Drinking Water Quality Content | Locus Technologies

Solving water utility data management challenges—one conversation at a time

Last month I got the opportunity to attend AWWA Water Quality and Technology Conference in Toronto, Canada. I was very enthusiastic to interact first hand with end-users of different water technology tools, and interact with other water technology professionals. It’s one thing to design software and support it, it’s a whole different thing to sit and talk with the real customers and real end users and get unfiltered feedback.

As a Product Manager, I’m usually connected with our customers by the various email and messaging systems that provide an endless amount of documentation, but nothing can substitute for an in person conversation. I heard first-hand how there is a need to change existing business practices and stop using older, non-integrated systems that only provide part of the data solution. This scenario is not a new problem; there is a need by most water entities to centralize data, and more easily load, share, analyze and report data. I have had this general conversation many times, but the more in depth, one-on-one conversations about sample planning and data collection provided the most useful feedback. I had the opportunity to give a brief demonstration on “Scheduling and collecting routine water samples using Locus Mobile and EIM” at AWWA, which provided a great venue for candid feedback. Based on these conversations, I have summarized a list of frequent challenges that users encounter during their water sampling process and how they can be solved using the right tools or better communications.

Challenge 1: Finding a flexible sampling planning tool

The overall feedback I heard from attendees is their sampling is generally routine, but the planning tools need to allow flexibility in terms of different sampling intervals and date ranges, different field and analytical parameters, and account for location grouping. Using a well-designed application can pull together all of this detailed information, and can provide a summary view of the individual samples. A manager can easily view sample status, and whether the sample is complete, in process, or planned. A well-designed application can also generate the chain of custody (COC), and lab and sample shipping date information and labels per sample, which is a huge time saver. This type of sample tracking detail seemed to be very useful to many conference attendees to help ensure they are in regulatory compliance with required sampling frequencies. A key feature to look for is an application that is flexible enough that it can allow one-time, unplanned sample events such as water main breaks, customer complaints and schedule changes, and can handle complex multi-year routine sampling with ease. As a plus, it’s easy for you or your manager to know where you stand at any time.

Challenge 2: Eliminating data entry errors caused by hand data entry

Everyone I talked with had dealt with data entry errors and fixing bad data when it was transcribed from field notes to Excel or other programs. Everyone wanted a better way to streamline the error prone data collection process. Many attendees were interested in an alternative to the pencil/paper/clipboard method and had goals to move to tablet or smartphone for data collection. As a field data collection mobile product manager, this was my area of expertise. The universal wish list for mobile field applications included:

Easy to use and set up
Built in data validation to catch data entry errors at the source
Direct upload to a data system so the end of the day all the daily samples were in the system with the push of a button
Prepopulating locations especially for large water systems
Complete field instructions for samplers on what to collect and where to collect it to eliminate missed samples
Smart tracking to know on a daily/weekly basis, what samples were collected and what samples were still outstanding
Integrated with sample planning tools (See challenge 1) to automate the sampling instructions and track the data collection activities vs plan

Challenge 3: Getting the most out of their software, especially regarding updates

Everyone one is aware that software updates all the time. Sometimes its security enhancements and sometime feature enhancements or bug fixes. Based on feedback from attendees, a source of frustration is getting a software update and not knowing what was updated or how best to incorporate a new feature/enhancement into their established process. There was also concern for impact to an established routine with field crews that were used to the existing way of doing things. Even if a functionality improved the workflow, enhancements are only valuable to a user if they understand how to use them and how to incorporate them into their existing process.

Some suggestions from the attendees included:

Concurrent documentation updates with software updates
“Quick start” guides for new functionality
Online training on the new functionality with recording for later viewing
Heads up on what is coming in the next several months so they can do strategic planning (sharing the roadmap)
Sandbox environment to test the enhancements before going in production so they can plan how to incorporate the features into their process and train field crews

Mobile applications, which appear very simple to the users, are in reality complex software and require careful integration with the receiving database for a range of complex use cases. This makes rolling out new mobile features challenging for both the developers and the users. Enhanced customer/developer communication along with a sandbox environment can go a long way towards solving some of the inherent issues with rapid innovations and updates associated with cloud and mobile software.

Take Aways

In person feedback beats everything
Communication is key.
Software tools are available and can solve a lot of the common data management challenges, but know what you want, know the problem you are trying to solve, and know it will take some time and effort but the end result will significantly improve your business processes.

