Support sought for water quality monitoring system
CALIFORNIA – An organization is trying to build support for a real-time, automated system to monitor water quality in the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers to ensure safe drinking water and reduce municipalities’ treatment costs. The Pittsburgh-based River Alert and Information Network held a meeting Friday at California University of Pennsylvania to promote its plan to set up the high-tech monitors at 33 public water utilities on the three rivers.
RAIN Chairman Mark Stoner said the system, which also would include a communications system to notify all the water utilities when pollution is detected in the rivers, would cost about $1.5 million and about $125,000 a year to operate.
Each system would cost about $40,000, and the information the systems gather could be accessed online.
The Riverside Center for Innovation, which is RAIN’s nonprofit administrative arm, is applying for federal, state and foundation grants to pay for the project, he said.
Seven years ago, the organization used grant money to install equipment to monitor water quality at 11 of the 33 public water intakes, but that equipment is now “falling apart,” Stoner said.
Cal U, which is an advisory and non-voting board member of RAIN, would assist in the project by conducting research on water quality, he said.
“Our students want this real-world experience,” said Cal U earth science professor Tom Mueller.
He cited recent incidents, such as train derailments that spilled oil, diesel fuel and hydrogen fluoride into the Allegheny River, and the 1988 Ashland Oil tank collapse near Clairton that allowed 4 million gallons of oil to flow into the Monongahela River and then the Ohio River as examples of threats to drinking water.
Mueller said acid mine drainage, algae blooms, industrial waste, wastewater discharges and combined sewer overflows are current threats to the public water supply.
“Our rivers are under threat,” Mueller said.
He said an advanced warning of pollution would help municipalities reduce their water treatment costs.
The system would require a minimal amount of hands-on operation, which is necessary because more than 70 percent of the water utilities on the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers provide water to 12,000 or fewer customers and have very few employees, Mueller said.
RAIN officials said the system is able to automatically call 800 emergency contact phone numbers per minute after a monitor detects pollution.
Greg Leathers of the Greene County emergency management department said a similar system is already in place to deal the floods.
He said emergency management agencies in Greene, Fayette and Washington counties contact each other and municipalities when flooding becomes a threat.
“It-s all computer-generated. Press one button and its done,” Leathers said.
Bob Winters of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the department is developing a program to provide $4 million in grants to deal with hazardous materials in waterways.
He said 25 percent local matches would be required.