass through the membranes, EDR effectively removes a variety of constituents. Not all feed water can be converted to permeate, or water cleaned of most dissolved solids; some water is needed to dilute and flush the brine before discharge. Recovery from EDR can exceed 90% depending on the water chemistry.

An EDR facility in Magna, UT, treats slightly saline groundwater that is also contaminated with arsenic and perchlorates. The system, engineered by GE, produces 6 million gallons per day with an 85% recovery rate and a salinity reduction of 70%.

Reverse osmosis (RO) is the most common desalination technique today. Though not new—it was developed in the 1960s—the technology has improved in recent years to the point of being competitive with other options.

In RO, feed water is driven under high pressure through a semi-permeable membrane that separates salt and water. The membrane pores allow only water molecules to pass through while holding back larger salts, minerals, and other solids.

The permeate is collected; the rejected brine, or concentrate, is routed through the next membrane unit to produce more permeate or is collected and discharged.

RO membranes are manufactured in sheets, which are wrapped around a collector tube to produce a cylindrical unit a few feet long. Feed water travels between the membrane layers along the cylinder, and the permeate migrates in a spiral direction to the core collector tube. Membranes are loaded into pressure vessels and arranged in racks with connecting tubing. The type, size, and number of RO units depend on the flow rate and water quality. Typical water recovery is about

80% in RO systems, though brine discharge may require dilution and therefore lower water recovery.

CALIFORNIA A $1 billion project in Carlsbad, CA, the flagship of modern desalination technologies and the largest desalination plant in the western hemisphere, was set to open in fall 2015. The Carlsbad desalination project will produce and deliver 50 million gallons per day of high-quality water to San Diego County. At least 15 other desalination projects are proposed along the California coast.

Where 80% of the county’s water is imported, the project aims to diversify its water sources, a long-term need underscored by four consecutive years of severe drought throughout the state. Some find it ironic that a state with more than 3,400 miles of coastline could be so dry.

“California is in a serious drought right now, and any new water supplies are important to the region,” says Bob Yamada, water resources manager for San Diego County Water Authority. “Unlike water that comes from rainfall or water that comes from snowpack, we’re utilizing what essentially is the world’s largest reservoir—the Pacific Ocean.”

The public–private partnership between the San Diego County Water Authority and development specialist firm Poseidon Water, employing IDE Technologies as a joint venture with Kiewit-Shea Desalination, will provide 7% of the county’s water by 2020, or enough for 300,000 people.

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The project will use 40% less energy than conventional desalination processes, thanks to efficient pumps, advanced membranes, and energy-recovery systems.

The desalinated water will be mixed with other sources and become part of the overall supply. “The Carlsbad project revolutionizes desalination in the United States,” says an IDE spokesperson.

More than 20 years in the making, the project includes an intake pump station and pipeline, desalination plant, product water storage, brine discharge pipeline, waste stream treatment facilities, product water pump station, and 10-mile delivery pipeline. Some of the infrastructure overlaps with the adjacent Encina Power Station, which helps save costs.

Up to 100 million gallons per day of seawater used for once-through, non-contact cooling at the power station will be routed to the new desalination plant. The source water will be filtered to remove large particles and bacteria.

After pre-treatment, chemicals will be added and the feed water will undergo reverse osmosis through thousands of tubular membranes. Half of the water will become drinkable, and the remaining brine will be flushed out. The entire treatment process will take about 20 minutes. After chlorination and conditioning for taste, product water will be stored and delivered to a regional distribution system via a 10-mile pipeline.

An RO pilot plant has been onsite to gauge public acceptance, and over 99% of taste testers rated the quality as “good” to “excellent.”

The rejected brine must be handled carefully. Its discharge has required a 63-inch-diameter, specially designed high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipeline, provided by ISCO Industries, to accommodate high velocities, steep slopes, and corrosive chemistry. Since the brine will have twice the salt content of the original seawater, it will be diluted with the power station’s cooling water return flow before being discharged to the ocean.

The project will use 40% less energy than conventional desalination processes, thanks to efficient pumps, advanced membranes, and energy recovery systems. “The Carlsbad plant will be the most energy-efficient and technologically advanced plant in the Western hemisphere when online this fall,” says Jessica H. Jones, community outreach manager at Poseidon Water.

While the product is more expensive—the desalinated water will cost $1,900–$2,200 per acre-foot depending on how much is purchased—it is much more dependable than current supplies.

“The Carlsbad plant is the only local, reliable water supply in San Diego that is not dependent on rainfall or the snowpack,” says Jones. “It is drought proof.”

TEXAS Far from any ocean, San Antonio, TX, is the site of a major inland desalination project.

In 2012, the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) launched a program to develop and desalinate brackish groundwater in southern Bexar County.

The program will help meet water needs over the next 50 years as the city weans itself from heavy reliance on the Edwards aquifer, a prolific but sensitive groundwater system in which demand has exceeded capacity in recent decades. The Wilcox aquifer, by contrast, is largely untapped, and the Texas Water Development Board confirmed that a sufficient supply of brackish groundwater exists there.

“Utilizing brackish water allows our community to make the most of a previously untapped resource. San Antonio continues to invest in new sources,” says SAWS President and CEO Robert R. Puente in a news release. “Brackish groundwater is plentiful and unused in our region, and available for centuries. The State of Texas views desalina-

tion as a solution to meet future water demands, and so do we.”

Inland desalination presents some unique challenges. Unlike coastal plants, they may not have a consistent, ample water supply, nor can they discharge brine to the ocean.

The $400 million project consists of a well field, reverse-osmosis treatment, and concentrate disposal via underground injection. When complete in 2016, the project’s first phase will produce 10–12 million gallons per day.

Black & Veatch is designing the facilities,

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CARLSBAD

Crews install piping around high-pressure pumps at the Carlsbad desalination project.

and joint venture partner Zachry-Parsons is managing construction. Future phases through 2026 will increase capacity to 30 million gallons per day.

A similar project in El Paso, the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant, has been operating since 2007. Where average precipitation is less than nine inches per year, the plant can produce 27.5 million gallons per day of potable water from otherwise unusable brackish groundwater in the Heuco Bolson aquifer. At the time, it was the world’s largest inland desalination plant. A pub-

lic–public partnership of El Paso Water Utilities and the US Army’s Fort Bliss, the project augments water supplies in a region continually challenged by limited freshwater resources.

The facility withdraws water from 16 production wells and pre-treats it with sand filters, cartridge filters, and anti-scalant. Five two-stage RO trains with membranes by Hydranautics remove salts and produce 15 million gallons per day of permeate with an 83% recovery rate. The permeate is blended with 12.5 million gallons per day from

blend wells before delivery. The brine is discharged via deep well injection 22 miles away. The project cost $90 million, with brine disposal making up $19 million. The facilities ensure El Paso a sufficient water supply for the next 50 years and beyond.

CHALLENGES Like all water alternatives, desalination has its challenges. The major drawback of desalination is its immense energy consumption. Energy is the largest variable cost for a desalination plant,

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CARLSBAD

A rack of reverse osmosis vessels at the Carlsbad desalination project

varying from one-third to more than one-half the cost of produced water.

Desalinating seawater can consume 5–20 times as much energy as other water sources.

Technologies are improving, however, and are becoming more energy efficient. “Energy and costs have already fallen by more than 50% over the last two decades,” says McGovern.

“The rate of improvement in the next decade will be slower, but perhaps we will see further improvements of about

10% in equipment and energy—driven by improved membrane chemistries and pump efficiencies.”

Among promising technologies are graphene membranes one atom thick that minimize resistance, and nanoengineered pores that improve flow. Though such wonders are many years away from commercial availability, research suggests energy reductions of 15–45% and entire plants at half the usual size. If scalable, these and other novel methods, such as

electrochemically mediated desalination, could bring a long-needed breakthrough.

Even without one, though, there are already other ways to reduce the energy impacts. Efficient equipment is one starting point. Soft-start motors and variable-frequency drives can help regulate torque for varying flow rates and thereby avoid energy peaking or over-pressurization that may otherwise occur.

Beyond equipment, process

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optimization offers additional energy savings. Multi-stage membrane processes, for example, offer substantial energy advantages over single-stage processes. The first stage operates at a lower pressure and lower recovery rate. The second stage applies a higher pressure to the first stage’s concentrate and achieves a higher recovery rate.

Multi-stage systems require more capital investment but are more efficient to operate. Other process-related savings come from advanced sensors that can

monitor water levels, pressures, flow rates, and dissolved solids throughout the plant and can signal controls (e.g., valves and motors) to respond in real time. “Larger plants will also benefit from economies of scale,” says McGovern.

Using renewable energy, such as wind and solar, is another appealing strategy. Though costly to develop or install, government agencies offer rebates and incentives for renewables and their operation is inexpensive.

Renewables do not reduce energy consumption but may be more environmentally acceptable than conventional fossil fuels. Improvements in wind forecasting and solar batteries are making these resources more reliable. Wind- and solar-rich sites can self-generate some or all of the energy required for desalination.

After water is desalinated, there remains the brine to dispose of. The environmental and ecological impacts associated with brine discharges are not fully understood and must be weighed carefully.

“The drawbacks of desalination are cost and localized environmental impact where brine is discharged to the sea,” says McGovern. Carlsbad’s brine will be diluted before discharge to the ocean, and scientists will monitor conditions for any impacts on marine life.

For inland desalination, there is no ocean disposal option, though others exist. In low volumes and with proper permitting, brine may be discharged to surface waters and municipal sewer systems. Land application can be effective seasonally and over large areas.

Under certain geologic conditions, brine may be injected underground through deep wells, as is done in Texas. State and federal permits are required, including approval from EPA’s Underground Injection Control program. Underground injection

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is expensive due to the rigorous site evaluations, construction, and maintenance involved.

Another option is evaporation ponds, which are most effective in dry climates. In these surface impoundments brine continues to concentrate as water evaporates into the atmosphere. No federal permit is required, though some states require monitoring. The dried salt can then be used commercially.

Desalination projects are at risk for corrosion and associated problems, such as scaling and biofouling, that accompany saltwater chemistry.

The main threats—pitting and crevice corrosion—can be prevented through the use of corrosion-resistant materials. Stainless steel and dozens of other alloys effectively prevent corrosion in common desalination equipment.

Selection of corrosion-resistant materials is critical and must be considered carefully during design.

Worldwide, says McGovern, “one of the biggest challenges for desalination is that there is rarely a preexisting regulatory structure in countries that are new to the technology. Developing such regulations requires time and care.” Even where desalination is established, permitting can be an effort in itself. The Carlsbad project required five years of coordination on at least 27 permits, plus dozens of public hearings and technical studies.

Though laborious, Carlsbad’s process has become a regulatory roadmap for future permitting. In May, the State Water Resources Control Board amended its Ocean Plan to streamline permitting for seawater desalination facilities. “Adoption of the Ocean Plan amendment reinforces state water resource management plans and policies that identify the Pacific Ocean as a drinking water resource,” says Scott Maloni, vice president of Poseidon Water, in a news release. “California’s coastal communities can now look with greater certainty to the west for a reliable, environmentally friendly, droughtproof source of drinking water.” WE Robert B. Sowby is a project engineer and writes on water resources and the environment.

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Cleaning Up

ISTOCK/TODDARBINI

New methods for monitoring contaminants and removing them from water

By Lori Lovely

S

imply stated, the Natural Resources Defense Council, along with many scientists and industry experts, believes we are heading toward a water crisis, due in part to changing climate patterns, but also largely in response to pollution resulting from activities such as factory farming, industrial manufacturing, and fracking. Rapidly increasing demand from overpopulation is draining rivers and aquifers, degrading habitat, and threatening the quality of the diminishing quantity of water. “Dirty water is the world’s biggest health risk, and continues to threaten both quality of life and public health in the United States,” the group proclaims.

