Transcript On-Site Monitoring 21st Century Necessity

On-Site Wastewater System
Monitoring
Reasons monitoring needed:
• Protection of public health
• Protection of aquifers, rivers and
drinking water supplies
• Electronic notification of system
failures to maintenance
providers
• Electronic verification of system
repair and
operation/maintenance
• Electronic reports to regulatory
agency
U. S. POPULATION GROWTH
1950
150 Million
2000
275 Million
2012
Over 300 Million
ARABLE LAND
•18%
U.S. Land is arable
(means in Latin “I plough, I
farm”
470
Million acres in agriculture
now
1
Million acres lost each year
to civilization
2
Million acres lost each year
to erosion, salinization, and
water logging.
1.2
acres per person are
needed to provide a divers
diet (currently, 1.6 acres of
arable land are available).
0.6
acres of arable land per
person will be available in
2050
Finite amount of “good” soil
ALTERNATIVE ON-SITE WASTEWATER
TREATMENT SYSTEMS
 Operation/Maintenance of wastewater
treatment systems require periodic
operational procedures as well as repair
of mechanical components.
NSF Standard 40 requires a 24 month
operation/maintenance contract. If no
operation/maintenance it is an
environmental disaster.
Texas has perpetual
operation/maintenance rules
Enforcement: Electronic Monitoring
Problem: Monitoring is only as good as
method used. This is the reason that
remote electronic monitoring for on-site
wastewater systems came into
existence.
Maintenance Cheater!!!!
 Remote monitoring was created to
enable
regulatory personnel to verify that the State
mandated on-going routine operation/maintenance is
actually being performed.
 As in any industry there is always that small
number of people who will try to “cheat” the system
for their own gain.
 “News Flash!” Some maintenance providers were
setting at their kitchen table filling in the Report forms
without doing an onsite visit.
 So the on-site wastewater treatment industry has
created an inexpensive solution to this problem.
 Monitoring & Tracking systems with on-site
verification solve the problem by providing a
time/date stamp showing if, when, and for how long
operation/maintenance was performed on the
system.
 Some systems even have a “heartbeat”
report/alert to assure the system has not been
disabled.
JUST
PUSH THE BUTTON!!!
 This century Federal, State, and
Local legislative bodies will be cutting
the funding to regulatory agencies
tasked with keeping our water clean.
 Regulatory bodies grew in the
last century but in the 21st century
remote monitoring of wastewater is a
necessity to keep budgets and staffing
in check.
 Disease and other environmental impacts due to improperly
treated wastewater should never be a problem even though
regulatory agencies will without a doubt be smaller and the
population they serve larger. This will require that they will have
to work more efficiently by taking advantage of 21st century
electronic remote monitoring technology
 It is now a necessity.
When the population grows the smaller regulatory bodies will also have to be
able to review and store the large volume of reports required by the
operation/maintenance rules.
The efficient way to do this is electronically. Not only can the physical size of
storage be reduced but also the ability to retrieve and use the reports can be
greatly increased.

Data can be used to spot trends, identify
unqualified maintenance providers, and also
system brands that consistently do not meet on-site
wastewater treatment standards.
The remote monitoring will report also to the
maintenance providers enabling them to respond
more quickly, and also identify persistent
homeowner abuse problems. Cell phone
notifications used by remote monitoring
systems make the maintenance providers
much more efficient.
Homeowners can view their
operation/maintenance records in real time
on the internet, giving them confidence the
required operation/maintenance they paid
for is being done. It will also help the
homeowner become involved in making
sure their system meets the required
standards of on-site wastewater treatment
systems.
Maintenance providers will become
much more efficient when they are able
to communicate electronically with the
homeowner and the regulatory agency.
Maintenance companies will be able to
verify their employees are spending
adequate time at each
operation/maintenance visit.
Install “Controller”
in panel-board
Monitoring Program
FLOWCHART
Sends event/“heartbeat”
reports to System Receivers
System program sends event “text”
message to Maintenance Provider
System program records
event for Maintenance
Provider, DEQ, & Home
owner
Push the “Button”
confirms to DEQ &
Homeowner the
Maintenance
Provider was
on-site
With a few clicks of the mouse
REGULATORY AGENCIES can see:
 Operation/maintenance contracts that have expired
 E-file reports that are delinquent
 On-site monitor alarms not responded to.
 Heartbeat report showing monitoring units that have
been disabled.
 Onsite systems which have exceeded their permit
g.p.d. limits
We Will Now Enter A
Electronic Monitoring
System:
RMSYS Online
RMSYS is user friendly, just enter details you require to
initiate the permitting process.
Calendar shows when
operation/maintenance is due –
search for expiring contracts
GPD record perpetually
maintained – limit violations
easily identified
Select your report
For remote monitoring to be successful regulatory agencies have to implement:
1.
On-site wastewater rules that require perpetual
operation/maintenance
2.
On-site wastewater rules that require electronic monitoring of onsite
system failure
3.
On-site wastewater rules that require verification that service
personnel are present during scheduled operation/maintenance visits
& respond to system failures in a timely manner.
The protection of public health and the environment demand that remote
electronic monitoring be utilized in the future as population grows and our
environmental regulatory agencies are financially challenged.