Full Description

In order to provide effective early warning of a contamination event in drinking water, the technologyused must produce credible and timely information that supports the decision making process of theoperator. Recent testing and evaluation by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)has shown that it is feasible to integrate technology solutions to monitor multiple parameters that definewater quality. Extrapolating this concept to practical use in the field has resulted in a completeintegrated water quality remote monitoring system that detects and reports to an operations center theevidence of contamination in real time on a continuous basis. In drinking water systems with a limitednumber of sources of water, the water quality should remain predictable, but where the system is servedby multiple and diverse sources, it may be normal for the water quality in certain areas to vary daily.The value of the information gleaned from a baseline monitoring approach will be greatly enhanced bysaturating (providing complete coverage of) the distribution system with water quality monitoringsystems. There is no single device that can provide all the desired contamination information (chemical,biological, and radiological), so an integrated, economical, and modular "early warning" system tomonitor and analyze water quality remotely has been designed. This cost-effective solution will providecomplete coverage of the area of concern by designing and installing the remote monitoring system in"tiers". Tiers 1, 2, and 3 will function with the following progressive capabilities: detect and in somecases classify chemical, biological, and radiological contaminants in drinking water distribution systems;operate in a continuous, on line fashion that provides an immediate warning directly to a decisionmaker; identify where the contamination occurs within the system and track the movement of itthroughout the system; and, verify the contamination event, and, potentially identify the contaminants.The system can be modified to meet each utility's need versus budget. Tier 1 provides detection andnotification of a potential contamination. This module is designed for general and pervasive, monitoring.Tier 1 monitoring sites have inexpensive, but sensitive sensors that react to a broad range ofcontaminants, and because of the low cost, the sensors can be deployed to cover the distribution system.A group of Tier 1 sites will make up a "domain", based on hydraulics of the system, geography, andcriticality of sensitive areas. The Tier 1 sites report water quality data to the Remote Data Acquisitionand Processing Unit (RDAPU) at the Tier 2 site. The RDAPU monitors and "governs" a specificdomain. The Tier 2 site acquires the data from Tier 1 sites in its domain, communicates criticalinformation to the operations center, and provides greatly enhanced detection capability and a level ofverification. Tier 3 is designed to verify the contamination and identify the contaminant. Tier 3 willprovide confirmation of the event and identify the contaminant within 2 hours of the initial detection. Includes tables, figure.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 09/01/2006 Number of Pages: 10File Size: 1 file , 120 KB