It’s been a concern for decades. In 1948 the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was instituted in order to protect the integrity of our nation’s waterways and wetlands, creating regulations regarding discharge of pollutants into water and

establishing quality standards for surface waters. Known as the Clean Water Act (CWA), it was substantially rewritten in 1972. Amendments allowed EPA to implement pollution control programs that include setting wastewater standards.

More changes were made in 1977, but the CWA retained the basic goal of providing clean water by using the best available technology to eliminate the discharge of pollutants.

CLEAN WATER, CLEAN ENERGY “There’s been concern with organics [organic matter, nitrogen, phosphates] since the 1972 Clean Water Act,” says Dan Dair, technical manager for World Water Works Inc. (WWW), a leading designer and manufacturer of specialized process and wastewater treatment technologies. “Others are important now.”

What’s truly new, however, is that contaminant removal is done in different ways than it was in the 1970s,

because, says Dair, “now energy is critical.” WWW’s Demon treatment system incorporates a biological process to remove nitrogen from wastewater and achieve deammonification in two steps: the partial nitritation of ammonia and the subsequent anaerobic oxidation of the residual ammonia by nitrite to nitrogen gas. The total nitrogen removal is accomplished using only a very small amount of oxygen. The typical oxygen requirement necessitates high energy consumption. Partial nitrification requires less oxygen compared with conventional nitrification, resulting in energy savings of up to 40%. “Now, we only nitrify what we can denitrify.”

Traditional nitrogen removal uses nitrification/denitrification and requires large amounts of energy (1.8–2.7 kWh per pound of nitrogen removed) and carbon to obtain low effluent nitrogen limits. Alkalinity is sometimes required to maintain an efficient system, while

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extra sludge is produced due to the use of a carbon source. Operational dissolved oxygen levels range from 1–2 milligrams per liter. Nitritation/denitritation represents a shortcut of the traditional process as nitrate is shunted. Therefore, less energy is needed, the carbon demand is reduced, and less sludge is produced.

Benefits over traditional systems make it ideal for municipal and industrial clients that have wastewater streams with high ammonia concentrations. Other major benefits include reductions in ammonia load to the main treatment process, reduced sludge handling volumes, and less greenhouse gas production.

The Demon process is a side stream treatment that incorporates recycled stream mixed with wastewater. Liquid is high in ammonia. Most ammonia in the side stream is 20–30% of the total nitrogen load.

The Demon system features ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, which convert half the ammonia to nitrite. A second anaerobic biological process uses anammox bacteria to convert the combination of nitrite and remaining ammonia directly into nitrogen gas. This system reduces energy requirements by 60% compared with traditional nitrogen removal processes, eliminates the need for all chemicals, and produces 90% less sludge. The system also features a low carbon footprint; the anaerobic process actually consumes carbon dioxide. WWW provides the equipment that allows anaerobic bacteria to grow.

“Sludge from the digester used to be burned to reduce volume,” explains Dair.

“Demon intersects in the reactor system before the head, so you treat less water.”

That means the system is more efficient, providing energy savings.

Tested on a pilot scale, the process is modeled for larger facilities to validate designs. The new technology has seen

favorable outcomes, but needs to be fully tested, says Dair. “We’re modifying aeration control strategies.”

The goal is to create energy and product from wastewater. Treated water could be directly piped to drinking water. “They’ll have to change the name to ‘resource recovery facility,’” muses Dair. “It’s much cleaner than water in streams, but it’s still controversial due to perception.”

Perceptions are different in Europe, where this has been done for years, he continues. “Energy is the driver.” More recently, he says California is driving towards “toilet to tap” as a reuse option, primarily because wastewater is the easiest source to collect and treat.

With a focus on cost-effective performance, flexibility, and durability, the company works to create the most appropriate treatment solutions, promises Dair. Everyone, but particularly small communities with correspondingly small budgets, can take advantage of the savings. “The largest municipal consumer of energy is a water plant.

They’re energy hogs—and energy costs are going up. This is low-hanging fruit.”

ELIMINATING CONTAMINANTS NATURALLY The cost of energy isn’t the only expense on the mind of water municipalities.

The cost to treat drinking water is increasing as runoff from farmland and lawns pours chemicals, nitrates, phosphates, and synthetic compounds into the supply. When water runoff flows into lakes, streams, ponds, and oceans, it can negatively impact water conditions, affecting fish, livestock, plants, and public drinking water. Surface runoff can contaminate water sources, cause eutrophication (algal blooms), and cause health issues for plants and animals.

But chemicals are not always the solution to maintaining and restoring water quality. “They are, in fact, disrupting the health of our water system in many cases,” states Wayne Tucker, CEO of Bio S. I. Technology. “We need to return to naturally-made products that not only reduce toxicity in the ecosystem, but sustain the long-term vitality of our most precious resources. These beneficial microbes have a purpose in purifying the environment.”

That purpose is to restore a cleaner,

healthier, more sustainable ecosystem for plants, animals, and humans. Due to overuse of pesticides, we no longer have the microbial diversity of 50 years ago. “Putting live microbes back in keeps sludge from building up,” says Tucker. It also helps break down organic waste.

Pathogens in nature do good work by restoring the balance of the microbial population. When microbes are washed out of the soil, it leaves the soil bereft of nutrients. Treated with all-natural (not lab-engineered) microbes, carbon from pesticides, fungus, and oil are broken down and converted to usable material for plants. “It improves soils and water,” notes Tucker. “The change of direction is considerable. We realize we forgot how to take care of water and soil. [This allows us to] help rebuild soil and water with a natural product.”

There are many reasons to rebuild the soil. Tucker explains that if soil consists of 1% humus, when 1 inch of rain falls, most of the water runs off.

But, if the soil contains 2% humus and 2 inches of rain falls, the soil will lose almost none of it. Building up humus helps filter rainwater. Converting plant debris to humus holds moisture, which helps save water and reduce irrigation bills by thousands of dollars. “The only way to put humus back in the soil is with microbes: plant debris.”

By encouraging plant roots to grow deeply, the soil will hold even more water. “Everybody helps everybody,” says Tucker. Removing contaminants and encouraging plant growth in turn reduces contamination of water supplies.

But, he cautions, there’s no silver bullet.

“This program is part of fertilization.

Add in small doses to build diversity throughout the year, even in winter.”

Bio S. I. offers three microbial-based products. The remediation formula and kit works on small oil, gas, and diesel spills. “Hydrocarbon is great fertilizer, but the additives are a problem,” explains Tucker. In addition to a lawn and garden line and an agricultural line, Water Doctor has a product for cleaning water in animal tanks and ponds. This all-natural product contains microbes that digest bottom sludge layers that build up over time, helping to control algal blooms and moss. Safe for humans and animals, Water Doctor encourages

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WORLD WATER WORKS

The first full-scale deammonification treatment in North America at York River in Virginia

water plant health, breaking down organic waste and fertilizer compounds such as nitrates, phosphates, and other contaminants. Even when contaminants can’t be broken down with microbes, these biological products convert them into non-dangerous forms.

TESTING: ONE, TWO Organic contamination is a challenge faced by businesses and municipalities on a regular basis. To achieve necessary water quality and to optimize industrial processes and wastewater treatment processes, GE Water upgraded its Sievers InnovOx Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analyzer, a tool designed to monitor, measure, and control the organics in wastewater and industrial process water. Product enhancements allow the advanced TOC Analyzer technology to monitor organics using close to realtime data to monitor in order to identify issues and optimize water processes for higher uptime and overall cost savings for customers. In addition, it can handle water samples with up to 5% organics and up to 0.1% total suspended solids, particles in wastewater, and high-temperature sample measurement.

“We’re trying to solve problems by offering what the customer needs,” says Mark Mullet, senior product manager.

“The challenge is that customers don’t

think of monitoring.”

Another challenge is that applications vary, making it difficult to collect and process samples. “Historically, some applications were extremely difficult to use,” recounts Mullet. “We did grab samples, but it was not good enough for true process control.”

To overcome that difficulty, GE has introduced a high temperature tester well-suited to refineries, the petrochemical industry, and heat exchangers, where organics in cooling water can be disastrous to equipment. “It’s better to test at high temperature to get dispersed oil, not separated oil,” says Mullet, adding that the analyzer can handle water temperatures of 85°C. One refinery had extra damage to its boiler system due to organics, recalls Mullet. He blames, in part, samples collected downstream of the cooling tower, where the oil and water had separated.

“When measured upstream [using a high-temperature analyzer], the results were very different.”

Because access at petrochemical refineries can be complicated due to the explosive gas potential, GE will soon be releasing two certified hazardous location enclosures for corrosive applications that extend the ambient temperature range and keep personnel safer.

On the market now is a wastewater

sampler that delivers water to the analyzer in which contaminants are particulated and suspended.

“You can’t discharge waste,” points out Mullet, “so you must reduce the particulates.” Appropriate for food and beverage applications such as sugar and beer mash, it can also be used in wastewater applications. Municipalities are using it on influent, he reveals. With no wear items, no moving parts, and no need to be cleaned if there’s no interruption of flow, it’s a low-maintenance system.

Continual monitoring is recommended—and sometimes required by regulation. Application engineers often make recommendations on the frequency of samples. “If you want to control a process,” says Mullet, “you need continual monitoring—every five to seven minutes, or at least under 10 minutes.”

By continuously monitoring, it’s possible to catch organic spikes in process water, to identify a baseline, and collect a representative sample. “Gathering a representative sample is not trivial,” emphasizes Mullet. It’s imperative to collect a representative sample in order to know what you’re dealing with and correct it. He believes GE’s low/no maintenance systems will revolutionize sample gathering by measuring continuously.

Analog outputs are capable of monitoring two to five streams. Information can also be obtained through an interface over an ethernet—typical communication protocol for industrial operations, notes Mullet. Alternatively, he says users can “insert a USB memory stick and download information.”

The automated system features a fail-safe alert; if the sample stops flowing (if the pump quits, for example), it triggers an alarm. A closed loop provides feedback control. Mullet says it has stream switching capability to divert streams into a diversion pond or holding tank. “It can dilute or divert to protect membranes if there’s an influx of organics.”

TESTING, TAKE TWO Water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface,

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and yet, clean water is in short supply.

The goal of Pat-Chem Laboratories is to keep water clean and safe, says general manager Stephen Berentsen. “In California, our water is in short supply, so everything we can do to keep what we have is essential.”

That starts with environmental testing. They currently test wastewater, drinking water, hazardous waste, and soils. They also offer setup and testing on a 24-hour compliance monitor for those cities with wastewater discharge permits.

Pat-Chem Laboratories uses the newest testing equipment because reliability is critical. “Our customers depend on us taking a ‘good’ sample and reporting the results in a timely manner,” says Berentsen. “If they fail to report their results to the city on time, costly fines can be assessed.”

One of the biggest concerns for his customers, adds Berentsen, is the addition of more analytes to test for, and testing at more frequent intervals.

“Customers [who] have failed testing and been ‘hit’ with fines and additional testing are not excited.”

Cities are becoming more and more aggressive in monitoring harmful chemicals and metals discharged into the waste management system, he observes. Pat-Chem works with both the customers who are dumping waste into the municipal sewer system and the waste treatment plants themselves.

Berentsen says, “We currently service several municipal waste systems on a daily/weekly basis. They are charged with treating the wastewater before it exits to the ocean or holding facility.”

One large client is testing and creating systems to use less water in their process by filtering/cleaning processed water to be reused as potable water and processing this wastewater through several treatment systems to be able to inject the clean water back into the water table instead of dumping the wastewater into the municipal water system.