About the author—Bill Donaldson, Locus Technologies

Mr. Donaldson has 5 years experience in SaaS systems, performing Product Management and QA/QC of Locus Mobile iOS application and Locus’ Environmental Information Management system (EIM). While completing his B.S., Mr. Donaldson held several paid internships, where he configured a Relational GeoDatabase and a Database Management System (DBMS), for biological data entry.

December 10, 2018

Drinking Water Quality, Environmental Information Management, Laboratory Data Management, Mobile Field Data Collection

Cut your monitoring costs with EIM sample planning

Sample planning can be a valuable and necessary tool for many in highly regulated fields, including water utilities, where adherence to regulatory defined sampling schedules is essential. Moreover, if you have reviewed the drinking water requirements, you know the regulations require complex and variable schedules ranging from monthly samples at routine locations for a set list of parameters to once every five, seven, or nine years at other locations for a completely different list of parameters. Missing a required sampling event can mean fines and public notice to customers.

Other industries face similar complex sampling needs and the financial and reputational impacts can be hefty for missing required samples. So if you are currently an EIM user, or considering an environmental information management system, don’t forget about sample planning components that will save you time and money.

Here are some benefits of Sample Planning that may make you a believer.

Streamline routine or repetitive sampling – set it up once and reuse or modify as needed

Sample Planning in EIM excels in streamlining repetitive sampling, such as required drinking water samples, or quarterly monitoring well samples. Any sampling events with a schedule from daily to once every 10 years can be planned in EIM’s module and reused again and again, even with tweaks to the schedule for the samples to be collected. Imagine the time savings and the simplicity of having your regulatory requirements all lined out for the year and not have to worry about missing required samples. For water utilities, this is especially valuable given the very strict schedules and the public health implications of missing sampling events.

Automatically generate COCs and bottle labels

When samples are planned in EIM, it is a few simple clicks of the mouse to generate COCs, work lists, and bottle labels for the field crew. This saves time for the field and office staff, and helps ensure they collect the needed samples and not miss a collection or a field or laboratory parameter. Moreover, higher levels of accuracy and fewer transcription errors are ensured as sample IDs and requested analyses are printed electronically rather than entered by hand.

Its fully integrated with Locus Mobile – you can send your Sample Plan to field staff to ensure they collect the samples needed

For customer’s considering using Locus Mobile to streamline their field data collection, Sample Planning is a natural fit. All the samples planned in the Sample Planning module can be delivered directly to Locus Mobile for one or more field staff. You can even have multiple different events sent to the field crew so they can plan ahead in the field. All the collected data is uploaded to EIM in real-time (if service is available) or later (if not) for review and final checks after the field event is concluded. Imagine giving your sampling teams the weekly plan and tracking the progress each day as they sync their data. A handy feature of Locus Mobile, it can remove all the previously collected samples from the plan each day to make your field sampler’s life much simpler.

Larger drinking water utilities will find the integration of Sample Planning and mobile quite appealing, especially with daily sampling by multiple sampling teams and a large number of required routine samples.

All your required field sample information is already in EIM for your sampling event.

When lab data comes back from the lab, you no longer need to enter in the field sample information, it will already be in EIM.

For drinking water utilities, where you may be sampling daily for chlorine at your sample locations, imagine seeing the results across your distribution system instantly, and ability to see it on a map in near real time. Even better, you can share the results with your operations team with a simple dashboard link.

Always know where you stand on your sampling activities

By using Sample Planning, you will know exactly what samples have and have not been collected. You will also know which ones were collected late, and which ones are yet to be collected. This type of information can help ensure you don’t’ miss required samples, and identify schedule impacts when collection is not going according to plan.

When missed samples are identified, its easy to add to the next day’s sampling and send that information to field teams using the integrated mobile app.

Gain ability to track receipt of laboratory results with fine precision

For customers that need to track laboratory results down to the method and analyte level, Sample Planning will make that tedious task easy. Therefore, if you ordered an EPA Method 6010C analysis and no result for lead is reported, you will know immediately when the results arrive back from the lab that the deliverable is incomplete. EIM will also tell you when the lab substituted one method for another. You can then decide whether this change is acceptable or not. Because most regulations include a long list of required analytes and acceptable methods, this type of detail is invaluable to help ensure that you remain in compliance.

