Full Description

The Utah Valley Water Treatment (UVWTP), which is operated by Central Utah Water Conservancy District (the District), receives its raw water from a river intake and a 5-mile long aqueduct. The river has a major interstate paralleling it through a winding narrow mountain canyon. Because of this, vehicles including large freight trucks routinely end up in the river, resulting in a potential spill event. Historically, the early warning for such an event consisted of an uncertain reliance upon a phone call from the local emergency response agencies informing the UVWTP of a spill into the river. This system has been fairly reliable, but had the potential for failure if no call was made. In addition, natural changes in source water quality can have an adverse effect on the treatment plant processes. With both of these objectives in mind, the District concluded that a multiple barrier approach to early warning systems would be prudent. The District then actively pursued an opportunity to participate in American Water Works Research Foundation (AWWARF) Project #2527 "Design of Early Warning and Predictive Source Water Monitoring Systems" in order to evaluate best available technology in early warning systems. As a result, a District staff member was invited and became a Project Advisory Committee (PAC) member of this project. This project provided valuable information, allowing the District to make a well-informed decision on what types of early warnings systems would best meet the District's needs. The District decided to implement an early warning system, which would include enhancing the historical emergency response communication program, predictive spill modeling, and installation of a multiple detection system to include biological monitoring (daphnia toximeter and passive fish monitoring), and online chemical analysis (basic water quality parameters, oil/grease, and taste/odor). With the events of 9/11, coupled with the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics (and venues in close proximity to our facilities), the District decided to fast track installation of the planned early warning system and to also include video surveillance monitoring. The District implemented some components of the early warning system and continues to implement planned components of the system.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 06/16/2002 Number of Pages: 5File Size: 1 file , 250 KB