“If this technology can be refined and

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made more cost-effective for all waste customers, more of our water could be treated and reused,” says Berentsen, who predicts “more and more regulation and monitoring” in the future.

SOLUTIONS FOR POLLUTION Coinciding with increasing regulation will be the demand for reliability, performance, and features, envisions Mullet. It’s not going to be easy to deliver. “Corrosive applications will pose special challenges.”

He mentions alkali, chlorine gas, and products like caustic soda as particularly corrosive elements, but it’s the man-made contaminants such as pharmaceuticals that Dair believes will pose the biggest challenges because they are difficult to detect, too small to be removed with current processes, and don’t degrade. “Organics are already regulated; this is a future market.”

The industry will see refinements that shorten installation time, continues Dair. Once installed, the systems will remove contaminants such as phosphorous and nitrogen efficiently and redirect as much carbon as possible. He foresees a balance of energy and carbon utilization. “The goal is to create energy and product from wastewater.”

It’s a tall order, especially considering that places like India have no waste treatment system, points out Tucker.

“They build remediation islands. With 1.2 billion people, it’s an enormous challenge.”

That’s why he says “problems will come from undeveloped countries. The big issue is that we are running out of water. Shortages will hit us all and we’ll turn to collecting surface water.” He believes that companies like his are in a unique position to help in order to secure the future of our global water supply.

Whatever technology and tools we use to keep our water supply free of contaminants, it’s clear that continuous monitoring will play a key role. It’s important to know what’s in our water supply.

It’s also important to make changes.

According to Conserve Energy Future: • 40% of the rivers and 46% of the lakes in the US are polluted and are considered unhealthy for swim-

ming, fishing, or aquatic life • 80% of water pollution is due to improper disposal of garbage • 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are dumped into US waters annually • 1.2 trillion gallons of sewage from households, industry, and restaurants are discharged into US lakes, rivers, and oceans each year, according to EPA • 2 million tons of human waste are disposed in water every day • Approximately half of all ocean pollution is caused by sewage and wastewater • About 700 million people worldwide drink contaminated water A survey done by Food & Water Watch indicates that approximately 3.5 billion people in 2025 will face water shortage issues due, in part, to water pollution . . . unless things change.

The news isn’t all glum; things are beginning to change. Since 1970, EPA has invested well over $200 billion to improve water treatment plants that serve about 88% of the population in 2015 (as compared with just 69% in 1972).

Although two of the goals of the CWA—to achieve swimmable waters by 1983 and zero discharge of pollutants by 1985—were not reached, the law did initiate a dramatic increase in federal support for upgrading publicly owned treatment works, with $77.2 billion in federal grants and contributions funneling through EPA’s Construction Grants and Clean Water State Revolving Fund programs to states and municipalities.

Even with increased funding, the challenge is immense. Until the 1990s, 20–25 million gallons of raw sewage were carried each day from California to Mexico by the New River. Still today, factories worldwide are pumping 5–10 billion tons industrial waste—polluted water—into rivers, streams, and oceans.

Only by changing habits, enforcing laws, and monitoring and removing contaminants can we ensure the safety of our water supply. WE Winner of several Society of Professional Journalists awards, Lori Lovely writes on topics related to water and technology.

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FERGUSON

A meter installation in a suburban neighborhood

Preparing for the Move to AMI “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” –Benjamin Franklin

By Ed Ritchie

W

hether it’s customer backlash, installation mistakes, faulty equipment, or administration issues, launching an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) program can test the stamina of even the most stalwart of water utilities. Worse yet, these problems quickly find their way to the news media. For example, in April 2015, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) faced heat from Pittsburgh City Council members and angry customers over billing issues resulting from the rollout of 80,000 new meter interface units.

It had to be an uncomfortable situation for Jim Good, the agency’s interim executive director. The PWSA found that roughly 2,000 units were incompatible with the existing water meters.

But the problems didn’t stop there. The authority had to admit that another 4,000 were plagued with problems including faulty installation, wireless signal failures, and more.

Overall, it’s been a disastrous affair with customers and the media, but the PWSA is not the only utility to suffer such problems. For years, similar events have made headlines across the US. Why? Well, it may sound glib, but we could sum it up with a quote from Benjamin

Franklin: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” But how can a utility prepare? Actually, there is plenty of knowledge on this subject, and plenty of industry experts willing to share their wisdom. Let’s talk to some of them, and learn the steps for avoiding the pitfalls experienced by PWSA and others.

To start, take a look at how you’ll engage your team, advises Kim Foster at Ferguson Waterworks Meter and Neptune Technology Group, Schofield, WI. Foster has been with the company since 2006 and is responsible for developing, managing, and promoting Ferguson Waterworks meter and automation business. An initial step for engagement is

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to include all of the utility’s key departments in setting clear goals. “I’ve been doing this for almost 25 years and I’ve seen that the more engaged the utility is, the more successful the project is. That’s one of the components that people forget about and that’s where the lack of preparation on the utility side really shows.”

Foster notes that the most successful programs develop and communicate a plan based on a team mentality. And that team isn’t limited to the utility’s employees. “It’s no longer just the water department,” says Foster. “It’s the entire city, because it will affect every aspect. Such as council members that have constituents.”

The constituents of Bay City, MI, overwhelmed their city’s officials with complaints last January, when customer backlash stalled the rollout of the city’s new AMI system. According to Greg Johnson, Bay City’s consultant for the smart meter program, residents started refusing entry to installation crews when the media reported complaints related to billing—plus, old pipes and valves were breaking inside homes during

installations. The backlash resulted in delays, and that motivated the company contracted to carry out the installation to withdraw its services at the end of its contract.

Foster has found that it’s not unusual for a utility to rely on engineering consultants, especially during the request for proposal development phase, and he advises administrators to vet consultants carefully. “A utility should know whether AMI projects are part of the consultant’s normal business process. I’ve had a lot of dialogue with engineers, and utilities have very specific agendas. So the engineer has to make sure they understand how it works and the different products available in the marketplace.”

Understanding the installation phase is equally important. We mentioned that the PWSA project had installation problems, and Foster explains that having a properly trained staff is critical. “Don’t use temporary laborers.

In Ferguson’s case, our people go through very regimented training programs. The guys on the street are meeting customers

and they have to be educated. When we finish with an installation, we give the customer materials and handouts so they have information about the product, and if they have more questions they can go to our website. It’s a full circle approach, because I’ve been to meetings where customers were afraid of RF [radio frequency] and issues about their health.

Even though it’s a misconception, it’s important to them.”

Concerns about RF risks constitute the majority of complaints from the public, according to Angela Zapp, director of service business at Neptune Technology Group (Canada) Ltd. in Toronto, Canada. “Two common concerns are RF health risks, and issues related to the privacy of the data being transmitted across the network and who has access to it,” says Zapp. “The general public has similar issues with AMI technology in any utility sector, but these concerns are misconceptions. Radio frequencies in the AMI industry are much less powerful than other RF devices, such as Wi-Fi routers and cell phones, which emit RF

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signals with a significantly higher output power.”

Although many studies have debunked the misconception of RF risks from AMI, it’s still critical to have a public information program. “If customers aren’t informed, then things can escalate unnecessarily, so it’s important to have a communication program set up ahead of time, with plans in place to mitigate project deployment risks,” says Zapp. “There are many things the utility should consider, and one important area is either providing customers with options or clearly outlining the mandatory requirements supported with a bylaw or others means to enforce participation. Some utilities choose to simply mandate the RF device in every home to ensure that the utility receives the full benefits of the AMI deployment. Other utilities offer options for refusing the AMI device, such as keeping the old technology, but at a higher cost. You should determine the options ahead of time and effectively communicate them.”

The stages of effective communica-

tion include internal communications to municipal entities, such as the mayor, council members, and administration board members, so they understand the goals and benefits to the public and the utility. Many cities have a 311 number.

Make sure that the 311 staff has the information they need to answer questions and prevent them from escalating.

“The utility needs to ensure that the plan is coordinated with the installation vendor,” adds Zapp. “They need to know who the prime contact is for the project.

Managing the deployment phase requires a detailed chart of those responsible for fielding customer calls, which includes a schedule that shows what work is being done and when it’s scheduled, so the utility’s customers are prepared for the new installation. The installers should also be trained to review the procedure, the location of the new devices, and how they operate with the end customer before they start the installation. Effectively communicating at the time of the installation helps minimize issues and complaints.”

These steps are especially important when utilities are installing meters in homes that weren’t previously metered.

For a project that Zapp manages in Toronto, Canada, of the 470,000 homes, 70,000 didn’t have meters. “You do get a higher level of resistance and uncertainty from end customers that have never had a water meter, but in our case, we increased our public education program, and focused on the long-term benefits, such as the environmental concern, and the economic equity issue. You might have a widow at home alone, next door to a family of six, and they are both paying the same rate for water. Also, there’s a significant portion of the population that benefits from the meters because they conserve water, which is a benefit to the utility as well as the end customer.”

Another tool of effective communication is highlighting the benefits to the customer rather than the benefits to the utility. Customer information materials should focus on improved billing accuracy, increased efficiency of handling inquiries, leak detection, and access to

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payments and information about utility bills through the Internet.

LEVERAGE By taking these steps, a utility can inform and prepare their customers for the many benefits of an AMI system, but according to Tim Schwartz, Master Meter, Mansfield, TX, the same philosophy should apply to the utility’s workforce when it comes to leveraging the high volume of meter data. “The biggest issue for utilities is that they don’t think through how to leverage the data,” says Schwartz. “They initiate the first step of connecting to a billing system, but we are finding that by far the vast majority of utilities are not prepared for the other benefits, and that includes being able to leverage the analytics. So we see utilities coming in and purchasing an AMI system, but they’re not using much of it.”

If the utility was prepared, it could be leveraging infrastructure resources that a “smart city” would access and provide analytics for, such as the electric and gas utilities, plus emergency providers such as hospitals, and transportation systems such as airlines and public transit. The data from a water utility’s AMI system fits well with the growing trend of the Internet of Things (see sidebar on pg. 38). Says Schwartz, “For example, let’s say that you implemented your AMI system with meter data monitoring, and there’s a mainline break.

The system would detect it within five minutes, and if the mainline was connected to a local hospital or school they could be alerted, and the data analyzed.

So there are a lot of uses for the data.”

Leak detection and non-revenue losses are also positive selling points for AMI, yet again, many utilities aren’t prepared to reap the benefits. “When you first commit to an AMI system you’re going to discover leaks and possibly theft and tampering issues, and there is usually a large upfront operational demand,” says Schwartz. “The director or general manager has to be prepared for the non-revenue water issue and take care of the low hanging fruit first.

It helps to have a software system that can create custom widgets very quickly, so if you highlight a certain group of users—such as agricultural or brewery

or industrial—with a widget, they’re tracked, and appear right on the dashboard. Our system makes it very easy to trend customers, and we also offer a customer portal so they can log in and check their usage every day with data that is never more than 12 hours old.”

The widget-based format also can connect to other departments and other sources of data, so utilities can overlay consumption data with climate or census information from the government.

The savings from recovering nonrevenue water can be staggering. “I was with a utility last week and they told me that they estimated a non-revenue water loss of 40%,” recalls Schwartz, “and 13% of that came from two different accounts. Yet, one of them was actually an inactive account that supposedly wasn’t being used. So by implementing this AMI system, they found an inactive industrial complex that was using a massive amount of water.”

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TECHNOLOGY We’ve seen some examples of largescale implementations with hundreds of thousands of meters, but advances in AMI technology are allowing for much smaller pilot programs that can help a utility get actual experience as part of the preparation process. For example, the BEACON AMA system from Badger Meter, Milwaukee, WI, offers an immediate solution that works with cellular endpoints, plus an easy-to-use hosted software product that delivers fast, near real-time data.