Make review of laboratory invoice easy as pie

Trying to review laboratory invoices, especially for large sampling events or complex sampling programs, can be a chore. With EIM’s Sample Planning module, most of the hard work is already done for you. Once you have all your data back, EIM will tell you:

If the quantity invoiced is more than the order
If an invoiced line item has been invoiced previously
If an invoiced line item total cost and/or unit cost is incorrect

October 31, 2018

Drinking Water Quality, Environmental Information Management, GIS / Mapping, Laboratory Data Management, Wastewater, Water Utilities

Tips for choosing a GIS application for your environmental database

You can turbocharge your water data management by including a geographical information system (GIS) in your toolkit! Your data analysis efficiency also gets a huge boost if your data management system includes a GIS system “out of the box” because you won’t have to manually transfer data to your GIS. All your data is seamlessly available in both systems.

Not all GIS packages are created equal, though. Here are some tips to consider when looking at mapping applications for your environmental data:

1) Confirm that integration is built-in and thorough

Mapping is easy when properly integrated with your environmental database. You should not need extra filters or add-on programs to visualize your data. Look for built-in availability of features, such as “click to map”, that take the guesswork and frustration out of mapping for meaningful results.

Good integration means mapping is as easy as clicking a “show on map” button. In Locus EIM, you can run a data query and click “Show results on map” icon, change the default settings if desired, and instantly launch a detailed map with a range of query layers to review all chemicals at the locations of interest.

All the query results are presented as query layers, so you can review the results in detail. This map was created with the easy “show results on map” functionality, which anyone can use with no training.

2) Check for formatting customization options

Look for easy editing tools to change the label colors, sizes, fonts, positioning, and symbols. Some map backgrounds make the default label styles hard to read and diminish the utility of the map, or if you’re displaying a large quantity of data, you’ll almost certainly need to tweak some display options to make these labels more readable.

Default label styles are legible on this background, but they are a bit hard to read.

A few simple updates to the font color, font sizes, label offset, and background color make for much easier reading. Changes are made via easy-to-use menus and are instantly updated on the map, so you have total control to make a perfectly labeled map.

3) Look for built-in contouring for quick assessment of the extent of the spatial impact

Contours can be a great way to visually interpret the movement of contaminants in groundwater and is a powerful visualization tool. In the example below, you can clearly see the direction the plume is heading and the source of the problem. An integrated GIS with a contouring engine lets you go straight from a data query to a contour map—without export to external contouring or mapping packages. This is great for quick assessments for your project team.

Contour maps make it easy to visualize the source and extent of the plumes. They can be easily created with environmental database management systems that include basic contouring functionality.

4) Look for something easy to use that doesn’t require staff with specialized mapping knowledge

Many companies use sophisticated and expensive mapping software for their needs. But the people running those systems are highly trained and often don’t have easy access to your environmental data. For routine data review and analysis, simple is better. Save the expensive, stand-alone GIS for wall-sized maps and complex regulatory reports.

Here is a simple map (which is saved, so anyone can run it) showing today’s chlorine data in a water distribution system. You don’t have to wait for the GIS department to create a map when you use a GIS that’s integrated with your environmental database system. When data are updated daily from field readings, these maps can be incredibly helpful for operational personnel.

Screenshot of Locus GIS location clustering functionality

See your data in new ways with Locus GIS for environmental management.
Locus offers integrated GIS/environmental data management solutions for organizations in many industries.
Find out more >

Get a demo of Locus GIS

Error: Contact form not found.

Taking the next steps

After viewing some of the many visualization possibilities in this blog, the next step is make some maps happen!

Make sure your environmental data system has integrated mapping options.
Make sure your sampling/evaluation/monitoring locations have a consistent set of coordinates. If you have a mixed bag of coordinate systems, you will need to standardize. Otherwise, your maps will not be meaningful. Here are some options to try, as well as some good resource sites:
- https://epsg.io/ (transformations)
- http://www.earthpoint.us/Convert.aspx (transformations)
Start with a few easy maps—and build from there.

Happy mapping!

August 1, 2018

Drinking Water Quality, Water Utilities

Shape of Water: Cape Town running out of drinking water

The city cut daily water use limits first to 87 liters and then 50 in a bid to avert shutting off supplies.

