Featured Videos: Pump Curves and Pump Selection Basics Pump curves inform operators to select and run pumps at optimal efficiency for their system. Whether preparing for a certification exam or looking to refresh your knowledge of pump hydraulics, this week’s featured videos will teach you how to read pump curves, calculate system curves, and use these curves to select an ideal pump for your system. For any given pump, flow will impact pressure head, efficiency, horse power requirements, and vulnerability to pump damage. This video reviews three different pump curves starting with a very simple curve and moving to more complex curves with increasing pump information. Understanding performance, efficiency, horsepower, and net positive suction head (NPSH) curves is essential in selecting the proper pump for your system’s needs. After covering the basics, this video introduces concepts that will help operators to select and run pumps at recommended operating zones to maximize pump life and reduce operational costs. Once you start to feel comfortable with these concepts, the next step is learning how to compare pump curves to your own system. For pump curves to be useful during selection, you must first have a system curve of your own. Prepare for a bit of math because this next video walks through the calculations needed to develop a simplified equation that graphs system pressure head (Hp) as a function of flow rate (Q) squared. When watching the video, remember that z1 is the starting elevation and z2 is the final elevation. With a well developed knowledge of pump curves and system curves, selecting a new pump becomes much easier. This last video demonstrates how to compare the system curve to the pump curve . When comparing these two graphs, the pump’s best efficiency point should be fairly close to the system operating point. Other considerations include how much power is required to operate the pump and the net positive suction head available to avoid pump cavitation. These videos simplify many of the factors that go into a real system, however they offer a good foundation for operators to better understand the theory behind pump curves and pump selection. May 31, 2019 By Jill Wallitschek Operations and Maintenance, Small System O&M pump curves, pump selection, pumps, system curve 0 0 Comment Read More »
What's on the Drinking Water Radar for the Year Ahead: 2019 Being a small-town water operator is not easy; it is up to you to ensure the quality of your community's water day-in and day-out, often with very limited resources. Let WaterOperator.org help you meet the challenge head-on with this list of tools and resources to put on your radar for the year ahead: Have you gotten in the groove yet with the new RTCR requirements? Here are two new documents from the USEPA designed to help small public water systems: Revised Total Coliform Rule Placards and a Revised Total Coliform Rule Sample Siting Plan with Template Manual. Additional compliance help, including public notification templates, a RTCR rule guide, a corrective actions guidance and more can be found here. While we know your hands are full just getting the job done, there are new and emerging issues you may have to deal with in the year ahead. For example, this past year many communities have been dealing with PFAS contamination issues. This ITRC website provides PFAS fact sheets that are regularly being updated on PFAS regulations, guidance, advisories and remediation methods. Especially of interest is this excel file that has begun to list the different state standards and guidance values for PFAS in drinking water as they are developed. Be sure to check back often for updates. Your utility may also have to adjust to new compliance rules in the coming year. In Michigan, for example, a new Lead and Copper Rule arising from the water crisis in Flint has gone into effect, making it the strictest in the nation. Other states, such as Ohio, have also adopted tougher standards, or are now requiring schools to test for lead. Oregon has established temporary rules that will require drinking water systems in the state using certain surface water sources to routinely test for cyanotoxins and notify the public about the test results. With a warming climate, these incidences of harmful algal blooms in surface water are on the increase, causing all sorts of challenges for water systems that now have to treat this contaminant. This cyanotoxin management template from the EPA can help assist you with a plan specific to your location. Worker turnover and retirements will still be an issue in 2019. According to this article, the median age for water workers in general (42.8 years) and water treatment operators specifically (46.4 years) are both above the national average across all occupations (42.2 years). You can keep transitions as smooth as possible by using EPA's Knowledge