Installation of a Wastewater SCADA Monitoring System at Fort Bragg, NC
Abstract
Fort Bragg has had several Notices of Violations (NOVs) because of collection system failures, primarily lift station overflows. A current shortage of personnel to operate and maintain the Fort Bragg Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and the collection system has prompted the decision to install a state-of-the-art Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. This report describes the system that was installed at Fort Bragg, the selection of the hardware and software components needed for the system, and its successful startup. The Wastewater SCADA Monitoring System was installed to monitor 26 remote sites. A detailed radio study of the area verified the feasibility of using radio equipment to transfer data from these sites to a computer at the WWTP. Of these 26 sites, 9 had existing radio equipment that was upgraded. A master repeater for polling was set up at Corps Support Command using the existing sites with upgraded equipment. The existing frequency was used for the new SCADA system. The central host would reside at the WWTP. Lookout software was chosen for the human-machine interface at this site and another was set up at the Environmental Sustainment Division and resides on the Fort Bragg server with client software allowing two people viewing access at a time. Entirely new remote terminal unit panels were installed at the remaining 17 sites and these sites were integrated into the system. The new SCADA system now allows an operator to monitor and control lift stations at all remote sites on Fort Bragg. Because of its remote-sensing capability, the SCADA system eliminates the need for a full-time person to visually inspect each site. It is estimated that labor needed to monitor the wastewater collection system will be reduced by 60 percent. Considering only the savings in labor, the return on investment for the installation of this system is 6.6 years. There is also a cost avoidance by eliminating NOVs due to pump station failures. (40 figures)7
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA429285
Entities
People
- Gary L. Gerdes
- Joe Mullaney
- Kim Mcclafferty
- Michelle J. Hanson
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center