A hosted network with managed solutions allows a utility to focus on managing its operations. The technology of cellular endpoints doesn’t require the infrastructure of a fixed network, and it provides the option for small deployments at any point in time. So a utility could put in as little as 10 or less for a pilot program, and these accounts could be located anywhere in the utility’s customer base. Moreover, cell phone technology helps sidestep the public’s fears about RF. “A cell phone is not something foreign,” says Kristie Anderson, product marketing manager at Badger Meter.

“And cellular requires no infrastructure, so the utility can get their hands on a system and install them anywhere in the city. You don’t need to cluster many of them to take advantage of a tower. They could do something with their 10 largest commercial customers, or mix and match customers and industrial accounts with a trial program that allows them to get prepared for a larger rollout.”

As for the overwhelming data from AMI technology, Badger has addressed that, too. “I think it used to be that there was so much data and people didn’t know what to do with it or even how to manage it,” says Anderson. “But new software makes it much easier to manage that information, so utilities can see trends and patterns and anomalies and

Are you preparing for the Internet of Things?

One of the latest buzzwords to hit the technology arena is “the Internet of Things” (IoT—also referred to as the Internet of Everything). What does it mean and how will it impact water utilities? In basic terms, IoT refers to the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity. Because the objects are networked, they can exchange data with the manufacturer, operator, and/or other connected devices. As this IoT technology invades the equipment used by public service providers—from utilities to cities to industrial complexes and campuses—dependence upon a reliable communications network rises, and many manufacturers are providing secure solutions. For example, the FlexNet communication network from Sensus offers operational efficiency, customer service, and system reliability.

For a utility, the benefits can include reduced IT and operational costs, less risk through disaster recovery and system configuration, and increased security.

With the software as a service (SaaS) feature, Sensus places the regional network interface (RNI) in a private cloud where experts monitor servers and network connections around the clock from secure data centers. In the event of an emergency, a utility could recover quickly, because Sensus links, replicates, and stores all customer data and information systems to protect valuable resources.

With the growth of the IoT, disaster recovery becomes even more critical.

Moreover, it becomes more complicated. For references to recovery protocols, see the EPA’s Emergency Response for Drinking Water and Wastewater Utilities web page at http://1.usa.gov/1R1Imo8.

set up dashboards with alerts. The software has become much more intuitive and easier for people to understand how to leverage it.”

The option of having the Beacon system hosted on Badger’s cloud network was a major selling point for Nick Schiavo, City of Santa Fe public utilities director. “The cloud service was a big factor,” says Schiavo. “We don’t want to be responsible for maintaining servers, so that’s money well spent and we had no pushback from our IT department.

Santa Fe has a user base of about 80,000 people, and we just started putting in the Badger AMI system. We have about 3,000 installed already and I think it’s fairly well received. We’ve had a couple of news articles about it and people are interested in it, in part because they do pay a premium for water, and this is the high desert in the Southwest. It’s a scarce resource and we want to make sure we take care of it. This system allows us to monitor the usage from our offices and also the customer will have that ability, so if there is a leak we should know within 48 hours.”

Santa Fe’s old system required the utility to manually read meters once

“Today, we know almost immediately when water is being lost and can quickly make repairs.”

a month, and if a residence developed a leak a day after their meter reading, the customer might not know for 40 days. “Our rates are $6.06 per thousand gallons,” says Schiavo. “It’s one of the highest in the country, and that’s for the first 10,000 gallons at the Tier 1 level.

The Tier 2 level rises to 21.72 cents per thousand, and that has really motivated conservation. So the conservation works well, but what doesn’t work well is when you have a leak of 30,000 gallons and you receive a bill for $1,500 to $2,500.”

The cellular based system was another factor in Santa Fe’s decision to use BEACON. “Our town is fairly sensitive to towers and has hilly terrain,” says Schiavo. “We interviewed several companies and to do a 400 MHz frequency system they needed three new antennas on towers. We chose to skip that and went with the Badger system with existing cellular towers.”

Water is also a scarce resource in Fountain Valley, CA. Along with other utilities throughout the state, Fountain Valley is under strict mandates to slash water usage. Since 2013, the city’s businesses and residents have reduced consumption by 29%, with efforts that include restrictions, conservation rebates, and turf removal. But that’s not enough, so Fountain Valley turned to an

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AMI system from Sensus, Raleigh, NC, to monitor drought conservation regulations, and ultimately meet a citywide goal of a 20% drop in water use.

The Sensus smart water network includes the FlexNet communication system, plus iPERL residential and OMNI commercial meters. FlexNet relies on a long-range, scalable radio network.

The OMNI commercial meters offer sustained precision over time, and iPERL water meters capture the lowest flows accurately for their 20-year lifetime.

Even with the conservation urgency, and the technology’s impressive performance, achieving a high “buy-in” from the utility’s stakeholders was the first goal for Mark Sprague, utilities manager for the City of Fountain Valley. Sprague

for related articles: www.waterefficiency.net

notes that moving to the Sensus AMI system was a major change in technology and practices, so providing information to the stakeholders was one of the utility’s first steps. “It’s a leap in the right direction, but there can still be concerns about the investment and ROI. Our highest priority was getting buy-in from all stakeholders and showcasing how beneficial the technology is.”

One of those benefits is leak detection. Before deploying Sensus technology, it was difficult to determine water losses from leaks in the system. “Today,” says Sprague, “we know almost immediately when water is being lost and can quickly make repairs.”

To prepare the public, Fountain Valley gave two public study sessions. The first was about AMI, and the second was about the utility’s research findings— plus, a cost-benefit analysis, and the benefits AMI provides the city and its customers. Most all feedback was positive and good validation for the project.

Additionally, the utility used an AMI implementation communications

toolkit provided by Sensus. Other efforts included publishing an AMI informational brochure, advanced notification postcards, bill inserts, AMI information, and FAQs on the city website. Also, the media received a press release about the project, and informational slides made for TV, and the public had access to a designated phone line for answers to project questions.

All told, Sprague reports that the implementation of an AMI system has been a great success, thanks in large part to diligent efforts to prepare all of the utility’s stakeholders. In fact, cities such as Fountain Valley, Santa Fe, Toronto, and many others, are proving that preparation is the key to upgrading to an AMI system that benefits both the public and the water utility. Moreover, through lessons learned in the field, the industry has developed a wealth of knowledge and wisdom for utilities that are ready to discover the benefits of AMI. WE Ed Ritchie writes frequently on water and technology issues.

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ISTOCK/NANCY EDMONDS

Pass It On Internships: real work and qualified candidates for future openings

By Carol Brzozowski

P

rojections of a loss of 37% of water utility workers in the next decade have many water utility managers concerned.

The current average age of water utility workers is 44.7, about four years younger than the average age of all other workers in the nation. The average retirement age for utility personnel is 56, according to the Water Environment Research Foundation/American Water Works Research Foundation study Succession Planning for a Vital Workforce in the Information Age. To that end, many utilities have established internships. The programs are mutually beneficial: students get that much-needed on-the-job experience that also helps them determine whether they indeed want a career in water.

Water utilities get an opportunity to see a student in action and offer the rising stars employment.

Although the goals of internship

programs are pretty consistent among water utilities that have them, their structure can vary.

In 2006, the San Diego County Water Authority, in California, in concert with regional water agencies, community colleges, and private-sector partners, developed a water and wastewater internship program to meet the increased demands for qualified staff.

When the program began, many of the San Diego County Water Authority’s member agencies had a large number of employees nearing or reaching retirement eligibility, notes Stacey Rule, who manages the intern program.

“The program was started to help fill anticipated voids by providing handson experiences for students at two local community colleges, Cuyamaca and Palomar,” he says. “The program offers a great opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and abilities in the water/wastewater indus-

try to jumpstart their careers.”

In the 2014–15 program year, 11 interns were selected from among 138 applications by an internship selection committee composed of representatives of public and private water and wastewater agencies and local community colleges. Once chosen by the internship committee, the intern commits to a maximum 20-hour work week for 33 weeks. Each participating agency pays interns $10 per hour for the time worked with its agency. A staffing company administers payroll for most of the participating agencies.

Interns are required to submit to a security background check, possess a valid California driver’s license, and have the ability to maintain insurability under agencies’ vehicle insurance policy.

They also must pass a pre-employment physical and satisfactory employment authorization documentation.

“Because these internships are

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paid positions by host agencies, interns are expected to meet the same hiring requirements as other job applicants, including background checks and physicals,” explains Rule. “This process also is important because interns are assigned to a variety of tasks such as operation of vehicles and equipment.”

Interns attend water/wastewater technology courses at Cuyamaca College or Palomar College while gaining experience and earning pay during the day working at various water and wastewater agencies in the San Diego region, spending eight weeks in four different modules.

“The program typically runs August to May in coordination with academic schedules,” says Rule. “The four modules consist of system maintenance, system operations, water treatment, and wastewater treatment.”

Each participating member agency assigns mentors to interns during the eight-week training period with its agency. “These subject matter experts provide guidance and hands-on training to the interns. The program typically requires one mentor per student,” explains Rule.

Mentors are required to complete an evaluation form at the end of each module. “Evaluations provide feedback to interns about opportunities for development and growth, and they also are used to make sure that interns are ready to move to the next module,” says Rule.

Interns are required to work at a satisfactory performance level and maintain a grade of C or higher in college coursework to remain in the program for both semesters. More than 83% of interns go on to find jobs in the industry.

Rule says he’d like to see the program expand. “Typically, we receive almost 300 applications each year for 15 to 20 spots,” he says.

Saul Zavala secured a spot with the San Diego County Water Authority from 2013–14. Zavala, who now is a full-time utility and maintenance technician for the San Dieguito Water District, says he did the internship to gain experience “and I knew it would make me more valuable, therefore increasing my chances of getting hired. Being an intern looks good on paper. Also . . . it was paid, so why not?”

Zavala’s internship exposed him to many facets of the water industry, including water treatment, wastewater treatment, system operations, and system maintenance and construction.

“It definitely let me know what I like and do not like,” he says. “By the end of the internship, I was sure as to what field I was interested in.”

For Zavala, the most challenging part of the internship was the required commuting. “I was placed far away from home water districts,” he says. Zavala’s favorite part of the internship was Rule’s mentoring. “He was definitely of great help throughout the internship,” says Zavala. “He is very amiable, approachable, and knowledgeable.”

“These subject matter experts provide guidance and hands-on training to the interns. The program typically requires one mentor per student.”

THIRDPARTY AGENCIES In 2013, the Long Beach Water Department (LBWD) in California initiated a pilot internship program for students to gain experience and develop the community’s workforce. The program aims to bring valuable and high-quality paid water industry internship opportunities to college students for whom classroom education is not enough.

The pilot program started with one intern; its success was the driving factor in expanding the number to 10 in 2014. “It became popular and was a real success,” says Ken Bott, administrative officer for the Long Beach Water Department.

The interns have provided more than 4,000 work hours to the Long Beach Water Department across all departments.

LBWD partners with Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network, a

public agency that connects job seekers to employment. The interns are on the Pacific Gateway payroll, which also handles Worker’s Compensation. Pacific Gateway charges back the cost to LBWD. The interns’ hourly wages range from $10–$12, depending on the position. “We have some that are engineering-type positions that might pay more and some that are entry-level facilities maintenance kind of positions as well,” adds Bott.

LBWD also has partnered with various recruitment agencies such as Long Beach Job Corps and Long Beach City College. “We tailor our recruitment to find the best candidate or get a good candidate pool depending on what kind of position we are looking for,” says Bott.