The city had set a 50-liter daily limit and had told citizens “Day Zero” was approaching when people would have to queue at standpipes.
But water-saving efforts in the South African city have seen the day pushed back from April to 27 August. Seasonal rains should mean that date is now averted, the city said. The shortages follow three years of low rainfall. The city had resorted to increasingly drastic measures to clamp down on water usage, including “naming and shaming” the 100 addresses using the most water and fining residents who failed to comply with the 50 liters (13 gallons) limit per person.

By comparison, the average California consumer uses some 322 liters (85 gallons) of water per day. Water use in California was highest in the summer months of June through September, where it averaged 412 liters per person per day. By comparison, during the cooler and wetter months of January through March of 2016, average per capita water use was only 242 liters per person per day.

Although the risk that piped water supplies will be shut off this year has receded, politicians and environmentalists warn that the water crisis is there to stay in Cape Town, as year-on-year rainfall levels dwindle.

April 2, 2018

Carollo Engineers selects Locus SaaS for water quality management

Locus SaaS will streamline entire continuum of water activities for one of the largest water firms in the US that specializes in the planning, design, and construction of water and wastewater facilities

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 24 October 2017 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in multi-tenant SaaS EHS and water quality management software, is pleased to announce that Carollo Engineers (Carollo), one of the largest firms in the country focused exclusively on water projects, selected Locus EIM SaaS as its water quality management software. Carollo also subscribed to the Locus Platform SaaS for mobile-enabled asset management.

“Managing water quality data is critical to our clients’ projects,” said Justin Sutherland, Manager of Carollo’s Water Applied Research Center (Water ARC). “Water ARC is a new service provided by Carollo that integrates and enhances our capabilities to collect this data through field analytical, pilot testing, and laboratory-based treatability testing services. Key parts of this new service will be our improved management of field analytical and pilot testing equipment, nationwide, with Locus Platform and streamlined collection and analysis of various data sources with Locus EIM. Incorporating these innovative tools in our project work will help us achieve a higher level of efficiency in managing quality data for our clients.”

Locus EIM is a comprehensive water quality management software, designed to manage mission-critical water quality and related subsurface and surface data by helping organizations gather, organize, manage, report, and visualize sampling, analytical, and subsurface data for compliance and assurance reporting. Locus’ software serves a variety of vertical markets including water, oil and gas, power-generating utilities, and food and beverage. Locus EIM and Locus Mobile pair together to create a viable modern cloud platform that is particularly well suited for water markets.

“Our mission is to help organizations like Carollo achieve their water quality management and environmental stewardship goals, by providing them the centralized software and tools to control and manage data and complex workflow process for water-related projects,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus. “Our EIM cloud-based software for water quality management provides our customers with a highly scalable and a feature-rich application. It gives water companies strong analytical power, streamlined field sampling capabilities, and mobile collection tools, as well as compliance management and reporting. We are pleased Carollo will be utilizing EIM, Locus Mobile, and Locus Platform to ensure that their customers are provided with the highest quality water projects possible.”

“Corporations today want to invest into one environmental and sustainability solution that offers scalability, system flexibility, and user friendliness, while at the same time, achieve operational cost reductions and improve their environmental stewardship,” said Jennifer Peterson, Vice President of Commercial Accounts at Locus. “Our mission is to help organizations like Carollo advance their innovative technology desires for streamlining data collection and reporting goals by providing them with the software tools that help control overall environmental compliance activities and yet provide efficient, easy-to-use, scalable solutions that will grow with Carollo.”

ABOUT CAROLLO ENGINEERS

At Carollo Engineers, water is our focus, our business, and our passion. For more than 80 years, Carollo has provided a full range of innovative planning, design, and construction management services to meet the water and wastewater needs of municipalities, public agencies, private developers, and industrial firms. To learn more about how Carollo is “Working Wonders With Water®,” visit www.carollo.com.

October 24, 2017

Drinking Water Quality, Mobile Field Data Collection

Can a radical new invention by an 11-year-old girl help to avert another water crisis like in Flint, Michigan?

Gitanjali Rao, an 11-year-old budding scientist from Tennessee

Photo: Rao, Gitanjali. “DE3MYSL Submission – Tethys: The Water Lead Contamination Detector” YouTube

Girl’s device uses nanotubes to test lead contamination in water instantly and cheaply

Gitanjali Rao, an 11-year-old budding scientist from Tennessee, has developed an innovative and radical device using nanotubes to test for lead contamination in water. Named ‘Tethys’, this innovative method to test lead in water could prove to be an effective solution in averting water crises like in Flint, Michigan. The device is linked to a smartphone app for instant visualization of results.

