Water Utility Considering Technology Additions

SPRINGDALE — Water Utilities workers could be more productive with the addition of a computer model of the water system.

Heath Ward, executive director of the department, said a committee of employees are working to determine what benefits would come from drawing up a model and making it available to employees in the field. Ward said the idea came from riding with technicians on service calls.

“We’re still working from 900-page books we are carrying in the field,” Ward said. “It would be so much simpler to use a tablet or laptop computer to look up what you are working on.”

The utility has a simple model of the system infrastructure, said Leonard Gabbard, department engineer. The accuracy of the model has not been checked and is not accessible in the field.

Other cities also have models of the pipes, valves, meters and hydrants in their systems. Accuracy is the question, said Earl Rausch, an engineer with Rogers Water Utilities.

“You have to go out and check your data in the field,” Rausch said. “You have to compare that to what you have on your model to see how accurate it is.”

Dave Jurgens, utility director for Fayetteville, said his workers have smartphones with access to a model of the system.

“You never can get away from the printed books, however,” Jurgens said. “Sometimes you turn a valve that’s been buried for years and it won’t shut off the water. You might have to find another valve and then another. It’s hard to do that with the small screen on a phone or even on a tablet.”

No matter how well data is entered, sometimes you are surprised, said Mike Bender, Bentonville utility director.

“We have worked hard to get a good model,” Bender said. “But recently, we hit a pipe that no one knew was there. We’ve found valves that go back before 1900.”

Springdale Water Utilities has hired two interns who are taking measurements by Global Positioning Satellites readings to gather data for its system, said Shawn Dorman, distribution director for the utilities.

“We can get accuracy within a foot, or sometimes within a few inches,” Dorman said. “Once it’s entered in the system, we can find that spot easily again.”

With water meters changing to remote reading, meter boxes could go years without being opened, said Bender.

“We took readings on all our meter boxes when we changed them out (to remote reading),” Bender said. “That made it much easier to enter meter data.”

The Springdale Fire Department gathered data on the exact location of each fire hydrant in the city, Ward said.

“We are checking that against our location data,” Ward said. “We want to build a model that other departments can use, also.”

A computerized model could save ratepayers from higher bills because current employees would be more productive, meaning fewer additional employees would have to be hired, Ward said. With computers in each truck, changes in work orders would be much simpler.

“You could send any emergency changes to people in the field,” Ward said. “They wouldn’t have to come all the way back to the office to pick up new orders.”

Requests for line locations for construction sites take up a lot of time, Dorman said. Those requests are called in and written down.

“If you are working on a location near Lowell, finish and go back to pick up your next assignment. You might drive all the way back and then have to return to Lowell,” Dorman said.

Gabbard said the committee will have a recommendation ready for next year’s budget.

“If we build the model, we have to commit to keeping it up,” Gabbard said. “You constantly have to add new additions and corrections that you find. I do think it would be a huge help.”