The internship program begins by various LBWD departments such as facilities maintenance, warehouse, engineering, administration, accounting, and fleet services providing input regarding their respective needs.

“We ask managers if they have a need for an intern who can come in and work on a project—not just scan documents, but do actual work where they would learn something and they would get that work product as well,” says Bott.

For instance, if fleet services needs a mechanic, Bott and his team prepare a flyer for the Long Beach Job Corps or Long Beach City College automotive programs to let them know of the internship opportunities, instructing intern applicants to send their resume to Pacific Gateway, which serves as the gatekeeper.

Pacific Gateway reviews the resumes and sends them to LBWD for review.

“We hold an interview with those who are interested in the internship opportunities and see if they’re a good fit for us and likewise,” says Bott, adding that successful interns are placed in the department appropriate to their interests.

The Long Beach Water Department also had a partnership with Los Angeles County’s Transitional Subsidized Employment (TSE) program, which transitions welfare recipients into temporary employment. LBWD had three TSE interns for eight-month internships, one of whom went on to take a permanent job in the city.

LBWD does not rotate the interns

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FROM INTERN TO DEPARTMENT LEADER Dennis Santos is a civil engineer with LBWD, overseeing the water utility’s Engineering Development Service Counter, handling all water- and sewerrelated inquiries and requests with the help of other engineers.

Nine years ago, Santos was an engineering intern with LBWD, before the water department launched its recent formal internship program. His experience led to an offer of a full-time position after his graduation from California

State University–Long Beach in June of 2007.

Santos says he pursued the internship to gain the hands-on experiences that weren’t offered in classroom settings. “I was also not entirely certain at the time of the field of civil engineering that I would pursue and thought an internship opportunity would help me choose and make that important decision,” notes Santos.

During his internship, Santos assisted with drafting letters, preparing reports, and verifying engineeringrelated calculations. He assisted with the tabulating and organizing of data related to water and sewer engineering projects. Santos also was responsible for maintenance and updating of the record drawing database. He also attended coordination meetings with the project engineers.

“The internship gave me an idea of what an engineer working for LBWD actually does,” says Santos. “I witnessed how much involvement an engineer would have on his or her project—from planning, to design, construction, and project completion—and I became very interested.”

There were a few challenges for Santos—chief among them was figuring out how to balance his work and school schedule during midterms, finals, and project due dates. Still, his supervisors and other engineers at LBWD were very accommodating, he notes.

His favorite part of the internship was each time he successfully completed an assignment or project and received important feedback from the engineers.

“Dennis is a very good example of somebody who came on board learning to become an engineer,” says Bott. “He gained experience in the water industry as well as specifically to Long Beach Water. He grew from that and is

now a civil engineer after many years. It worked out as a really good example of the power of internships.”

Internships also present a valuable applicant pool, adds Bott.

“We already know them,” he says.

“There’s not a need to go out and get a list of eligible candidates if you’re just looking through resumes and names and you don’t really know the person. With an internship, you’ve had an opportunity to view them at work. It’s like an extended period of probation. The great thing is they do a great job for us and when you can put a face to a name, it works really well.”

In setting up the internship, there was an assumption that it would take a lot of effort on the part of the supervisors and mentors, which turned out not to be the case, says Bott. “These interns caught on quickly,” points out Bott. “We do a poll at the end of the mentoring and they say about 30% of their time was dedicated to teaching and 70% of the time, the interns were doing work. That was a lot different than what I thought it was going to be.

“Once the students understood what they needed to do, they got to work and actually gained some good work experience. It wasn’t just job shadowing.

That was something we didn’t want. We LBWD director of finance Paul Fujita supervises intern Elvira Manzo (right).

LONG BEACH WATER DEPARTMENT

around the different departments, although an intern may engage in various arms within a department, such as engineering, where the intern may learn about sewer construction as one of the branches.

Bott says, “We work hard with our interns to give them work they can put on their resume,” he adds. “When we meet with the managers, we make sure they understand the internship program is not just about grunt work—it’s for them to learn a skill, learn something new, do a project, do something they can be proud of when they leave and not just say ‘For eight weeks I made photocopies’.”

The eight-week internship can be extended. “Every once in a while, a student will start in June and when the internship is up, there’s still a little summer left. Based on their school schedule, they can continue through the fall.

We’ll accommodate that and extend the internship program accordingly,” says Bott.

“But we don’t like to make this a permanent internship,” adds Bott. “The internship is there for them to learn.

We get some work product out of it.

They can put it on their resume and they move on. We don’t want something that’s going to last a year, two years.”

Still, internships are of value to water utilities in finding potentially valuable employees, points out Bott.

“We have, in the past, tried to recruit for somebody at a civil engineer level and it’s very difficult to find somebody who has utility—and specifically water sector—experience and/or education in water mechanics,” he says. “Taking somebody from the internship and growing them has worked really well.”

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HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS While many water utility programs offer college internships, some are geared toward high school students. Case in point: the Palm Bay (Florida) Utilities Department has an internship program for students at Heritage High School’s Academy of Environmental Water Technology Program (AEWTP) to provide them with the necessary training to become water industry professionals.

The program focuses on training students to become certified water treatment operators and enables students to graduate high school with their Level C Water Operator Pre-Licensure coursework. Students take the Florida Depart-

ment of Environmental Protection’s Level C Water Operator test at the end of their senior year.

Karyn Barber, a former college advisor, is outreach coordinator for the program. The goal of the program, she says, is to give students in the AEWTP hands-on experience. “That hopefully results in them passing the licensing exam and maybe even coming to work here. As people retire, we’re going to need more skilled and trained young

people,” says Barber.

Because one does not need to go to college to pass the Level C operator exam, Palm Bay Utilities’ internship program “is a good fit for those students who are maybe not college-driven and are going to be more focused on a career out of high school,” she adds.

For the utility, the benefit is in “the hope of finding local students who want to continue to be a part of the utility and give back in the sense that they’re going

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wanted them to go beyond just watching someone else perform their skill. We want them to get some hands-on experience and they definitely do.”

Each intern is assigned one or two mentors. Interns meet twice a week to discuss their progress with their supervisors and others in the department.

“We have conversations with them to see how things are going and give them pointers and feedback,” says Bott.

“In some circumstances where there might be an issue, it’s a great opportunity to mentor them. A lot of these students are young and we have an opportunity to tell them that while they might be able to be late for school, when they’re working with an employer, that’s not going to work. We’ll work with them on attendance and other issues.”

Bott says if there’s been any drawback to the Long Beach Water Department’s internship program, it’s logistics.

“It’s been a really popular program—we went from one to 10,” he points out. “When we had those 10, we had space issues. We had a little bit extra work for IT to get computers set up and other things we weren’t anticipating because we weren’t expecting that many.

“As folks said they needed an intern, the next question is ‘Do you know where this person is going to work? They need a computer, they need a desk.’ You need to be prepared to answer those questions in order for it to be a success because you only have eight weeks.”

An internship can be a poor experience for a student if nothing is ready for them upon their arrival, points out Bott.

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to work here, they live here, they grew up here—that kind of ownership that goes into it,” she adds.

Palm Bay Utilities pays its interns $10.23 an hour; they work 20 hours a week for six weeks. The interns follow a curriculum set up for a six-week period that includes 2.5 weeks each at the city’s reverse osmosis and lime softening plants where they are under the guidance of the plants’ superintendents.

Students have learned about water quality testing and have done filter changes. “Each day, there are different activities that they’re doing,” says Barber, adding that the activities follow the typical day in a water utility.

The students also have a curriculum that is augmented by the training they need on items that they will be asked about on the operator license exam. At the end of the day, the students review questions with superintendents, who essentially serve as mentors.

In addition to spending time at the two plants, student interns tour other local plants to get them exposed

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“It’s a valuable part of the program for them to understand the reality that there are things you need to be thinking through and you need to be trained well. Training is important.” to how other utilities operate, Barber says. The plan this year is to tour water utility plants in Melbourne and Cocoa Beach, FL. A new feature of the program this year is spending half-day rotations through some of the other departments within the utility, such as engineering, GIS, distribution, and collection.

“We do that at the end with the thought they’ve spent the whole summer going through that operator part of the job, which is what they’re being prepared for in that exam they’re going to take, but some of them get to the end of the internship and discover that’s not what they want to do,” says Barber.

“We’re trying to expose them to some other ways they can be involved with the city and with the utilities.”

Palm Bay Utilities’ superintendents also teach the interns the importance of plant safety.

“There are a lot of different things such as chemicals and working at different heights that they’re being trained on,” says Barber. “Their access is limited because they are high school students, but I think it’s a valuable part of the program for them to understand the reality that there are things you need to be thinking through and you need to be trained well. Training is important.”

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and more hands-on experience, such as driving vehicles.

Santos echoes that.

“The job exposure will certainly assist the student interns to decide on what field or type of work they would pursue once they finish school,” he adds. WE Frequent contributor Carol Brzozowski specializes in topics related to water resource management and technology.

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SUMMING UP Rule’s advice to water utilities looking to set up an internship program is to obtain “support from upper management, a well-developed plan and ample staff to facilitate the program. A strong partnership with local colleges also is critical.”

Bott concurs that community partnerships are vital when starting an internship program.

“We’ve had some really good partners with the Long Beach Unified School District, with the community college and the state college around us as well as Long Beach Job Corps,” says Bott. “Taking advantage of those opportunities and brainstorming with

them to make this work was really key.

Trying to go at this alone would have failed, but we had a lot of support.”

Utilities also should start small, he advises.

“Have a few interns because those become your success stories that you can build upon,” adds Bott.

Those like Zavala who have had internships say the hands-on experience is invaluable and utilities should allow interns to have more privileges

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which they offer feedback on how to enrich the program. Barber is endeavoring to teach the interns additional skills, such as networking and resume writing.

Palm Bay Utilities is in its third year of the internship program. Two interns went through it the first year. In 2014 and this year, the number doubled to four. To date, none of the interns have gone into full-time work for the utility. Most of them have chosen to go on to college. That can be a drawback for utilities that put time and financial resources into a program that may not guarantee the student will later become an employee.

But that isn’t necessary a negative, points out Barber.

“It’s been a positive experience for everybody here that’s been a part of it,” she says. “Everybody I’ve spoken to feels like this is a valuable program and the students who have come through the program seem to have at least benefitted from it in the sense that they got that professional working environment experience. Even though we haven’t directly put them back into our system, that doesn’t mean they haven’t learned some valuable things for later on down the road.”

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GUEST EDITORIAL | TODD STOCKER

Smarter Solutions for Increasing Operational Efficiency ONGOING DROUGHT ACROSS WATER-STRESSED

provide the platform for the development of a smart infrastructure system.

Armed with the intelligence supplied by a smart infrastructure system, utilities can better maintain their water distribution systems and realize more efficient water management.

As an example, with customer-side leak detection, potential leaks inside

ACLARA

southern and western US regions has highlighted the risks facing many cities, communities, and industries as a result of dwindling water supplies.

Water-shortage impacts have been particularly acute in California in recent years, where a historic drought has depleted groundwater and surface water resources, strained agriculture, and continues to threaten the state’s long-term water security.

According to a new study from the University of California– Davis, California’s drought will cost the state $2.7 billion this year.

In response to California’s multi-year shortage, Governor Jerry Brown earlier this year issued an executive order mandating residents and businesses statewide to cut water use by 25%, underscoring the significance of strategies and technologies that can work to cut water usage and conserve municipal supplies.

As an effective measure for enhancing the water efficiency of municipal water distribution systems, smart infrastructure technology is emerging as a valuable application, enabling for utilities to monitor systems, collect data automatically, and analyze information to optimize processes and control water use.