Retention Tool Spreadsheet and/or this Electronic Preventive Maintenance Log. New Tech Solutions: A UMass lab focusing on affordable water treatment technologies for small systems will be rolling out its Mobile Water Innovation Laboratory in 2019 for on-site testing. In addition, the facility is testing approaches to help communities address water-quality issues in affordable ways. "Early next year, in the maiden voyage of the mobile water treatment lab, UMass engineer David Reckhow plans to test ferrate, an ion of iron, as a replacement for several water treatments steps in the small town of Gloucester, MA. But even without all these challenges and new ideas for the future, simply achieving compliance on a day-to-day basis can be tricky - if this sounds familiar, you may want to check out our recent video on how operators can approach the most common drinking water compliance issues. January 2, 2019 By Brenda Koenig Innovative Technology, Operations and Maintenance, Regulations, Small System O&M, Technology, Water Treatment, Workforce compliance, HABs, LCR, Lead and Copper, PFAS, recruitment, retirement, RTCR, small system o&m, Total Coliform, workforce development 0 0 Comment Read More »
Focus on Chemical Feed Control Chemical dosing at the water treatment plant is a critical, but often underrated step in producing safe drinking water. Historically, process control points have focused on the hazards present in incoming source water - with emphasis on the filtration and disinfection steps to minimize microbial risks. But while many hazards do indeed enter the plant with the raw water, it is just as important to identify the multiple risks associated with treating this raw water. One significant hazard in the treatment of water at the plant is overfeeding, resulting in discoloration, strong smells, or health hazards at the tap. Some of the most common root causes of overfeeding problems are pump or equipment failures, variations in water temperature, and source water characteristic fluctuations, to name just a few. In addition, bringing new technology online can sometimes trigger an event as well. This is why it is important to carefully document chemical handling and feeding information specific to your system on forms such as this one from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. It is also essential to be on top of monitoring, chemical feed math skills and feed pump maintenance in order to correct situations as they arise (not to mention how to use activated carbon or sulfur dioxide to correct water quality issues). This resource from MASSDEP lists immediate action levels for water treatment plant chemicals. This tool from Missouri Rural Water can help you quickly size a chemical feed pump. This NCSE Tech Brief can help you calibrate a liquid feed pump. In addition, overfeed alarm systems are another solid choice for avoiding this problem. Finally, if and when an overfeed occurs in your system, prompt reporting can help speed up remediation. The Minnesota Department of Health provides this emergency response guide to its community PWSs in the case an event is affecting functionality or water quality. Learning who to call for help sometimes is the most difficult step in an emergency response situation, so preparing ahead can save you critical time and effort! *WaterOperator.org staff member Phil Vella contributed to this post. November 21, 2018 By Brenda Koenig Operations and Maintenance, Small System O&M, Water Treatment chemical feed control, chemical feeding, o & m, operations and maintenance, overfeeding, process control, small system o & m, water treatment 0 0 Comment Read More »
Spooky Sewers and Things That Go Bump at the Treatment Plant: 2018 Edition An October chill is in the air and darkness is falling earlier and earlier. It must be time to share our annual bone-chilling list of some of the wierdest, wackiest and downright most frightening water operator stories we came across this year (check out last year's list here)! First, can you imagine what it would be like to get sucked through a sewer for over a mile? Well, it happened to this man when his safety harness came undone back in 2010. And although he survives, the crappy experience is surely something he will never forget. While we are talking collections O&M, here's a video describing one characteristic of a successful wastewater operator: a strong stomach. Another characteristic? Knowing not to "fling this on your partner." And believe me, you don't want to know what "this" is! Sometimes, though, what flows into a sewer simply doesn't come out, no matter how much you work on it. That is when you call in the professionals: sewer divers. This is exactly what the water system in Charleston, SC did when they could not clear an obstruction earlier this month. They sent specialized sewer divers 80-90 feet deep into raw sewage in complete