BACKGROUND
From encountering problems to winning accolades Bob Snyder, Executive Director of the Plainfield Area Regional Sewerage Authority (PARSA) in Middlesex, New Jersey, understands what it is like to take a wastewater utility from being reactive to proactive.
PARSA is a regional wastewater collection system in central New Jersey. Its service area spans three counties with nine customer towns. The average daily flow in dry weather is about 14 million gallons per day and spikes to 25 million gallons per day in wet weather. The wastewater is conveyed through more than two million feet of pipe throughout the service area.
A series of events led PARSA to take charge of the wastewater collection system which, under a previous operating agency, had experienced multiple problems such as Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSO), pipe collapses, sewer moratoriums, cash flow issues, employee challenges and an odor problem.
One-third of the pipes were approaching 100 years old, with the average pipe age being more than 65 years old.
After PARSA took over in 1995, they began providing flow monitoring, CCTV inspection and I/I remediation services. The authority also has completed 23 capital projects totaling $9 million. The efforts resulted in a 330 million-gallon annual flow reduction, SSO elimination, and avoided regulatory action. All staff are licensed collection system operators and PARSA has won awards from the Water Environment Federation, the New Jersey Water Environment Association, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
CHALLENGE
As the saying goes, ‘What you don’t know can hurt you’ and that holds true for the underground pipe environment that conveys wastewater. Operational missteps lead to regulatory actions, negative relations with customers and a host of other problems.
Situational awareness, through sensor-based remote monitoring served up to those tasked with operating a wastewater collection system, provides useful data to assist wastewater utilities in being proactive – not reactive – to emerging issues.
SOLUTION
Combined with Trimble Unity Remote Monitoring software, the Telog Ru-35 offers wireless wastewater infrastructure monitoring that consistently delivers real-time data and alarms from the field to a desktop, browser or mobile device.
It provides situational awareness of the collection system performance, improves regulatory compliance and reporting, and enables network modeling calibration for infrastructure planning.
The Telog Ru-35 supports several 3rd party sensor interface options and optional sensors that may be directly attached to the recorder, such as flow meters, ultrasonic and pressure level, water quality sondes, temperature, level switches and rain gauges.
The rugged, battery-powered Telog Ru-35 utilizes a low power, 4G LTE/Cat 1 cellular communication modem certified on multiple cellular systems, allowing the unit to be deployed for a variety of remote monitoring applications.
IMPLEMENTATION
A key factor in providing optimal service was the introduction of a common platform on which to view data from multiple wastewater flow meter technologies. In 2002, PARSA teamed with Telog (subsequently acquired by Trimble in 2015) to accomplish that goal.
At the time, PARSA incorporated the Telog recorders with flow meters from various manufacturers to provide real-time flow monitoring and alarming of instruments and sensors found in the harsh environment of sewers and underground water vaults.
When Telog released the battery-powered Telog Ru-33 portable recorder, PARSA management realized the potential and versatility and utilized them to conduct real time flow studies throughout the PARSA system that had previously been inaccessible with the AC-powered units, Snyder notes.
“While the Telog Ru-33 offered this flexibility and reliability, there were a few unfriendly elements to the unit,” he says. “The connectors on the top were difficult to tighten or loosen when connecting to a flow meter and often would become disconnected. The battery compartment was difficult to open and frequently required two people or the use of a bar for leverage. The extended life battery could only be sourced from Telog, requiring you to purchase and have large inventory on hand for replacement. PARSA’s staff expressed these concerns to Telog and they listened,” says Snyder.
“When PARSA first viewed the new Trimble Telog Ru-35 prototype at our office, we knew it was an improvement over the Telog Ru-33,” he adds. PARSA then upgraded the technology when Trimble released the Telog Ru-35, which incorporated operator-friendly elements.
“The new Telog Ru-35 has a dual battery design you can buy off the shelf and the connectors have enough room to fit your hands around ,” says Snyder, adding that PARSA was among the first to adopt the new Telog Ru-35 technology once released.
Snyder notes the reason PARSA chose the Telog Ru-35 is its operator-friendly design that provides the authority a platform for flow monitoring equipment from different manufacturers to communicate.
Additionally, “we had some Telog Ru-33 units that were 3G technology, which is no longer going to be supported by the cellular carrier Verizon,” says Snyder. “Rather than spending the money to upgrade units that were in some cases 10 years old, we decided to purchase the new Telog Ru-35s to replace them and upgrade at the same time.”
BENEFITS
Since the installation, PARSA has derived numerous benefits.
“The battery life and the battery type has been a huge benefit,” says Snyder. “Now you can purchase two 6-volt lantern batteries from the hardware store and you are in business instead of waiting on a battery from Telog.”
Previously the Telog Ru-33 extended life battery had to be sourced from Telog, notes Snyder.
“The connections where the sensors are physically connected to the Trimble Telog Ru-35 are a huge improvement in that it’s more consistent in the connection method and more accessible,” he says. “It is less likely to fail. The packaging makes it easier to do periodic maintenance with the batteries or inspections.
“The characteristics of communicating with it either via Bluetooth or wired connection is a benefit – you’re able to use Bluetooth wirelessly or via one cable as opposed to needing adapters. There have also been subtle improvements that have made it more user-friendly like size and shape.”