Smart infrastructure technologies— which incorporate a range of sensing, communications, and data analysis and management solutions—allow utilities to detect and pinpoint issues throughout the distribution network and at customers’ homes, leading to an improved understanding of where and how water is used, including where it is lost. By providing greater insight into a water utility distribution system, these tools

of homes could be identified earlier.

Likewise, with the ability to implement distribution-side leak detection, small underground leaks in water infrastructure could be located before becoming a major problem.

DATADRIVEN ANALYTICS In line with the simple concept that “you can’t fix what you can’t measure,” data collection represents the basis for a smart infrastructure system. Using advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) to capture data via automated meter reading technology, utilities have the opportunity to access consumption data for every meter on their networks. But while AMI technology can provide rich data, it is essentially a point-to-point solution: it reads a meter and collects meter data.

A smart infrastructure system can do

much more than that.

As a first basic step to the development of such a system, collecting and aggregating consumption data can provide the platform for analyses that allow utilities to make sounder decisions about how much water is put into a system and how much is taken out. But moving beyond that, data can be significantly more insightful and powerful when it is time-stamped. By doing so, utilities could view an entire system’s consumption at specific points in time, providing a much clearer picture on the true health of a system.

“Time-stamped reads are great for production, helping us come up with accurate water loss numbers,” says Josh Wedding, water system operator for Redmond, OR, which deploys an Aclara STAR network for AMI. “We use that monthly to do water loss audit.

Our water loss annually is about 3.5%.”

Time-stamped reads also help keep costs down, according to Wedding.

“Every gallon of water pumped that we don’t sell, we have to write off,” he says.

“Time-stamped data helps us provide more cost-effective service to customers.”

To incorporate a smart infrastructure approach also means managing a water system from a more holistic standpoint. For example, if the pressure profile of an entire system is understood, utilities could manage their networks more effectively and make smarter distribution decisions.

Leak detection technology also plays a key role. While AMI can alert to non-revenue water loss, a leak detection system will pinpoint the exact location on a map. Even if a utility doesn’t have the resources to repair the leaks imme-

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diately, by knowing the pressure profile, re-routes could be conducted in the most advantageous way so as to minimize losses until a fix can be initiated.

In view of today’s challenges with drought, there is also a significant opportunity to merge smart water infrastructure with other systems— most notably graywater and wastewater systems. While traditionally, water and wastewater have been viewed as separate networks, water limitations are driving solutions that close the loop and merge these processes together.

By extending data collection and data aggregation to wastewater operations, and pulling that information into a larger system, higher levels of water efficiency and water savings may potentially be achieved.

With such low market inclusion of these systems—and considering that the US Geological Survey estimates that the volume of water lost through distribution systems is on the order of 1.7 trillion gallons per year at a national cost of $2.6 billion—substantial opportunity exists for utilities to minimize water loses and conserve supplies through smart infrastructure system adoption.

START WITH AMI For leak detection in residential homes, AMI systems can deliver comprehensive usage data through a secure, longrange wireless network. Data collected, at minimum, on an hourly basis is assembled into a report, allowing utilities to identify customers who may have leaks inside their homes. Many utilities

Smart infrastructure can help droughtaffected regions slash overall water usage.

A SIGNIFICANT OPPORTUNITY FOR ADOPTION Despite the tremendous benefits afforded by the incorporation of smart infrastructure technologies related to water conservation, more streamlined operations, and enhanced system efficiency, most municipalities in California and across the nation—some 75–80% of the market—still do not have an AMI or similar fixed-network system in place.

Moreover, approximately half of all water utilities in the US do not employ basic water metering.

make these reports available online, so it is easy for customers to monitor their own water usage.

By collecting water use data every hour, utilities are more able to determine the potential for a leak. Since most people generally don’t use water every hour, water consumption occurring 24 hours a day at a home provides a good indication of an unintended leak—such as a leaky toilet, an outside spigot left on, and several other scenarios.

These reports also enable utilities to identify abnormal patterns and take

proactive measures against potential problems. For example, a house averaging 50 gallons of water use per day that suddenly jumps to 250 gallons could be flagged for notification. In some cases, this type of use is intended, such as a pool being filled, but if this use is unintended, such as a burst irrigation line, a significant amount of water could potentially be saved by contacting the homeowner.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is one of the largest water utilities in California. It relies on its two-way fixed network from Aclara to collect hourly data from the city’s 180,000 meters using Aclara’s two-way fixed network. This data feeds a system developed by the utility that lets customers track usage online. An Aclaragenerated report also allows SFPUC to identify customers who may have leaks inside of their home.

Heather Pohl, automated water meter program manager for SFPUC, said the Aclara report informs the utility which accounts have exhibited continuous usage every hour over a three-day reporting period each week. “We filter that report for single-family homes and analyze it to identify the minimum usage for each account,” she said. “This process allows us to gauge the severity of the suspected leak.”

Postcard notifications are sent to customers who show up on the report, alerting them of a possible leak. The SFPUC also monitors the reports to find out if those customers have dropped off the list, assuming they may have responded to the notification and fixed the leak. Future enhancements to the report may benefit commercial customers and those owning multifamily residences such as apartment buildings.

FINDING DISTRIBUTION PROBLEMS The challenge of finding underground leaks is one of the thorniest facing water utilities. These leaks cause most of the water loss for utilities, but are usually “silent” problems that only get noticed when water surfaces.

Technology with acoustic sensors

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GUEST EDITORIAL | TODD STOCKER placed at various locations in the distribution system can help utilities identify leaks before they surface.

Acoustic leak-detection systems reduce non-revenue water losses by developing critical water distribution system knowledge automatically and with minimum operator involvement. By automating the collection, retrieval, and analysis of acoustic data gathered

throughout the water system, utilities can pinpoint underground leaks.

Systems such as Aclara’s STAR ZoneScan deploy highly-sensitive acoustic data loggers at regular intervals on valves throughout the water-distribution network and record vibrations in the quiet early hours when factors such as traffic that affect leak noise are minimized. The STAR ZoneScan system

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transmits recorded sounds to the utility via the AMI network where, through acoustic correlation, the data is automatically analyzed to identify potential leak locations.

Correlated, acoustic leak detection allows utilities to pinpoint underground leaks to within approximately three feet. The Aclara system is deployed in a number of East Coast communities such as Sylacauga, AL, which uses the tool to find underground leaks that occur on hundreds of miles of galvanized service lines and cast-iron pipes.

“This type of pipe, some of which was installed as early as 1906, is more likely than others to leak because of corrosion,” said Mike McGinnis, superintendent of water in Sylacauga.

“In a half-mile radius we might find six leaks. Every place we have installed the system we have found leaks that we can repair.”

The Aclara STAR ZoneScan system was one of the tools that helped Sylacauga reduce its non-revenue water losses from about 34–23%.

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Contrary to the general perception that implementation of smart infrastructure technology involves a time-consuming process with delayed benefits, Aclara’s smart infrastructure solutions are flexible, easily-installed, and do not require extensive custom-specific engineering prior to operation. By realizing a fast time to full automation, utilities can quickly begin identifying potential leaks at customer properties and within its distribution network, leading to increased water use control and improved water efficiency.

With the availability of today’s smart infrastructure solutions, including advanced metering infrastructure and leak detection technologies, utilities have a powerful tool for conserving water supplies, preventing unwanted water losses, and better helping communities address the challenges associated with drought and higher occurrences of water stress. WE Todd Stocker is the director of water and gas product management with Aclara.

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GUEST EDITORIAL | DAN PINNEY

WHILE EVERY CITY MAY take a different road to becoming smarter, all the roads lead to the same goal—to better serve their heir citizens by being more responsive and more efficient.

This goal can be achieved by connecting the community through technology, and understanding how one department impacts acts another. Through recent advances in the Internet of Things, data, and cloudoudbased computing, cities can see where their infrastructure can become more efficient and sustainable. From transportation and buildings to water utilities and municipal lighting, each of these public service providers has a role to play in improving operations citywide.

Data analytics is key to unlocking the information needed for a smarter, more collaborative city. As more machines and people become connected, cities will begin to receive greater insights into their operations.

For example, a town that is experiencing traffic issues and wants to improve its transportation system could simply look at the energy consumption rates inside office buildings and residences to determine when people are traveling to and from work. That same city could also use information from sensors on streetlights to conserve energy, prevent crime, and increase operational efficiency.

Without data analytics, however, the information is just that—information.

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How Water Utilities Lead the Smart City Movement

To truly become a smart city, it is crucial to interpret the massive amounts of data from communication networks to enact meaningful change in city planning and sustainability.

SMARTER CITIES HELP COMBAT DROUGHTS Data provides utilities an unprecedented look into how people interact with their cities. This insight can have major impacts in the water industry, including conservation. By leveraging the data from their smart water networks—an integrated set of products, solutions, and systems that allow utilities to better monitor their infrastructure and increase water efficiency—droughtstricken California water departments are acting on meaningful insights that could improve drought conditions.

However, utilities receive an overwhelming amount of information from their communication networks on a daily basis. They need to sift through this tidal wave of information, extract

the key pieces of knowledge, and share it with their customers and other public service providers.

By analyzing data, utilities can promote interconnectivity within the utility and relevant organizations, such as city planning, transportation departments, or emergency services. Data analytics also help water utilities improve efficiency and conservation efforts by catching water leaks and providing customers with the information they need to save water.

Prior to smart water networks, many utilities would have to wait for a customer to report an unusually high water bill—often the result of a leak.

Now, they can leverage the data from their smart water networks to account for every drop of water in their system and make a real impact on water conservation.

Within days of implementing a smart water network, a utility in Pennsylvania caught a leak that was gushing 200,000 gallons of water per day. Imagine the impact on the drought in California or the southwest United States if they realized even a portion of this water savings at each utility.

Water plays a key role in everyday life—from drinking and hygiene to agriculture, landscape, tourism, and more.

Data analytics can provide utilities with the tools they need to protect this precious resource for generations to come.

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GUEST EDITORIAL | DAN PINNEY COMMUNICATION IS KEY By leveraging data analytics, cities can greatly improve their operations and efficiency. However, it is important for utilities and their government counterparts to effectively communicate in order to streamline their efforts. A simple way for these organizations to align is by exchanging information.

Data shared from hundreds of electronic devices can help cities and utilities better forecast issues in their infrastructure, enhance customer service, and lower costs.

Working together and sharing information can produce efficiencies that benefit everyone. Whether it’s dispatching emergency services, redirecting traffic, turning on the streetlights for a major event, or repairing a water line, data analytics has an important role to play in building smarter cities.

Information is key to good customer service, and data analytics provides just that. By utilizing data analytics, water

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utilities can provide their customers with a never-before-seen look at their water consumption. This creates an open dialogue between the utility and its customer about potential water leaks eaks and methods for improving conservation.

BENEFITS FOR THE FUTURE To summarize, data analytics allows the walls to come down between utilities and public service departments.

With advancements in communication technologies and the Internet of Things, each organization can understand their impact on city operations. Ultimately, this will help cities become smarter.

Utilities and their customers crave basic data and visualization tools, such as charts, graphs, and online dashboards. Data analytics allows water utilities to provide this information to their customers and realize even greater value hidden within the information.

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Data analytics can also have environmental and societal advantages.

With greater insights from smart water networks, utilities can catch costly water leaks and make an impact combating droughts.

Ultimately, data analytics is key to maximizing the massive amounts of information that utilities receive ffrom their interconnected technologies. Analyzing data and creating nol actionable insights can improve operations, reduce cost, and decrease inefficiencies for utilities and their partners.

This exchange of data has the potential to create smarter cities worldwide that maximize conservation to improve quality of life. WE Dan Pinney is the global director of water marketing for Sensus, a clean technology solutions company offering smart meters, communication systems, data analytics software, and services for electric, gas, and water industries.