darkness to search for the obstruction with their hands.. What did they find? You guessed it: a large mass of "flushable" wipes. Lucky for us, the water system documented the whole episode on social media, but respectfully shot the pictures in low-res for our benefit. If you want to dive deeper into the topic of sewer exploration, we double dare you to watch this video about a man who swims through Mexico City's wastewater system on a regular basis to keep it working. Other types of obstructions have to be dealt with in other ways. This past summer, utility workers spotted an alligator swimming in the Mineral Springs, PA wastewater treatment plant. A private contractor hired by the state Fish and Boat Commission had to use dead animals as bait to try and snag the gator with a fishing hook. You have to admit, wastewater often gets a bad wrap. To prove this, just ask any operator from Baltimore's wastewater treatment plant what happened there back in 2009. That was the year they had to call in experts to deal with a 4-acre spider web that had coated the plant. According to a scientific paper that appeared in American Entomologist, the “silk lay piled on the floor in rope-like clumps as thick as a fire hose” where plant employees had swept aside the webbing to access equipment. Scientists estimate the megaweb contained about 107 million spiders Finally, it wouldn't be Halloween without ghosts, or ghost water, to be more precise. What is ghost water you ask? Well, pervasive leaks and long repair delays are causing water to disappear in Kansas City, Missouri (a kind of haunting experienced by water systems all across the country it seems). According to this 2017 article, nobody knows exactly where the water is going, but the water department points to faulty meters, theft, aging pipes and abandoned houses. Spooky! October 31, 2018 By Brenda Koenig Emergency Response, Operations and Maintenance, Sanitary Sewers, Small System O&M, Wastewater, Water Treatment, Workforce Halloween, messaging, Outreach, Public Relations, sanitary sewers, sewer divers, sewer diving, sewers, Wastewater treatment, Water Treatment 0 0 Comment Read More »
What's New in our Document Library: Fall 2018 Every day, staff members at WaterOperator.org search the internet to find events, resources and tools that have the potential to make a water operator's job easier and more effective. Here is a selection of our most recently-entered resources of interest to small system operators. Have we missed anything especially helpful recently? Let us know! Biosolids Comparison of Options for Biosolids Dewatering (slide presentation, ORWEF) Cyanobacteria/Harmful Algal Blooms Cyanobacteria and Public Water Systems (guidance manual, MassDEP) Emergency Response Santa Rosa: Response and Recovery from 2017 Fires (slide presentation, ACWA) Disaster Management for Water Utilities - What is Your Emergency Response Plan (slide presentation, Iowa Rural Water Association) Guidance for Building Field Capabilities to Respond to Drinking Water Contamination (guidance manual, US EPA) Financial Management Water Cost of Production (spreadsheet, Iowa Rural Water Association) Inflow/Infiltration Newberg Inflow and Infiltration Study (slide presentation, ORWEF) Non-community Systems Small Water System Management Program Guide for Noncommunity Systems: An Operations and Management Tool for Owners of Nonresidential Water Systems (manual, WDOH) Safety Safety Issues in the Treatment Plant (slide presentation, NAWT) Sampling/Monitoring How to Develop a Sample Siting Plan (video, Alaska DEC) Test-Prep Resources Water Treatment and Distribution Operator Math Reference Sheet (factsheet, AWWA) Water Treatment and Distribution Operator Chemistry Reference Sheet (factsheet, AWWA) Wastewater Current Trends in Digester Mixing Technologies (slide presentation, ORWEF) Handling Flushable Wipes in Wastewater (slide presentation, RUSA/UCC/PNCWA) Water Security Enhanced Security Monitoring (video, USEPA) Wastewater Systems Security Vulnerability Assessment & Emergency Response Template (form/template, Minnesota Rural Wastewater) October 3, 2018 By Brenda Koenig Emergency Response, Operations and Maintenance, Operator Math, Small System O&M, Workforce documents, featured document, library, operator resources, resources, tools 0 0 Comment Read More »
Featured Video: A Day in the Life of a Water Treatment Plant Operator A career in water can provide a great opportunity to earn a good living and make a difference in your community. But what is a water operator job really like? Watch this video from Carmichael Water District in California to find out! Note: This video is shot from a first person POV, and may cause motion sickness. September 28, 2018 By Brenda Koenig Operations and Maintenance, Public Education, Workforce work for water, careers, water industry careers, workforce development 0 0 Comment Read More »