The young scientist was shocked when she learned about the water crisis in Flint and was inspired to find a solution to detect water contamination by speedy analysis of lead in water. She is currently one of the top ten finalists in the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, one of the most distinguished science competitions in the U.S.

How ‘Tethys’ works

When her device is dipped in water, the lead-sensitive material in the nanotube indicates if the water is contaminated with lead. The result is then sent to a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone that shows if the water has safe levels of lead or has concentrations of concern. When the device detects lead levels higher than 15 parts per million, the device warns that the water is unsafe.

“There are over 5,000 water systems in the U.S. alone with lead contamination issues,” says Rao in her entry video. “Timely detection and preventative action can help mitigate the problem, but today it takes a long time because of chemical labs and expensive equipment. My solution addresses a core issue of speedy detection of lead contamination, allowing preventative action and even saving lives!”

Gitanjali is currently working with a mentor at 3M for possible commercialization.

[sc_youtube aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_id=”7UR6epdce-o” style=”default” position=”below”]

Gitanjali is truly an inspiration to the rest of us as we look for better solutions to the environmental challenges we face today. Here at Locus, we believe that with great ideas like these and the resources and drive to pursue them, many of these challenges can be solved!

August 15, 2017

Locus Technologies adds EPA WQX export capability to Locus EIM

Submitting to EPA’s Water Quality eXchange (WQX) from EIM just got easier

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 25 April 2017 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in cloud-based environmental compliance and sustainability management software, is excited to announce the release of the WQX Export Tool for EIM. The tool, exclusively in Locus’ EIM environmental information management software, provides users with simple intuitive interface to load data with the EPA’s Water Quality eXchange (WQX) into the EPA Storage and Retrieval (STORET) data warehouse, following the standards and protocols of the National Environmental Information Exchange Network.

Locus customers that need to share water quality data with EPA via WQX and STORET, such as Tribes, States and their data partners, now have an easy way to translate EIM data to WQX-compatible formats for simplified data submission. This allows customers to take advantage of the many benefits of a sophisticated environmental data system and still easily provide data to EPA per their agreed upon requirements. They can use EIM to seamlessly integrate laboratory deliverables, manage time series field data, complex analytical data, spatial data, and also take advantage of Locus Mobile for field sampling.

“We are pleased to add this export capability to EIM to expand its utility to a wider range of customers”, said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus Technologies. “By taking a defined set of export requirements and simplifying the submission process, we have enabled a range of new customers to be able to use EIM for all their regulatory reporting needs.”

April 25, 2017

Locus adds Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) module to Locus EIM Water

Streamline and simplify annual CCR preparation with powerful and intuitive tools

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 28 March 2017 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in cloud-based environmental compliance and sustainability management software, is excited to announce the release of the Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) module as an addition to Locus EIM Water.

The Locus EIM Water configuration is designed for water system owners and operators to simplify the sampling, management, tracking, and regulatory reporting of drinking water data. With the addition of the CCR module, the system now streamlines a complex and often tedious process of preparing the annual calculations required for the report.

The module guides the user through the steps of calculating the required statistics for the various analytical groups, as specified in the regulations. This tool also provides access to both the raw data that was used in the construction of the report as well as various intermediate calculations. Additionally, it addresses contaminant groups not sampled in the current year, making complying with the requirements significantly easier.

The EPA Safe Water Drinking Act requires that water system owners and operators annually prepare the Consumer Confidence Report for their customers. This report is something most water consumers are very familiar with throughout the U.S., as in most cases the local water provider directly provides a copy of the report to consumers. By design, the CCR is simple and easy to read, and conveys a detailed view of drinking water quality for consumers. What is not apparent in the report that consumers see is the complex process behind creating the report, including a structured review of one or more years of compliance data. This is where Locus EIM Water makes a difference for water system owners and operators.

“We are excited to add this key module to Locus EIM Water”, said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus Technologies. “We know that Locus EIM Water is a great tool for managing the routine sampling and reporting needs of water system owners and operators, but we knew the CCR was one area where our customers often requested help. With our simple and intuitive module, the CCR preparation process will be greatly streamlined, which is a win-win for the water system owners/operators and consumers.”