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EPA WATERSENSE | KAREN FLIGGER

WaterSense Partners of the Year Find Innovative Ways to Make a Difference Every Day THE US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Agency (EPA) honored the 2015 WaterSense Partners of the Year during the WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas, NV, October 8, 2015. WaterSense also recognized four Sustained Excellence winners for their continued high level of commitment to the program.

The winners, along with thousands of other dedicated WaterSense partners, have made a difference every day across the country by creating, rebating, communicating, and educating consumers about WaterSense labeled products, homes, and programs. As a result, Americans have saved 1.1 trillion gallons of water and $21.7 billion in water and energy bills since the program began in 2006.

The ongoing drought in California has heightened awareness of the critical role that water plays in the lives of citizens and the economy. WaterSense partners help create an ethic of water efficiency across the country and assist communities as they face water supply and infrastructure challenges.

“We are so appreciative of, and continually impressed by, our WaterSense partners’ dedication to making water efficiency a priority,” says EPA Office of Water senior policy advisor Ellen Gilinsky. “By touching lives with water-efficient products, programs, and practices on a daily basis, they’re helping improve community resilience to extreme weather conditions such as drought and providing a foundation for water conservation that will help save water for future generations.”

Following are just a few of the winners’ contributions.

SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS Kohler Co. Achieving its third consecutive honor as a WaterSense Sustained Excellence Award winner, Kohler Co. focused its 2014 efforts on drought-affected areas, in part by working with The Home Depot to offer promotions on WaterSense labeled toilets and showerheads to consumers in California. The company also supported the Johnson Foundation’s Charting New Waters Initiative to find ways to protect the country’s water resources.

Kohler promoted WaterSense labeled toilets at more than 195 events through its Trust the Flush campaign bus tour. In addition, the company promoted WaterSense labeled products at the Green Builder Media’s VISION House in INNOVENTIONS at Walt Disney World’s Epcot in Orlando, FL, which attracted more than 200,000 visitors.

Delta Faucet Co. Delta Faucet Co., a three-time Manufacturer Partner of the Year, earned its first WaterSense Sustained Excellence Award for its collaborative efforts to promote water efficiency and WaterSense labeled products in 2014. Delta met quarterly with major WaterSense retail partners to develop and execute strategic plans that promoted WaterSense labeled products. Delta also conducted studies with two global hotel chains to understand the best water efficiency improvements for lodging facilities.

In 2014, Delta introduced its WaterSense labeled FlushIQ toilet, equipped with leak and overflow protection, as well as two different WaterSense labeled faucets that were recognized for their design excellence.

“Water conservation is increasingly important to consumers, but it’s important to note many are unwilling to sacrifice the quality of their daily experiences with water,” says Paul Patton, Delta Faucet Co.’s senior research and development and regulatory manager. “This consumer insight underscores Delta’s relentless need to create products that not only save water but exceed expectations.”

Delta’s HappiMess brand campaign further promoted WaterSense labeled products and received significant exposure, including a New York Times article, more than 2,700 tweets featuring the hashtag #HappiMess, and more than 90 blog posts.

KB Home KB Home earned its first Sustained Excellence Award after receiving the Builder Partner of the Year designation for four years. The company built 96 WaterSense labeled homes in 2014, and introduced five new communities in which all homes will be designed to earn the WaterSense label. KB Home also constructed homes that feature waterefficient products that go above and beyond WaterSense criteria. The WaterSense labeled Double ZeroHouse 2.0 and 3.0 model homes in California include graywater recycling systems for toilets or landscaping, and feature WaterSense labeled and other water-efficient fixtures and appliances.

“We are always so pleased to hear from [homeowners] after they’ve lived in their home for a few weeks,” says KB Home vice president of sustainability Jacob Atalla. “We often hear, ‘We know you told us our home would be energyand water-efficient, but this has truly

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EPA WATERSENSE | KAREN FLIGGER exceeded our expectations!’”

KB Home’s innovations were covered on a local television news series called “Be Waterwise Wednesdays.” The company continued to train its sales staff on WaterSense label and certification requirements and offered its contractors training on WaterSense’s indoor and outdoor homes criteria.

The Home Depot As a three-time Retailer Partner of the Year, The Home Depot earned its first Sustained Excellence Award for its efforts to generate awareness with 518 billion WaterSense media impressions in 2014.

The Home Depot featured WaterSense and WaterSense labeled products on its website, Google, and The Weather Channel, as well as in-store promotions and product discounts.

Coinciding with Fix a Leak Week, The Home Depot launched a five-week national campaign promoting water efficiency. Various stores hosted events in collaboration with WaterSense partners to educate community members about finding and fixing leaks and provided kits with WaterSense labeled products.

In partnership with AmeriCorps and the State of California, The Home Depot also gave away more than 30,000 water conservation kits to drought-affected households.

“When we were approached by the California governor’s office to help with easing the effects of the drought in the West, we knew this was an opportunity to not only provide immediate relief but also education around the water conservation commitments of WaterSense,” says Ron Jarvis, vice president of environmental innovations with The Home Depot.

PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS OF THE YEAR City of Charlottesville The City of Charlottesville, VA, undertook a variety of efforts to promote WaterSense and earn a Promotional Partner of the Year Award. The city’s popular Fix a Leak Week Family 5K race featured a “running toilet” and WaterSense t-shirt giveaway, as well as information on the city’s WaterSense labeled toilet rebate program. At the Virginia Discovery Museum’s Kid*Vention event, staff distributed kids’ activity books and other items encouraging water effi-

From Collaboration to Education, Partners Excel Six WaterSense partners received Excellence Awards to recognize their support for a specific aspect of the program in 2014: Excellence in Strategic Collaboration: Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) in Colorado partnered with numerous organizations to promote WaterSense, including the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. It helped students retrofit 233 dormitory toilets with WaterSense labeled models.

Excellence in Promoting WaterSense Labeled Products: Denver Water educated Colorado retailers about WaterSense labeled products and the utility’s rebate programs. Denver Water launched a WaterSense Challenge with eight multi-family buildings and helped building owners retrofit approximately 3,700 units with WaterSense labeled products.

Excellence in Education and Outreach: During Fix a Leak Week 2014, the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District hosted a Water Drop Dash 5K race and Water Festival to showcase simple ways to find and fix leaks in homes. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services tailored WaterSense materials to its residents and created the “Saving Water is in Your Future” pamphlet featuring the winner of its New Hampshire Cute Kid Photo Contest.

Excellence in Sprinkler Spruce-Up Activities: The Municipal Water District of Orange County in California supported WaterSense’s Sprinkler Spruce-Up campaign and promoted water-efficient plant choices and WaterSense labeled irrigation controllers to 700 customers at six events at local Home Depot stores and garden centers.

Excellence in Promoting the Water/Energy Nexus: In Washington state, Puget Sound Energy launched a sports-themed Energy Upgrade campaign, where fans who took public transit to a Seattle Seahawks game were given a golden ticket for free WaterSense labeled showerheads and energy-efficient appliances.

Charlottesville, VA, children learn about the importance of saving water at the 2014 Virginia Discovery Museum Kid*Vention event.

ciency. The city also provided Charlottesville’s Local Energy Alliance Program home energy coaches with water conservation kits containing WaterSense labeled showerheads and leak-detection dye tablets for homeowners.

In 2014, the city created a high school “Blue Team” consisting of students who visited more than 200 homes with water conservation kits and information about WaterSense labeled product rebates.

“The City of Charlottesville’s youth are some of our largest water saving supporters . . . and the Blue Team has become [some] of our more effective water-saving advocates,” says City of Charlottesville water conservation program coordinator Jill Greiner.

Employing a number of outreach mechanisms, the city distributed 500 toilet rebates to residential and multi-family homes and surveyed consumers to evaluate awareness of the rebate program.

Cobb County Water System Four-time Promotional Partner of the Year Cobb County Water System in Georgia made a splash with all of WaterSense’s outreach campaigns in 2014. The utility recruited five hotels to participate in the H2Otel Challenge and provided them with free water audits and WaterSense promotional items, such as mirror clings and room tent cards. For the Shower Better campaign, Cobb County worked with Kennesaw State University to install 3,600 WaterSense labeled showerheads in its dorms.

“When we looked at some of our highest water-using accounts, universities were among the highest. Because they are focused on education, it makes it a natural

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the community. The city supplemented its outreach with in-person resident engagement through its traveling event booth, visiting everything from farmers’ markets to youth sporting events to inform residents about simple steps to save water with WaterSense labeled products and water-efficient behaviors.

In assessing the effectiveness of its Water Wise Kids program, the city found that

80% of children who participated have adopted water-efficient behaviors, including shorter showers.

Murray City collaborated with local plumbers and plumbing suppliers during Fix a Leak Week 2014 to promote its WaterSense labeled toilet rebate program.

In addition, Murray staff hosted such a successful Fix a Leak Week booth at a local Lowe’s Home Improvement store

Ne

w

fit to introduce a program that will both increase the students’ knowledge about water-saving products and save universities and colleges money by reducing utility costs,” says Cobb County Water System senior project manager Kathy Nguyen.

The county’s Sprinkler Spruce-Up campaign included a local television segment about water-efficient irrigation systems, and the utility had a hands-on WaterSense labeled irrigation controller demonstration in its lobby. For Fix a Leak Week 2014, Cobb County teamed up with the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District’s Water Drop Dash 5K and distributed 100 outdoor water efficiency kits to runners and attendees.

Cobb County staff also worked with Niagara Conservation and Green Plumbers USA to promote WaterSense labeled toilet and showerhead retrofits and hosted events at local Home Depot stores, distributing 6,000 free WaterSense labeled showerheads.

“Our most successful initiatives always begin and end with great partnerships, and WaterSense is one of those partners, as well as the bridge we often use to build other partnerships,” says Nguyen.

Murray City Corp.

Despite having limited resources, Murray City Corp. in Utah made a big difference as a WaterSense Promotional Partner of the Year. Using bill stuffers, blog posts, and social media, the city’s Tap Into Murray Quality campaign promoted WaterSense labeled products throughout

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EPA WATERSENSE | KAREN FLIGGER that the retail location sold out of WaterSense labeled showerheads!

“Management and staff at Lowe’s were tremendous to work with,” says Murray City water distribution supervisor David Frandsen. “It was a mutually beneficial experience and an awesome feeling to see our customers take advantage of our WaterSense Rebate Program.”

Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas earned a Promotional Partner of the Year Award by demonstrating creativity in promoting WaterSense. Texas AgriLife reached more than 20,000 consumers during its demonstration tour with a Mobile WaterSense Home featuring labeled bathroom fixtures, and at other regional events. During Fix a Leak Week 2014, the center launched its Find It, Flag It, Fix It campaign urging homeowners to check their irrigation systems for leaks and flag

areas in need of repair. Approximately 6,000 green flags with the WaterSense logo were distributed.

“Find It, Flag It, Fix It has been our most successful outreach campaign to date. We have received calls from people whose neighbors have left flags in their yards as a courtesy,” says Clint Wolfe, Program Manager at Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas.

Through its participation in events, such as the State Fair of Texas, Texas AgriLife reached an additional 500,000 people with its dual-flush toilet and irrigation controller demonstrations, as well as a rainwater harvesting display. Texas AgriLife employees reached even more people through a series of local Sunday morning television news interviews about WaterSense labeled homes. “The ability to promote water efficiency and WaterSense to a weekly audience of more than 750,000 [television viewers] is an educator’s dream,” says Wolfe.

Texas AgriLife also collaborated with

a local developer to design a new residential community that will exclusively feature WaterSense labeled properties, including 900 single-family homes and 120 townhomes.

