Union Water Supply System Enhances Drinking Water Quality with pipe::scan

UWSS owns one water treatment plant with a capacity of 27.4 million Imperial Gallons per day (124,590m³/day). Two offshore intakes feed water from Lake Erie via pumped systems to the plant, which is operated by the Ontario Clean Water Agency.

There are over 900 km of water mains within the UWSS service area. A service reservoir for the system, the Albuna Water Tower is a raised water tower located in a remote portion of the service area. In winter months, access can be limited. However, compliance sampling and instrumentation maintenance meant that sending service personnel to the reservoir to collect water samples was required.

Installation and Expansion

In April 2022, UWSS installed a pipe::scan from Badger Meter in the outfall of the Albuna water tower to eliminate the need to send service personnel into the field for water quality monitoring. Aquatic Life^®, a Badger Meter distributor, delivered the pipe::scan, a water quality monitoring device for UWSS’s needs. A series of probes and sensors that continuously monitor for up to 10 parameters all plug into a housing that mounts directly onto any horizontal pipe greater than 2" in diameter.

Installation involves fitting the supplied 2" tapping saddle to the pipe, drilling a hole in the main and mounting the base unit to the pipe. Installation can be completed without taking the pipe out of service, by means of a shutoff gate. The entire pipe::scan unit can also be removed or maintained without taking the pipe offline. For UWSS, the impact of remote water quality monitoring was almost immediate.

Data Analysis and Findings

“We went from monthly to quarterly calibrations, resulting in fewer operator interactions, reduced consumable parts, and more comprehensive monitoring of a greater number of parameters, while also eliminating water waste,” Dale Dillen, Senior Operations Manager with OCWA said.

Distributors with Aquatic Life knew that the pipe::scan would be ideal for UWSS based on the reduced maintenance requirements, reduced maintenance costs, elimination of wastewater stream, ability to monitor 10 parameters accurately, and ability to easily integrate data with an existing SCADA system.

Current Usage and Efficiency Gains

UWSS is currently using pipe::scan fitted with several sensors: the i::scan measures NTU, total organic carbon (TOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), UV254/Specific Ultra Violet Absorbance (SUVA), color and temperature; the chlori::lyser measures free chlorine (FCL) and temperature; the pH::lyser measures temperature and pH; and a pressure monitor measures system pressure. Unlike conventional monitoring systems which send water to waste, maintenance is reduced because there are no sample lines or flow-through cells to clean and maintenance is only required once or twice per year, depending on the sensor. Water used for analysis is deposited back into the pipe after circulating past the probes in the pipe::scan.

Water Savings and Maintenance Reduction

Union Staff estimate an annual water savings of 1,300 cubic Liters (3,434,236 gallons) at the Albuna Water Tower after making the switch to the pipe::scan. Maintenance time for the pipe::scan is about 33% of that required for conventional monitoring instruments; or a 66% reduction, according to UWSS staff.

Future Plans and Additional Installations

“From transforming legacy processes to providing new, invaluable information, the pipe::scan is truly indispensable. In fact, we were so impressed by its capabilities that we decided to acquire two of them,” Dillen said.

Today, UWSS has set up a second monitoring station at Cottam Booster Station and is investigating the use of high-frequency water quality data for additional benefits.