Government Technology - October 2008 - (Page 41)

South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke estimated in his 2008 State of the City address that the city would need to spend $200 million to $400 million over 20 years to meet EPA guidelines Luis Montestruque, CEO, EmNet — and that’s in addition to the $120 million now being spent on South Bend’s long-term sewer plan. million, Gilot said. Water rates would have to However, the city could save $110 million rise 80 percent to amass the necessary capital. to $150 million of that mandate with the use of CSOnet, Luecke said. Though many newer areas of South Bend have segregated sewer systems, the water and CSOnet originated when Lemmon and sewage is inevitably combined upon entering Jeffrey Talley, an associate professor of civil the city’s older sewer network. and environmental engineering at Notre In normal circumstances, the mix Dame, began discussing South Bend’s is treated at a wastewater treatwater management needs with ment plant before its release. city officials. But wet weather can put the In 2004, Talley led a research plant at full capacity. Even and development team to dry weather can cause overcreate a sensor and control flows when storm debris prototype for stopping the plugs sewer lines, thereby city’s sewer overflow problem. flooding other pipes, Gilot After he landed a $1 million said. The resulting EPA fine is grant from the Indiana 21st $27,500 for each incident. With Century Research and Technolthe monitoring system in place, ogy Fund, Purdue University Gilot said the city has already This manhole cover is and environmental engineering detected and corrected many identical to those used firm Greeley and Hansen joined potential dry weather overflows. in South Bend. When the project. Granger, Ind.-based He said public works esti- storm waters overtax EmNet was founded in 2004 to mates that 2 billion gallons of the cities sewer system, commercialize the research from sewage per year empties into the sensors detect Notre Dame and Purdue. South Bend’s waterways, which high water levels and Successful test runs at St. includes the St. Joseph and calculate the amount of Mary’s Lake near Notre Dame Wabash rivers. Cities like South available sewer storage paved the way for a pilot in space. The system then Bend drain the sewage mix into sends a command November 2005. The pilot, a natural waterways to prevent it signal to valves, pumps small retention basin deployfrom backing up into homes and and gates to prevent ment with six sensors and businesses. one controller, prevented an overﬂows and maximize The EPA estimates that conveyance capacity. estimated 6 million gallons of reducing CSO events by 85 sewage from entering the St. percent nationwide would cost $50 billion Joseph River that month and increased the using traditional technology, Montestruque basin’s capacity by 110 percent for about 1 said. Traditional fixes include building new cent per gallon, Montestruque said. separated sewer systems, expanding wasteA subsequent study conducted by enviwater treatment plants and building large ronmental engineering firm Malcolm Pirnie reservoirs, or holding tanks, to temporarily determined that a citywide installation hold sewage, as was done in Chicago. would reduce CSOs up to 30 percent, Mon“These solutions are highly unpopular testruque said. because this is taxpayer money,” Montestruque said. Taxpayers can’t use or see sewer improvements, so it’s hard to justify spending money on them, he said. Although there’s been an occasional node A 2005 estimate for totally segregating malfunction, Gilot said, the system is robust South Bend’s sewage and storm water was $650 because there’s no single point of failure. “It’s very unique in that it doesn’t require any structure to be in place beforehand. It’s usable the moment it is installed.” Research and Development System Intricacies “We could see this had potential early,” Gilot said. “[The pilot] showed that real-time control logic and communications worked and that the system was robust under tough, real-world conditions.” Battery-operated nodes and wireless communication make for fast implementation and less up-front cost. “It’s very unique in that it doesn’t require any structure to be in place beforehand,” Montestruque said, “It’s usable the moment it is installed.” Node-to-node communication that’s linked to a hierarchical information structure lets the electronically simple system consume less power. The nodes also rely on highly efficient hardware and middleware to synchronize sleep and awake cycles, extending battery life to two to three years. Purdue is working on the ability to reprogram the nodes wirelessly. Additionally algorithms help optimize CSOnet’s functions. “One allows communication using mesh network technology; another algorithm is responsible for utilizing sensor information to determine the optimal set points for the valves that control flows; yet another is responsible for energy management,” Montestruque said. The mesh network technology lets neighboring nodes communicate using many paths, thus bypassing obstacles. The composite fiberglass manhole cover used to house the antenna and sensor adds to CSOnet’s sturdiness by enabling radio signals to propagate easily from inside the sewer system. Another advantage of the retrofitted manhole cover is its easy installation. There’s already been interest in South Bend’s CSOnet, including from places as far as India, Lemmon said. Gilot predicts interest will increase after the control phase ends and CSOnet can display its full value. “There’s a big potential here for this to have significant impact that goes beyond the horizon of academics,” Lemmon said. j JESSICA HUGHES IS A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY. SHE ALSO CONTRIBUTES TO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND TEXAS TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINES. 41 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - October 2008

Government Technology - October 2008 Contents Point of View On the Scene Big Picture Four Questions for... Letters Cover Stories: Border Crossing The Australian E-Connection Easy Rider Northern Exposure Technology on the Cheap Ditching the Desktop Heightening the Experience Pipe Dream Falling Between the Cracks Come Together, Right Now... It's a ... Car? Digital State of the Art Spectrum Products Two Cents signal:noise

Government Technology - October 2008

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