MANUFACTURER PARTNER OF THE YEAR The Toro Co. Throughout 2014, The Toro Co. utilized strategic partnerships to generate awareness of WaterSense labeled products.

Regional sales managers worked with water agencies in their territories to educate consumers about installing and programming weather-based irrigation controllers, as well as available rebate programs. In partnership with the Irrigation Association’s regional chapters and distributors, the company trained contractors on water-efficient best practices and the controllers that could be used to implement them.

“Water-saving innovations mean very little if the functional benefit and application of the technology is not

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1. Publication Title: Water Efficiency. 2. Publication No.: 1934-8479. 3. Filing Date: October 1, 2015. 4. Issue Frequency: Bimonthly with an extra issue in June. 5. No. of Issues Published Annually: Seven. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $76. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County, CA 93105. Contact Person: Daniel Waldman, 805-682-1300. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County, CA 93105. 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Group Editor: Publisher, Daniel Waldman, 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; Editor: Nancy Gross, 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; Group Editor: John Trotti, 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. 10. Owner: Forester Media Inc., 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; Daniel Waldman, 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1% or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None. 12. Tax Status: The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes has not changed during preceding 12 months. 13. Publication Title: Water Efficiency. 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: September/October 2015.

15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: Avg. No. Copies No. Copies of Single Each Issue Issue Published During Preceding Nearest to 12 Months Filing Date a. Total No. Copies 23,623 23,641 b. Legitimate Paid/Requested Distribution: (1) Outside County Paid/Requested Mail 13,056 14,463 Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (2) In-County Paid/Requested Mail 0 0 Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541 (3) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, 40 50 Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid or Requested Distribution Outside USPS (4) Requested Copies Distributed by 0 0 Other Mail Classes Through the USPS c. Total Paid/Requested Circulation 13,096 14,513 d. Nonrequested Distribution: (1) Outside County Nonrequested Copies 10,266 8,665 as Stated on PS Form 3541 (2) In-County Nonrequested Copies as 0 0 Stated on PS Form 3541 (3) Nonrequested Copies Distributed 0 0 Through the USPS by Other Classes of Mail (4) Nonrequested Copies Distributed 257 450 Outside the Mail e.Total Nonrequested Distribution 10,523 9,115 f. Total Distribution 23,619 23,628 g. Copies Not Distributed 3 13 h. Total 23,622 23,641 i. Percent Paid/Requested Circulation 55.45% 61.42% 16. Electronic Copy Circulation a. Requested and Paid Electronic copies 3,359 3,910 b. Total Requested and Paid Print Copies 16,456 18,423 (Line 15c) + Requested / Paid Electronic Copies c. Total Requested Copy Distribution 26,978 27,538 (Line 15f) + Requested / Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) d. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation 61.00% 66.90% (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100) I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete.

- Dan Waldman, Publisher, 10/1/2015

10/12/15 11:16 AM

known or realized,” says Toro marketing communications manager Alexis Bookman. “Getting the word out to those in the industry and end users about these products and how they contribute to responsible water management is critical.”

The Toro Co. promoted its WaterSense labeled irrigation controllers at 30 national and regional trade shows, expositions, and sales events reaching more than 70,000 people. The company also helped develop test criteria to support WaterSense’s draft soil-moisture based control technologies specification.

has certified since 2013. It also supported 2015 Sustained Excellence Award winner KB Home in its commitment to building 10 communities exclusively with WaterSense labeled homes.

Energy Inspectors Corp. trained 11 inspectors using its hands-on approach to the WaterSense Labeled New Home Inspection Checklist on model homes. To keep everyone up to date, the company created on online training video for all of its inspectors.

LICENSED CERTIFICATION PROVIDER PARTNER OF THE YEAR

Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership Through its continued efforts to train and certify landscape irrigation professionals, Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership (SMSWP) in California earned the Professional Certifying Organization Partner of the Year Award for the second year in a row. In 2014, SMSWP accepted four professional certifying organizations that adopted the

Energy Inspectors Corp.

A three-time Licensed Certification Provider Partner of the Year winner, Energy Inspectors Corp. continued to support the WaterSense New Homes program in 2014. The company certified 100 properties that met the WaterSense homes criteria, doubling the number of homes it

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFYING ORGANIZATION PARTNER OF THE YEAR

WaterSense labeled Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper (QWEL) certification program. QWEL organizations certified 200 new landscape irrigation professionals in 2014.

SMSWP updated the QWEL graywater specialty training module and held an initial training class for 23 participants in 2014. It partnered with the nonprofit organization WaterNow to reach even more plumbers and irrigation professionals with the training. SMSWP also used its new monthly QWEL North Bay Newsletter to spread the word about WaterSense trainings and other continuing education opportunities to QWEL certified professionals.

For more information about the WaterSense Partner of the Year awards, and to learn about becoming a partner, please visit www.epa.gov/watersense. WE Karen Fligger is an environmental protection specialist at the EPA WaterSense program.

SEEKING BOOK PROPOSALS ForesterPress is seeking book proposals and manuscript submissions on current topics of high interest to civil engineers; municipal infrastructure professionals; consultants; industry professionals responsible for meeting soil, water, and energy compliance standards; academics; and other environmental-quality professionals.

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Advertiser’s Index COMPANY

WEBSITE

PAGE

Aclara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.aclara.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 4 AdEdge Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.adedgetechnologies.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 American Leak Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.americanleakdetection.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 DistribuTECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.distributech.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 3 Environmental & Water Resources Institute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.asce.org/ewri/. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Hobas Pipe USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.hobaspipe.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 ITRON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.itron.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Kamstrup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.kamstrup.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Master Meter Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.mastermeter.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 National Rural Water Association. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.nrwa.org. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Plast-O-Matic Valves Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.plastomatic.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Rain Water Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.rainwatersolutions.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Seametrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.seametrics.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Suez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.degremont-technologies.com . . . . . . . . . . . 11 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 WATER EFFICIENCY 57

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10/12/15 8:56 AM

Reader Profile DON JENSEN

By Carol Brzozowski

A typical day involves purchasing; seasonal budgeting; interaction with vendors, consultants, public, and wholesale customers; s superintendent of the George B. Prindle Water Plant employee training and supervision; planning near-term and longin Highland Park, IL, Don Jensen has overseen signifiterm projects; administration of the city’s cross connection control cant system improvements over time. He is an industry program; troubleshooting process control problems; and recordmentor for those just starting to grapple with water service infrakeeping and regulatory reporting, among other tasks. structure and needs. Highland Park, a north shore Chicago suburb, has fewer than 30,000 residents but its water treatment plant serves five additional like communities. The surface water plant draws from Lake Michigan.

What Led Him Into This Line of Work The water utility has come a long way, having begun with an After earning a B.A. with a double major in biology and German from artesian well in 1889 and 2,000 customers. At one time, the water Carthage College, Jensen worked as a Lake County public health saniquality was so poor that residents dubbed it “liquid mud.” But tarian. Five years later, he wanted a change. He took a job as an entrytechnology upgrades have brought steady improvement. level water plant operator at the Lake County Public Water District.

Recent enhancements have increased the drinking water output “After seven years in that job, I applied for my present position where from 21 million gallons per day (MGD) to 30 MGD using new I’ve just celebrated my 29th anniversary,” notes Jensen. ultrafiltration treatment technology. This includes an Evoqua Water Technologies system built into an existing portion of the water treatment plant after a two-month testing required by What He Likes Best About His Work Illinois EPA. For Jensen, it’s the variety of tasks that underscores his job satisfacOther upgrades include updated chemical storage areas, tion. “In this field, we need to know about mechanics, hydraulics, new low lift pumps, new electricity, electronics, Cummins NPower diesel chemistry, microbiology, generators, new access state and federal regulations, control and CCTV systems, control systems, and comupdated boilers and ancilputers,” he says. “There also lary systems, a new HVAC is a good deal of interaction system, SCADA integrawith the public and elected tion of new equipment, officials. No two days are and new automatic transfer the same and we are seldom switches, switchgears, and bored here.” transformers.

While not an arid region, Jensen has overseen His Biggest Challenge a water conservation and Managing people is the efficiency program that most challenging part includes tiered rate plans, of his job, notes Jensen.

The George B. Prindle Water Plant staff at the recent Grand Opening celebrating odd/even address sprinkling completion of the Plant upgrade/conversion project, pictured from left to right: “I come from a technirestrictions, and a requireDon Jensen, Walt Willing, Ted Leffert, Jim Chang, Gale Young, Paul Zegan, Luke Armitage, cal background and find ment for smart sensor inanimate objects to be Marianne Evangelista, Cory Smith, Chris Cizek, and Henry Peskator. installations on new lawn more predictable,” he says. sprinkling systems installed after May 1, 2013—along with public “While we have a great group of professionals working at our plant, education on water conservation and efficiency. The program was there are the inevitable ‘people’ problems to solve.” Additionally, honored with the 2014 Wege Small Cities Sustainability Best Practhe recently completed two-year plant upgrade project was the tices Award by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. most technically-challenging experience in his tenure, says Jensen.

“Accomplishing a comprehensive renovation and process technology conversion while continuing to provide safe drinking water to What He Does Day to Day 60,000 people gave me a few more gray hairs,” he jokes. WE “The past two years have been a whirlwind,” says Jensen. “I’m feeling like the plate-spinning circus performer trying to complete the Frequent contributor Carol Brzozowski specializes in topics related upgrade/conversion project while operating the old process as it to water resource management and technology. was decommissioned, all the while ensuring continued production of high-quality potable water. Even with the project completed, we Help Us Highlight Industry Superstars are all on the steep side of the learning curve with the new ultrafiltration membrane system and many new pieces of equipment to Water Efficiency is accepting Reader Profile nominees. master and debug.”

E-mail us for more information at weeditor@forester.net.

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58 WATER EFFICIENCY WWW.WATEREFFICIENCY.NET

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10/14/15 8:56 AM

FOCUSED ON WATER FEBRUARY 9–11, 2016 + DISTRIBUTECH.COM ORANGE COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER - WEST HALLS A & B + ORLANDO, FL Kelly Saye @WHOLEISTICSafar

@DistribuTECH San Diego was a huge success! Looking forward to engaging new talent in #cleantech #energyefficiency with @EnertechSearch

SmartUtilitySystems @SmartUtilitySys

We had a very successful time @DistribuTECH. Thanks to all who stopped by our booth. See you next year in Orlando.

Owned & Produced By:

Access WDS @AccessWDS

Great #DTECH2015 thank you @DistribuTECH! This year was even better than last. We are looking forward to 2016.

Official Publication of DistribuTECH:

Supporting Publication: ®

Host Utility:

McDonnell Group @mcdonnellgroup

We’re sad #DTECH2015 is over – it was such a great conference.

Our clients had rave reviews!

Thanks @DistribuTECH

SEE FOR YOURSELF WHAT ALL THE TWEETING IS ABOUT. REGISTER ON OR BEFORE NOV. 12, 2015 AND SAVE $200. distributech.com

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10/12/15 11:23 AM

Leaks eventually tell you where they are... but can you afford to wait?

Find leaks before they erupt with the STAR ® ZoneScan leakdetection solution. Jointly developed by Aclara and Zurich-based Gutermann International, the solution locates leaks while they are still underground. The STAR ZoneScan employs acoustic loggers placed on valves along the main to sample the sound waves generated by flowing water. This data is automatically sent to the utility over the STAR® network, where the system’s software correlates it, pinpointing leaks to within a few feet.

The STAR ZoneScan saves time by automating the process of collecting and transmitting data about the water system. It also encourages practical water conservation by helping utilities identify and fix leaks before they become costly, water-wasting emergencies. For more information, please contact us at info@aclara.com or visit us at bit.ly/STARZONESCAN.

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10/12/15 11:23 AM