March 28, 2017

Drinking Water Quality, Environmental Information Management, Wastewater, Water Utilities

Rethinking Urban Water Management

Improved wastewater distribution and treatment technologies have largely eradicated once-common waterborne diseases.

Water supply and distribution were ranked as the fourth greatest engineering achievement of the 20^th century by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and rightfully so.

Developments in water management have drastically improved public health and safety. In the early 1900s, for example, dysentery and diarrhea, both waterborne diseases, were the third largest cause of death in the United States (Wulf, 2000).

Currently, incidences of waterborne diseases in the United States are minimal, thanks in large measure to improved water distribution and treatment technologies. Additionally, cities are now less susceptible to flooding due to the development and implementation of storm drain systems. The current paradigm in urban water management entails a centralized drinking water plant, connected to individual households through an underground network of pipes, and a sewer that carries the wastewater to a centralized treatment plant for further discharge into a natural water stream. This system has permitted significant progress in our society.

Our clean water supply and sanitation systems may be endangered

NAE also says that providing access to clean water is the fifth greatest challenge that we will face this century. Despite all its positive qualities, the urban water management paradigm has some serious limitations that are likely to get worse in the future due to increasing urban population, expansion of paved areas, scarcity of water, and climate change:

Reliance on large quantities of water
Centralized systems depend heavily on large quantities of water— an already scarce resource that will likely become even more so, with increasing population and climate change. Population growth also requires increasing the capacity of the water treatment plants and expanding the already-complex network of water lines.
More runoff
Fast-growing cities mean larger paved areas and, therefore, higher runoff during rain events. Runoff, which carries pollutants from the street surface, is difficult and expensive to contain and treat. Many cities— including some cities here in the San Francisco Bay Area— discharge their storm water runoff directly to the sea, with minimal treatment. If you live in the San Francisco Bay area, you may have noticed blue signs posted next to storm drains, which read “Drains to the Bay”. Runoff is expected to become an even bigger issue due to the variability in rainfall caused by climate change.
Expensive operation and maintenance
Extensive underground pipe networks for drinking and wastewater are expensive to operate and maintain. They make urban planning more difficult because pipe locations are not always known, and multiple independent agencies and companies run pipes and cables underground. Furthermore, the lead poisoning in Flint, Michigan, shows us that poorly maintained old pipes can present a serious public health issue.
Leaky pipes
An estimated 10 – 40% of the global urban water supply is lost due to leaky pipes, which are difficult and costly to repair (Larsen et al., 2016)..
Lost nutrients
Centralized water systems are not particularly efficient in recovering the nutrients that wastewater offers (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorous).

In search of a more sustainable solution

Centralized treatment plants have vastly improved public health, but perhaps a more decentralized urban water management system would address some of their shortcomings.

Across the country and the world, innovative teams have proposed and implemented multiple improvements and alternatives to the current urban water management paradigm. But there is still no widely-accepted solution to the current and future challenges in urban water management.

A real, sustainable solution would involve a combination of measures adapted to local needs. One promising approach to replace or supplement our current systems is to decentralize the management of urban water. This means treating the wastewater close to the source in small-scale treatment systems, instead of transporting it through a complex network of pipes to a centralized treatment plant. Decentralization offers a series of advantages— such as less reliance on pipes, easier coverage expansion in rapidly growing cities, lower variability in the loading of the treatment systems, and efficient utilization of the wastewater as a resource.

Decentralized systems, for example, offer the opportunity to separate blackwater (urine, faeces, flushwater), brownwater (faeces and flushwater), and greywater (water from washing food, clothes, and dishware, and from bathing)— which would be very complicated in a centralized system, due to the need to install separate pipelines for each.

Separating these sources makes wastewater treatment more efficient, as each of them require different extents of treatment. It also opens the possibility of water reuse. For example, greywater can easily be treated at a local scale and reused, therefore saving water and energy. Source separation also provides the opportunity to recover nutrients from human waste more efficiently. Urine, for example, contains a high concentration of nitrogen, which is lost as nitrogen gas in most centralized treatment plants. By separating the urine in a decentralized system, nitrogen could be recovered.

Nevertheless, decentralized systems have their own challenges. These include the complexity of operating, maintaining, and inspecting a network of treatment systems; the development of reliable and robust small-scale systems; and public acceptance. Decentralized urban water management is still in its early development, but it’s an idea that certainly deserves further consideration.

