1. Utilizing WIMS Dashboards to incorporate Task Management to Meet Regulatory Compliance
2 min
Brief introduction on my background and Collab IT
Started working on WIMS around 4 years ago – First authority in Aus. to start using WIMS
Now up to 8 councils and water authorities using Hach WIMS
Background in IT but started in Water industry 6-7 years ago
Murray Leech

2. Some Context…….
1 min
Population wise Australia is much smaller than the US
But are wise is very similar to the lower 48
Most population on the east coast,
inland has a high percentage of desert and drought prone areas

3. Some More Context……. Victoria: 227,436 km² Colorado: 269,837 km² 2 min
I currently live in the State of Victoria (in the bottom right)
As a comparison, it’s quite similar to Colorado (in size and population)
Main population centred around Melbourne
Drinking and waste water are managed by a number of regional providers
This model also varies state by state
Victoria: 227,436 km²
Colorado: 269,837 km²

4. Current Water Quality Regulations and Monitoring
High focus on reticulation (customer tap) and entry point sampling.
Samples taken on a weekly schedule
Identifies any regulatory breaches that HAVE occurred
Very small data set by today’s standards!
Treatment standards maintained through ongoing monitoring, risk assessments, audits and operator training.
3min
Drinking water is regulated by State departments and Australian wide guidelines
Possibly the biggest focus is around reticulation monitoring
Samples are taken from system entry points and customer taps on a weekly basis
This acts to ensure that water is safe to drink
Data from these samples must be provided to regulatory providers and the public
BUT. It only identifies breaches after they occur and acts as a target/requirement
By today’s standards this is a very small amount of data to report on, especially considering the amount of data modern plants now capture
Additional safeguards are required to ensure targets are met
These exist through a variety of guides, standards, monitoring and audits
Operators are also required to have sufficient training to perform and, importantly, understand the importance of their role

5. Health Based Targets – Pathogen reduction
Australia wide initiative
Supplement to existing guidelines (ADWG)
Log10 reduction of pathogens via a multiple barrier approach
Utilise more data to improve decision making and risk management.
Improve operations and infrastructure to target the best possible protection for customers.
3 min
A few years ago there was a national review to identify improvements that could be made
What came out of this was the Health Based Targets framework
It is still being refined and trialled
Focusses on reducing the risk of microbials in drinking water delivered to customers
It works around a log reduction of pathogens through different treatment processes – multiple barrier approach
And the level of treatment required based on the source water before treatment (table)
A catchment with more risks/pathogens gives a higher category.
e.g. clarification, filtration, disinfection will each remove a “log” of the pathogens present
Aim is to improve both operations and infrastructure at WTPs to reduce the chances (or uncertainty) that a breach of the regulations may occur (even when not observed)
DALY (Disability Adjusted Life Years) - one micro DALY (µDALY) per person per annum

6. Health Based Targets – In Practice
Water Treatment Processes qualify for log reduction values (LRV) provided conditions/limits are met.
3 min
Log reduction values are “earnt” when treatment process perform as outlined in the framework (table)
e.g. Filtration if critical limits are maintained log reduction can be applied
So through WIMS we can use our SCADA/online data to assess which of these is met and indicate the total removal score obtained.
If the target score is not obtained or process are under performing this will be highlighted to operators and managers
These can be located on dashboards for plants to give a real time indication if anything is under performing or if operational or infrastructure improvements need to be made (db. example)
Water Treatment Plants should be designed to meet the required log target and operational standards upheld to meet performance requirements.

7. Health Based Targets – In Practice
Example of more in depth reporting on a specific process.
This is an induvial filter cell with the limits indicated on the graph
The blue line indicates the filter cell’s performance while the other are targets
Any exceedance event will also be indicated in red if it occurs

8. Job done!…… …..…..well almost.
The Log Reduction can only be claimed when:
The WTP is operated in accordance with good practice principles
Process performance is monitored with on line continuous monitoring
1 min
A couple of items required:
Monitoring parameters aren’t the only thing leading to pathogens in a water supply – the plant must be run to an acceptable standard
There is a requirement of continuous monitoring – and the data used must be quality data

9. Is our online data reliable and accurate?
PLC and card faults
Historian and server failures
Telemetry issues
Instrumentation errors
Operator intervention and error
2 min
I’m always surprised by the poor quality of online data that we start to identify by increasing its accessibility for users.
There are a lot of reasons that this can occur (some examples),
It can be unavoidable, but, the main issue is that no one realises that there is a problem until their report doesn’t look right
So you can’t always rely on the fact that your data Should” be right – you must actively query it and then resolving problems as soon as they occur
How do we show that we can use this data
Keep your instruments in good condition and cross check results from the original source of your data to its final destination (WIMS)
And importantly show that this has been done when using this data

10. Ensuring best practice
Plant Manual
Cross Checks
Site Checks
Process Analysis
Equipment Cleaning
Alarm Testing
3 min
All plants start life with a some form of manual indicating when things should be inspected, cleaned and replaced.
As more features and process are added to plants this list grows
There are also many guidelines and regulations out there to follow to make sure plant are run correctly
Some work is managed through asset management systems, some individual methods (like everyone's friend excel, or worse, paper log books)
But to truly report that standards have been met this data needs to be found on these reports – So we have tried to record as much of this data as we can in WIMS
When you organise it all together in one place, it can be really surprising how much work there is
At a bigger plant with more staff and more specific roles that can easily manage their work loads it may not be too hard to manage,
But for more regional and smaller plants operators can be required to manage a truly daunting list on a day to day basis
It adds up to a lot of work!
Especially without help

11. Getting ALL the data - Checklists

12. Getting ALL the data – Lab Investigations

13. Getting ALL the data - Inspections
Where do I find that form again?

14. Work Management

15. Bringing it all together

16. Additional Benefits

17. References and more reading