THE CHALLENGE

SAWS received an EPA Consent Degree with an estimated cost of 1.2 billion. In response, SAWS adopted the EPA’s Capacity, Management, Operations and Maintenance (CMOM) guidelines and instituted high frequency cleaning (HFC) for their pipeline segments. SAWS established a program of routine cleanings at monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual frequencies, identifying 200 high-risk sites for regular monthly cleanings.

SAWS also operates an extensive odor and corrosion control program dosing millions of dollars of chemicals per year and operating a network of odor scrubbers to eliminate complaints from the community and satisfy their customer base. With the large collection system network, warm temperatures, and the need to move wastewater over long distances, odor generation and release is an issue.

SUMMARY

SAWS was able to reduce their collection system cleaning by 95% with zero SSO incidence helping SAWS avoid over 4,000 SSOs since the program’s inception. Nearly 1,300 cleanings were scheduled, but only 65 cleanings were identified and performed during the initial deployment alone.

This saved the utility an estimated $1 million in savings. This reduction in routine cleaning led to reduced wear and tear on pipes and preserved operators’ time and resources which could be allocated to other activities.

On the odor control side, SAWS was able to better control the variability in H2S levels in their system, reducing odor complaints and allowing their odor scrubbers to operate within specification. SAWS was also able to lower operational costs by reducing the frequency of carbon replacement and decreasing ferrous sulfate addition while improving the performance of their odor control program. With the ease of relocating the H2S units, SAWS has the ability to quickly re-deploy them to newly identified hotspots in order to rapidly collect real-time data that provides valuable troubleshooting insight for Field Investigation.

Interested in finding out how our SmartCover solutions can work for you? Reach out to sales@smartcoversystems.com or call (855) 291-1980.