Why now?

Historically, major innovations in urban water management have been triggered by crises: the overpopulation of Ancient Rome led to the development of large scale water distribution systems; the cholera and typhoid fever outbreaks in Europe led to the development of disinfection; and the severe pollution of water stream led to development and implementation of wastewater treatment (Sedlak, 2014). With increasing world population, rapid urbanization, climate change, and a growing scarcity of resources, our current urban water management systems will be under increasingly significant stress. It is crucial to our health, our safety, and the overall well-being of our society that we anticipate the challenges and start innovating now.

—

References
Hansen, R. D. (n.d.). Water and Wastewater Systems in Imperial Rome. [online] <Accessed 16 December 2016>

Larsen, T. A., Hoffmann, S., Lüthi, C., Truffer, B., Maurer, M. (2016). Emerging solutions to the water challenges of an urbanizing world. Science, 352 (6288), pp. 928-933.

National Academy of Engineering. (2008). Grand Challenges for Engineering. National Academy of Science.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. (n.d.). Only Drain Down the Rain. [online] <Accessed on 16 December 2016>

Sedlak, D. (2014). Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World’s Most Vital Resource. Yale University Press.

Tilley, E., Ulrich, L., Lüthi, C., Reymond, P., Schertenleib, R., Zurbrügg C. (2014). Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies, 2nd Revised Edition. Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Dübendorf.

Wulf, W. A. (2000). Great Achievements and Grand Challenges. The Bridge, 30 (3&4), pp. 5-10.

—

Still looking for the right EHS software to revolutionize your environmental and compliance initiatives? Book a demo with us today!

About guest blogger— Victor Huanambal, Locus Technologies

Victor Huanambal has been working at Locus for close to two years as an environmental engineer. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2014.

At Locus, he is mostly involved in projects related to groundwater remediation, environmental compliance, and greenhouse gases verification.

December 22, 2016

San Jose Water Company selects Locus Platform for environmental compliance management

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 29 November 2016 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions to streamline EHS regulation and compliance management, has partnered with San Jose Water Company for an implementation of the Locus Platform.

San Jose Water Company is an investor-owned water utility that serves over one million people in the greater San Jose metropolitan area. San Jose Water Company has been a customer of Locus since 2014, and has been using Locus EIM and Locus Mobile for its drinking water compliance activities. After finding success with their EIM solution, San Jose Water Company is expanding its Locus usage to Locus Platform.

San Jose Water Company will take advantage of the flexibility of the Locus Platform to configure a range of environmental compliance apps for tracking and reporting water discharges and hazardous material inspections, helping Locus to further strengthen its position in the water utilities market. By choosing to build most of their applications themselves, San Jose is taking advantage of Locus Platform’s easy-to-use configuration workbench to create unique and effective solutions. They will be able to use Locus Platform to support compliance with EPA’s Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

In addition to tracking discharges and inspections, San Jose Water Company will use Locus Platform’s capabilities for reminders and checklists associated with other compliance requirements. They will also take advantage of Locus Platform’s built-in mobile features to enable their custom apps and streamline data collection throughout their various departments.

Locus Platform’s configurable solution will replace a range of self-built spreadsheet solutions and consolidate the water utility’s environmental compliance in one application. With the built-in configuration flexibility, San Jose Water Company’s Locus Platform will be able to grow and change as new regulatory requirements arise.

“Our recent successes in deploying our software solutions to customers in the water utility industry proves their versatile nature. San Jose Water Company needed a data management system that was tailored to their specific business practices. The Locus Platform allows for full configurability of its data collection tools, workflows, and outputs. By using these tools, the software solution fits the business— not the other way around.” said J. Wesley Hawthorne, President of Locus Technologies. “They were also impressed with their ability to self-configure and manage their own applications, which allows them to add new applications as their needs change.”

ABOUT SAN JOSE WATER COMPANY
San Jose Water Company (SJWC), a wholly owned subsidiary of SJW Group and founded in 1866, is an investor-owned water company headquartered in San Jose and is one of the largest and most technically sophisticated urban water system in the United States. SJWC serves over 1 million people in the greater San Jose metropolitan area comprising about 138 square miles. The utility delivers safe, high quality, and reliable water and exceptional customer service.

November 29, 2016