Abstract

Like many municipal wastewater utilities, the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning/Division of Sewerage Management (DSM), located in Western New York is continually seeking methods to maximize treatment of its sewerage flows, minimize overflows and prioritize collection system maintenance and capital improvements. The DSM initiated development of a web-based tool in 2006 to significantly improve the way these goals are achieved. This web-based system has initially been developed for Erie County Sewer District No. 6, which contains more than 80 mi. (129 km) of sewer and serves approximately 18,000 customers in the City of Lackawanna. The web-based system was developed by a five-firm team: Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, TECsmith, Inc., Telog Systems, Inc., Computational Hydraulics International and eSolutions Group.

This innovative web-based tool, known as the Real Time Flow Monitoring System and Hydraulic Model, allows County staff to obtain up-to-the-minute status of sanitary sewer flows and operation within the District 6 trunk collection system. In addition, it allows modeling of what if scenarios regarding new flows, capital improvements and modifying operations rules. Ultimately, the DSM anticipates expanding this system during the next three years to incorporate all of the County’s sewer districts, which serve more than 300,000 customers and contain 1,000 mi. (1,600 km) of sewers, 87 pumping stations, seven treatment facilities, and five overflow retention facilities.

Presented herein are the key elements involved in developing the web-based model, how these elements were integrated and examples of how this system can be used to optimize collections system operations and improvements. Also outlined is the approach planned for expanding the current online system to serve the entire DSM collection system.

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