The City of Monroe Water Resources Department has completed a sewer system improvement project that is reaping benefits including cost savings and improved service. The city operates 21 sewer pump stations as part of its sewer collection system. When faced with pending upgrades of the radio based telemetry system, the city began evaluating alternative technologies to see if improvement could be made.
Monroe Water Resources Director Russell Colbath said the project selection priorities included low cost, reliability and service area coverage, ease of installation, and meet all North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) requirements.
The city selected a cell phone based technology provided by Mission Communications. The installation was completed by Water Resources Department personnel with no outside contractor assistance. The initial cost was just under $25,000. Since installation, the new system has realized the following benefits
- The cell phone based technology allows all sites to be monitored, improving regulatory compliance, customer service and saving more than $10,000 per year in required overtime.
- Weekday savings of over 8 man-hours of labor due to avoiding the NCDENR requirement for daily site checks for any sewer pump not monitored by a telemetry system. (Equivalent labor savings of $7,500)
- The new system provided higher accountability showing all staff logins and site visits, plus better alarm detection and call out to all standby personnel.
- The Web based monitoring allows any standby employee to check site and alarm status from any home computer with internet access.
- This system allows immediate inflow and infiltration analysis following a heavy rainfall event, allowing better sewer rehabilitation efforts.
- Customer service enhancement providing water leak detection in certain commercial areas.
Colbath added that the benefits of this project are directly in line with the Department’s mission statement to provide cost effective and reliable water and sewer service the Monroe’s residents.
For more information, call the city of Monroe Water Resource Department at (704) 282-4600.
