LABOR

LABOR SOLUTIONS & INSIGHTS FOR UTILITY MANAGERS

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  Occupational Safety And Utility Compliance: Tips for Surviving A Regulatory Plant Inspection

  Whether the name is the State Department of Environmental Protection Agency or Department of Water Quality, or some other name, the agency can strike fear in municipalities when they inspect the plant. It is not that most plants have something to hide or are discharging inferior water, but no one likes to be under the microscope. Let alone under the microscope of a regulatory agency with the power to fine the utility. By Sheldon Primus, MPA, COSS

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  Meeting The Workforce Reliability Challenge

  A forward-looking utility responds to workforce retirement with a jobs program worth replicating.

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  Tips For Training Today’s Operator — And Making It Stick

  Introducing three training trends that improve operators’ understanding and plant performance

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  10 Apps For Water And Wastewater Professionals

  Smartphones, when programed with the right apps, can serve important functions at wastewater and water treatment facilities. These 10 apps make it easier to do everything from calculating chemical dosages to installing the right size sewage pipes. 

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  Modernize Your Mobile Operation

  The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati’s Wastewater Collection Division manages 3,000 miles of main sewer line and services some 200,000 individual customer sewer laterals and accounts that cover nearly 1 million residents and businesses. When things go wrong with those pipes, the division hears about it from customers loud and clear.

UTILITY MANAGEMENT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Aclara’s PLATINUM_services™

As part of its STAR_select™ solution for water utilities, Aclara Technologies LLC, a leading provider of intelligent infrastructure technologies for water, gas and electric utilities, announces platinum level services for its network and system that make it easier to implement a successful AMI strategy.

VTScada Historian

Standard VTScada Component - No other software does more to protect your historical data and put it to work across your organization.

Security Solutions For Water And Wastewater Operations

A secure facility ensures a secure community. Security solutions from Schneider Electric can help your plant comply with regulations, manage budget constraints, and eliminate the risk of contamination.  

Plantstruxure PES

PlantStruxure™ PES (Process Expert System) is the innovative process-automation system from Schneider Electric that provides the single global database design and diagnostic features of a Distributed Control System (DCS). The energy-aware architecture allows companies to rapidly design systems, reduce downtime, and increase process and energy efficiency.

N_SIGHT^™ Software Suite

System health. Customer service. Revenue enhancement. These days, utilities must go far beyond basic meter reading to achieve the intelligent functionality they require. Neptune’s N_SIGHT^™ software suite was designed to help get them there.

R900^® System

It's amazing how far you can take an endpoint – while leaving it right where it's always been. The R900^® radio frequency meter interface unit (RF MIU) requires no reprogramming. The same high resolution, 8-digit E-Coder^® solid state absolute encoder that gives your utility the meter readings and consumption data you count on in mobile-mode, also provides what you need for hybrid AMR and full fixed network AMI. Your utility is unique with unique needs. Where you start – and where you eventually arrive – is up to you.

R450^™ System Makes Utility Operations Visual

Based on Esri^® GIS mapping that allows you to view critical conditions and infrastructure status throughout your service areas, R450 RF fixed network technology makes it easy to collect and interpret the data you need.

Performance Contracting For Improved System Performance And Energy Savings

Municipal facilities cope with tight budgets, and managers are often forced to defer maintenance and equipment upgrades in order to control costs. Performance contracting is an alternative project delivery method available to alleviate additional costs and help finance projects at water and wastewater facilities. Schneider Electric’s performance contracting can help your facility upgrade existing equipment, reduce maintenance expenses, and lower utility bills.

REGULATION UPDATES FOR UTILITY MANAGEMENT

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  12 Monitoring Applications That Will Keep A Finger On The Pulse Of Your Water Distribution System

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  Tips On Integrating Packaged Equipment Into Plant SCADA Systems

  Integrating controls from an equipment supplier successfully within a Plant SCADA or DCS system requires communication on multiple levels. These levels include process of design, mechanical fit up and installation, as well as the coordination to get the equipment to work in concert with the plant’s other control systems. Simply looking after mechanical/electrical details are not enough. To be successful, the plant’s System Integrator and the equipment supplier’s PLC programmer must work with each other throughout the entire project’s development. By Todd Nydam, JWC Environmental LLC & Graham Nasby, Eramosa Engineering Inc.

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  Internal Branding Key To Creating Water Utility Employee Ambassadors

  Internal branding can ignite employee performance, strengthen the profit potential of a water utility, and play a key role in helping utility executives and leaders inform staff of their external-facing expectations. To stimultate employee brand support and organizational change, internal communication and branding efforts should be a direct and constructive expression of the organization’s vision and strategic plan.

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  Iced! Polar Vortex Lessons From An Ohio Water Utility

  In early January 2014, the polar vortex enveloped the Great Lakes region.  When the vortex passed over Lake Erie, a phenomenon called frazil ice sent an untold number of slender shards of ice directly into Avon Lake Regional Water’s intake crib. 

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  Tips For Training Today’s Operator — And Making It Stick

  Introducing three training trends that improve operators’ understanding and plant performance

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  Understanding Municipal Bonds And Their Benefits

  An analysis of tax-exempt bonds, the water/wastewater market, and infrastructure funding

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  7 Ways To Optimize Your Water Utility

  Streamlining utility management and operations yields significant savings.

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  Keeping Pace With Data Management Evolution

  How to harness technology and information to overcome modern municipal challenges

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  Taking Water From Invisible To Invaluable: 27 Communication Objectives

  As demands on the water sector increase, leaders interested in shaping the future of water management are pushing the notion that water is water, whether its drinking water, stormwater or wastewater. Doing so, according to the experts, encourages "comprehensive thinking, planning and management of our waters on a transformational scale. By Donna Vincent Roa, PhD, ABC, CSR-P

LABOR NEWS

• Consolidated Waterworks, LA Deploys Sedaru Software, Optimizes Its Water Network Operations

  IDModeling, Inc., a leading global provider of smart water network software and services, announced recently that Consolidated Waterworks District No. 1 of Terrebonne Parish, LA has deployed its flagship service, Sedaru to connect and optimize its water operations.

• WEF, IWA Strengthen Shared Commitment To Improved Water Management

  The Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the International Water Association (IWA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) intended to accelerate joint work to grow and disseminate water knowledge and to serve and advance the global water profession.

• The Hydraulic Institute & Pump Systems Matter Announce The First 3-Part Slurry Pumps Webinar Series Of 2014

  The Hydraulic Institute and Pump Systems Matter announce dates for the first Slurry Pumps 3-part webinar series of 2014. The series will be presented by slurry pump expert, Robert Visintainer, VP Engineering, Research & Development of GIW Industries.

• Hydraulic Institute & Pump Systems Matter Announce Dates For The Introduction To Mechanical Seals 4-Part Webinar Series

  The Hydraulic Institute and Pump Systems Matter, in collaboration with the Fluid Sealing Association, have announced the first Introduction to Mechanical Seals webinar series of 2014.

• NGWA Offers Certified Groundwater Professional Designation

  The National Ground Water Association (NGWA) is now accepting applications for its new Certified Groundwater Professional designation, which signifies that the holder has a thorough background in groundwater subjects.

• Xylem Names Patrick K. Decker President And Chief Executive Officer

  Xylem Inc. (NYSE: XYL), a leading global water technology company dedicated to solving the most challenging water issues, today announced that Patrick K. Decker has been named President and Chief Executive Officer, and will be appointed a member of the Board of Directors on March 17.  He joins the company from Harsco Corporation, where he has been President and CEO.  At Xylem, Mr. Decker succeeds Steven R. Loranger who will remain a member of the Xylem Board.  Mr. Loranger was Chairman, President and CEO of ITT Corporation when it spun its water businesses off as Xylem in October 2011.